Silvestro in un mare di guai

Nominated for an Oscar, this short makes wonderful use of Granny. Check out her "new bikini bathing-suit"! You almost feel sorry for Sylvester through much of this. He really gets ill-treated here. Given that he's a cat, it should hardly be surprising that his interest in Tweety is culinary in nature, after all. If I were him, I think I'd search for safer and easier sustenance than Tweety, though. Great fun. Highly recommended.

OK, so we should know by now that in cartoons, predators expend every last bit of energy in their efforts to get their prey but always fail miserably (think Wile E. Coyote going after Road Runner). In "Sandy Claws", Granny and Tweety go to the beach where Sylvester is having an unlucky time fishing. Sure enough, he sees Tweety and decides to eat him, but every effort results in the sorts of things that befall Wile E. Coyote when the latter goes after Road Runner.

There was, however, one thing that really didn't make sense here. Throughout the cartoon, tsunamis keep swamping the beach. Now, these tsunamis easily dwarf the one that struck the Indian Ocean in 2004. But while Sylvester always gets soaked no matter how high he climbs, Tweety never gets a drop of water on himself. WTF?! Of course, this is a cartoon, so nothing has to make sense. As long as they entertain us, they're doing their job, and this one certainly made me laugh. They keep the focus on Sylvester so that we can see his plans fail miserably (Tweety, in my opinion, was best in his early days: despite his "cute" appearance, he was the cruelest bird whom I've ever seen). Really funny. You can watch it in another language or turn the sound off altogether and still find it hilarious.

Granny takes Tweety to the beach where Sylvester is trying (unsuccessfully) to catch a fish. When he spots Tweety, he naturally tries to grab him. But to get to the bird he'll have to battle the tide that keeps coming in and washing him away. Hilarious short with lots of funny gags and lines. Sylvester's failures are so much fun to watch. Love the diving suit bit. Tweety is adorable as ever. Granny steals the show once she shows up in her bathing suit. The music is lively and upbeat. Great voice work from Mel Blanc and Bea Benaderet. It's a very funny cartoon with some really great animation. The colors are beautiful and the characters, backgrounds, and action are all nicely drawn.

Not one of their best cartoons(Birds Anonymous and Tweety's Circus), and not sure about the Oscar nomination personally, but still pretty good and entertaining. The plot here is formulaic, even for a Sylvester and Tweety cartoon, and sags a little pace wise at times. Most of the gags are very funny but there are a couple that are rather tired and derivative of those from previous outings. As noted already, Tweety's role is limited, for some this may seem like a blessing but in Sandy Claws he has very little to do and none of it is funny and comes across as just a plot device.

However, Sandy Claws is very well-animated. Loved the sandy beach setting and everything looks smooth and colourful. The music is something that has consistently been never less than great in this series and it is certainly more than great here, the lively rhythms and lush orchestral writing really enhances the action and gives energy and pace to the cartoon. The dialogue, while not the freshest there's been, is witty and raises a smile more than once, Granny's last line is priceless and very apt. Granny is made to great use and more prominently than she usually is, always did like her but felt a lot of times in the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons that she was under-utilised. Once again though Sylvester is the star, he has the bulk of the laughs and makes them funnier than the material deserves perhaps, he is wonderfully crafty and like most Sylvester and Tweety cartoons it's easy to feel sympathy towards him. Bea Benaderet and especially Mel Blanc voice all the characters brilliantly.

To conclude, pretty good but rather ordinary. Certainly worth watching but not the cat and bird duo at their best. 7/10 Bethany Cox

When his owner goes to the beach, Tweety Pie goes along in his cage. Meanwhile, on the pier, Sylvester is having no luck fishing for his dinner. When he spots Tweety he thinks he is in for a free lunch. But when the tide comes in, cutting him off from Tweety's cage, he has to devise some way of staying dry and getting to his quarry.

It is a testimony to the imagination of the creators of many of the WB cartoons that they basically repeat the tried and tested formula and gags over and over but still (mostly) manage to make them funny and avoid being overly repetitive. That is the case here – basically if you like the Tweety Pie cartoons then you'll like this. The gags are all slapstick and are nothing new, but the setting of the beach is used well to make it feel a bit new.

Happily Tweety has only limited screentime and the focus of the cartoon is on Sylvester's efforts to get his bird. This works for me as I always found Tweety to be annoying yet the dastardly Sylvester is a good character who is funny and tragic in a way that only Wily E. Coyote can compete with!

Overall this is nothing frighteningly new but it does use it's location well to alter the old gags and make them feel a little different and still pretty funny. Not a fan of the series but I did enjoy this one.