Putty Tat Trouble

Oh-me! Oh-my! - Who would've ever thought that being a sweet, little bird like Tweety would also have its fair share of hazards and drawbacks, too?

But - Hey! - When you've got a totally determined and persistent putty-tat like Sylvester continually stalking you for his next meal - How can Tweety's diminutive size not make him a victim who is repeatedly finding himself on the lookout for any dangerous traps that are being cleverly set for his inevitable capture?

Anyway - This pre-CGI animated short from 1951 was (IMO) quite an enjoyable view. It was delightfully directed by Friz Freleng with the added bonus of featuring the always-amusing voice-talents of Mel Blanc.

Funny Tweety and Sylvester short, directed by Friz Freleng. It's a fairly routine story - Sylvester and another unnamed cat see Tweety in his nest and decide to grab him. Throughout the cartoon the two cats fight each other to get at Tweety, with hilarious results. Tweety is adorable as ever and has several great lines. My favorite part from the whole cartoon is when Tweety talks to a plastic drinking bird that keeps dipping its head into a bowl of water ("May I have a dwink with you?"). Sylvester (who doesn't speak) and the unnamed red/orange cat are both fun. Excellent voice work from Mel Blanc and Bea Benaderet. Lively music from Carl Stalling. The animation is colorful and attractive. It's all beautifully-drawn and painted. Tweety shorts aren't for all tastes (as judged by the "must be fun at parties" types contributing some of these reviews), but if you like his cartoons you'll probably enjoy this one a lot.

Tweety is outside, shoveling the snow out of his bird's nest, mumbling that he shouldn't have wished for a white Christmas. In one building, Sylvester cleans off the window and spots Tweety while in an adjacent building, another cat - an unnamed orange feline - does the same. They both pound on the doors to have their respective owners let them out.

They race from opposite directions and arrive at Tweety's nest at the same time. From that point on, it's a battle to see who gets the bird. A short time later, the orange tabby thinks he won, but swallows a mechanical dunking yellow bird by mistake. That scene might have been the funniest.

Tweety looks like a goner a few times but always seems to come out unscathed while the two cats beat the crap out of each other.

In all, nothing super but entertaining and a nice DVD transfer. The colors are bold and the picture sharp.

In the large Looney Tunes canon of some of the greatest cartoons ever made, the Tweety and Sylvester entries give them even further solidity by being one of their most popular series and never letting the audience down with a below par effort. Most, including this one in particular, have an elegance enhanced by the music of Carl Stalling. Many of the gags are of the two putty tats competing against one another to be the one to catch Tweety, but when the action comes out of the cold outdoors to the scene in the basement of one of the apartment buildings, we have one of those transcendental moments of pure Looney Tunes genius when the little yellow bird meets another little yellow bird perched on a glass of water.

Putty Tat Trouble (1951)

*** (out of 4)

It's Christmas time and Tweety is out shoveling the snow from his nest when Sylvester and another cat spot him. The two cats go full battle to try and get Tweety but he's much smarter than them. I'm not a huge fan of the Sylvester/Tweety cartoons but this one here is pretty good because for the most part the two cats are fighting each other while the bird stays pretty safe. The cuteness of Tweety is certainly on full display as is his other side, which is perfectly shown during a scene where the two cats are on a frozen pond. There are some nice laughs throughout as well as some good action so fans of the two will certainly be entertained.