Tweety's S.O.S.

Before I forget, let me say the artwork in here is outstanding. From garbage cans to the huge cruise ship, the drawings are beautifully done. If this wasn't animated, critics would be lauding the "direction" in here, because it's really good.

To the story: Sylvester is picking through the garbage at the shipyards but the pickins' are slim. While brooding at the dock next to a big ship, in a porthole he spots Tweety in his cage. Tweety spots him, too, and you know his first comment - the same one he always makes when he spots the cat. Anyway, Sylvester runs over, opens the porthole and says, "Hello, breakfast!" Tweety slams the porthole window on his face and says, "You bad old peeping tomcat!" The cat falls into the water.

The undaunted Sylvester quickly sneaks back aboard ship, tiptoes into Tweety's cabin, grabs him and is ready to leave when - wham! - there's "Granny" at the door with her umbrella. Sylvester takes a beating as the old lady protects her pet bird once again. But, "flippety gibbet," says Granny, "I've dropped my glasses. I can't see a thing without 'em. Heavens to Betsey, where are those cheaters."

Now Sylvester has the upper hand....and the normal cat-trying-to-catch-bird shenanigans are on again, like Granny's glasses. Sylvester's most clever act was to take her glasses and paint a picture of Tweety on them, so when she woke up and put them on, she'd see the bird and think it was okay.

Overall, a very entertaining animated short that was a lot of fun to watch. As you can tell by the quotes, I love the dialog in some of these old cartoons.

Wonderful Sylvester and Tweety short directed by Friz Freleng. This one's pretty much a textbook example of the series and would probably serve well as a great introduction to these characters for anyone who hasn't seen them before. The plot is simple - Sylvester is starving so he tries to get at Tweety on a cruise ship, only to be repeatedly (and painfully) thwarted by Granny. The animation is very nice with great colors. There are many fun gags and lines with the funniest bit for me being Sylvester's seasickness. Solid voice work from Mel Blanc and Bea Benaderet. Really a great cartoon all around. The ending is a hoot, too.

People who say that some of what the Looney Tunes cartoons show is inappropriate for children have apparently forgotten something: they weren't originally intended for children. They were produced for the cinema, to be shown before feature films, and so they could show anything that they wanted. "Tweety's S.O.S." has that bad puddy tat Sylvester finding Tweety aboard an ocean liner and boarding the ship to try and get him. But two things work against Sylvester: Granny is vehemently protecting the canary, and Sylvester easily gets seasick (we don't see him throwing up, but with his green face, they make it perfectly clear that he was doing just that!). And then of course, the seemingly cute Tweety has a bad-ass streak.

It's just great to see how these cartoons weren't afraid to go all out; whatever they thought about showing, they showed. We need to understand that cartoons weren't always supposed to be cute entertainment for children. Really funny.

Tweety's SOS (1951)

*** (out of 4)

Sylvester is out looking for dinner when he spots Tweety on a ship. The rest of the cartoon as the cat trying to work his way around Granny so that he can eat the little bird. I'm sure I'm not alone but I find Tweety to be cute but incredibly annoying. I watch all of these shorts just hoping Sylvester will eat him even though I know it's not going to happen. The actual chase is what makes this worth viewing as it remains fun seeing the poor cat try and try again no matter how many times he fails. There are some pretty good jokes in this short with the best being the sea sickness stuff. Sylvester turning green leads to some great jokes including the one at the end.

Tweety's SOS isn't what I consider Sylvester and Tweety's best, like Hyde and Go Tweet and Red Riding Hoodwinked but I still liked it. I agree the cartoon has moments that are somewhat hit-and-miss moments, I personally didn't care for the seasickness joke myself, but it has enough enjoyable moments I feel.

The animation is pretty excellent particularly in the colours, while the music has just the right amount of quirkiness. The dialogue is funny and clever, Granny gets the best of them especially the lines about her glasses and the sight gags are good. Sylvester is fun to watch as always, like Wile E.Coyote he is a cunning sort of character whose traps constantly backfire, and Tweety and Granny are good as well, Tweety especially is more active than he usually is. And as always, Mel Blanc does a stellar job with the voice work. In conclusion, flawed but enjoyable. 8/10 Bethany Cox