Il gatto delle nevi

Yes, it's true: I derived in "Snow Business" a connection to "The Shining". Obviously, you have the snowbound individuals (Sylvester and Tweety = the Torrance family), while someone else tries to return to the snowbound place (Granny = the cook). But aside from Sylvester starting to get cabin fever and view Tweety as a possible meal, there's the other presence in the snowbound location (the mouse = the ghosts) eating at the character going crazy - and I mean literally in this case.

I understand that my interpretation is probably one of the more outlandish interpretations of this cartoon, as the cartoon was probably intended as pure entertainment. I just like to look for similarities between different kinds of movies, cartoons, etc.

All in all, worth seeing.

In 1953's "Snow Business" Tweety, Sylvester, and Granny have, once again, been brought together in yet another animated "Merrie Melody" where the comic activity doesn't take but a minute to shift into high-gear.

And, the question is - Will Granny be able to arrive in time at her snowbound cabin in the hills where her 2 beloved pets (Tweety and Sylvester) are gonna be looking for their next meal real soon?

Well - In the meantime - It doesn't take long for Sylvester (being a typical putty-tat that he is) to get ideas into his feline head that sweet, little Tweety would certainly make a delicious snack.

And so - With that in mind - All hell breaks loose when a ravenously snippy rodent gets into the act which promptly thwarts Sylvester's plans to make mincemeat out of Tweety.

Grannie comes to a halt in a blizzard as she heads toward her cabin. In the cabin are Tweety and Sylvester, co-existing. Unfortunately, food has run out and all that there is is tons of bird seed. Well, you can imaging. The kicker, however, is a ravenous mouse who torments the poor cat. Sylvester's natural instincts are never given any respect and he has to try to cope with the cruelty done him.

After the feeble 'A Bird in a Guilty Cage', Friz Freleng finally injected some life into his repetitive Sylvester and Tweety series with the brilliant and novel 'Snow Business'. Owing a good deal of its success to a superbly inventive script by Warren Foster, 'Snow Business' opens with Tweety and Sylvester as the best of friends. Only when they are stranded in a cabin by a snowstorm do the starving cat's thoughts turn to eating his former playmate. A great twist on the straightforward formula, 'Snow Business' has a few more tricks up its sleeve. For one, Tweety remains oblivious of the danger he's in throughout the whole cartoon as Sylvester convinces him that a ride in a boiling hot cooking pot and skating on a greased frying pan are enormous fun. This unusual set-up creates a whole new refreshing dynamic between the cat and bird. The real star of 'Snow Business', however, is a psychotic little mouse who, driven crazy with hunger, decides he wants to eat Sylvester. It is this final bizarre plot twist which pushes 'Snow Business' from great to brilliant and the emaciated little rodents attempts to devour a creature ten times his size are hilarious to watch. 'Snow Business' is, in all probability, the very best of all the Tweety and Sylvester shorts. It's a genuinely funny and odd script brilliantly directed by Freleng.

This viewer finds the Sylvester/Tweety cartoons more entertaining than most people do though admittedly they are formulaic and can get repetitive. Snow Business is one of the best of the series and one that even non-fans will love. The animation is indeed excellent, in distinctive Fritz Freleng style, with vibrant colours, detailed backgrounds and fluid character designs. The music has always been one of the main strong points in the Sylvester/Tweety cartoons and with Looney Tunes in general. Few cartoon composers did lush orchestration, lively rhythms and action enhancement better than Carl Stalling(though I do dig Milt Franklin for also Looney Tunes, and Oliver Wallace for the Disney cartoons as well), and the music for Snow Business has all of those and doesn't disappoint at all. The dialogue is some of the wittiest of the series and the gags some of the funniest and most inventive, while the story is perhaps the most original and the cartoon of theirs that isn't formulaic and feels properly like a story, especially with Sylvester and Tweety being friends at the beginning and the whole twist with the mouse. Granny doesn't have a lot to do but Tweety is cute and amusing(have always liked him more than most). Sylvester and the mouse though are much more memorable, Sylvester takes the laughs in a hilarious way yet we feel sympathy for him as well but the mouse manages to even steal the show from under him, demented but just as funny. Some of Snow Business has a weird touch to it but never in a sadistic way, certainly not to the extent that the Gene Deitch Tom and Jerry cartoons did. To conclude, a fabulous cartoon and one of the best of the series. 10/10 Bethany Cox