The Last Hungry Cat

The Sylvester and Tweety cartoons while enjoyable as an overall series are inconsistent in quality, there are a handful of great ones and a few lacking ones. The Last Hungry Cat is not quite among the classics but it is one of their better later cartoons and the best of the post-Hyde and Go Tweet(the last "great" cartoon of theirs) cartoons that even non-fans are likely to find something to like.

Some of the second half gets slightly silly and a touch slack pace-wise(compared to the rest of the cartoon) and there are a couple of rough-looking backgrounds, but that's pretty much it for the (minor) flaws. The animation on the whole is absolutely great with a very hauntingly atmospheric noir-ish look to it, it's crisply drawn and some of it even very inventive. One of the better and more interesting looking Sylvester and Tweety cartoons from personal opinion. The music score is lively and vibrantly orchestrated with an appropriate eeriness that pulsates with suspense, in perfect keeping with the Hitchcockian vibe the cartoon has.

The Last Hungry Cat is very funny, with razor-sharp and witty dialogue and inventive gags, and some parts are creepy and suspenseful too without being overly so, considering that it parodies Hitchcock and his famous show Alfred Hitchcock Presents and noir-ish approach this worked absolutely brilliantly. It's also story-wise one of the most inventive and clever of the Sylvester and Tweety series and one of the most tightly paced as well. The characters do a great job carrying the cartoon, Tweety is barely in it but this is a case where it didn't harm The Last Hungry Cat at all because the premise gave him a reason to not be, in some of his later cartoons he had a tendency to be a plot-device with very little to do or funny but not here. The bear parodying Hitchcock is a lot of fun and the interaction between him and Sylvester is a joy but Sylvester makes the biggest impression. He was always a hugely entertaining and interesting character and here is no exception and I felt genuinely sorry for him here as well, more so than many of his other cartoons. Mel Blanc is as always fantastic, and Ben Frommer does a more than serviceable Hitchcock impression.

All in all, not quite a Sylvester and Tweety classic but one of their better later ones and the strongest of the post-Hyde and Go Tweet cartoons. 8/10 Bethany Cox

It is Tweety Bird and Sylvester the Cat. There is a Hitchcockian narrator. Sylvester sneaks in and tries to eat Tweety. It goes badly and Sylvester gets knocked out. He wakes up and assumes that he did eat Tweety. The narrator accuses him of murder. At first, he is dismissive, but the guilt slowly overwhelms him.

I am fine with the Hitchcock narrator. It could have taken the horror path. Instead, it is going with existential dread which doesn't really fit a cartoon. I would have Sylvester surrendering himself to animal control and he could then be surprised by a visit from Tweety. That would work better.

I've known for years that the people behind the classic Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons liked to spoof the popular culture of the era, but I never would have guessed that they made a cartoon parodying "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". Friz Freleng's "The Last Hungry Cat" is it. It starts with a bear entering an outline and explaining what's about to happen. Then comes the story. After Sylvester sneaks into Tweety's room and through a mix-up mistakenly thinks that he's eaten the little guy, he proceeds to go about his normal life. Except that he hears on TV that the police are looking for a killer known as The Cat, and everything reminds him of this. A Hitchcock movie indeed! So, while it is true that the Looney Tunes era was winding down by 1961, they still managed to turn out some good ones towards the end. They knew how to have just the right amount of twisted sensibility without degenerating into bad taste. This is one that you should like. And also watch Hitch's "Blackmail" to get a good feeling for what this cartoon portrays.

I you're a Baby Boomer, you have to love this beginning. A bear walks into an outline of himself, doing an imitation of Alfred Hitchcock and the way he always began his "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" dramas on TV in the 1950s and 1960s. After that, this quickly changes to a "Sylvester and ?Tweety" cartoon, with some excellent film-noir-type nighttime light- and-shadows artwork. In fact, this is best-looking Tweety cartoon I've ever seen. It is beautifully drawn.

Hitchcock comes back as Sylvester's conscience, accusing him of killing the poor little bird (which he did not do) and story is kind of weak in the second half. This started off very promising but got a little stupid with not much humor. However, that artwork was so good I gave the story a pass.

Despite some very cheap looking animation and a running gag involving a dreadful Alfred Hitchcock impersonation, Friz Freleng's 'The Last Hungry Cat' is a fetchingly dark little offering. I always hated Freleng's version of Tweety (as opposed to Bob Clampett's wonderful original take on the character) and am always glad when Tweety doesn't feature much in his own cartoons. 'The Last Hungry Cat' is just such a cartoon as it opens with Sylvester mistakenly believing he has murdered Tweety in a parody of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Guilted by the Hitchcock voice-over into mistakenly believing the police are pursuing him, Sylvester experiences a long, dark night of the soul. 'The Last Hungry Cat' is largely a one character cartoon, offering a diversion from the usually dull chase formula of Sylvester and Tweety cartoons for a more satisfying glimpse into the pussy cat's psyche. While the execution of the cartoon may not match the inventiveness of the script, it doesn't entirely detract from the enjoyment and 'The Last Hungry Cat' emerges as an extremely engaging and enjoyable cartoon. If only it had been made during the Warner Bros. animation heyday instead of in 1961, it could have been a masterpiece. As it is, 'The Last Hungry Cat' is a flawed but compelling oddity.