Frajola em Apuros

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.

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.

As I have said before, I am NOT a fan of Tweety. He's just so aggravating I wish Sylvester would just eat him and get it over with.

In this cartoon Sly is homeless once again and is back to feeding out of garbage cans. He spots a cruise ship leaving port nearby and decides to hop aboard when he spys Tweety is one of the passengers.

The ship provides an adequate stage for the following hijinks and Sly desperately tries to catch the annoying bird and avoid seasickness. If only for once he's succeed by chewing and swallowing, thus finishing of the irritating Canary forever. But, as cartoons starring Tweety go, this one is quite good, but it's ALL thanks to that brilliant cat.

This is one of those Tweety and Sylvester cartoons that made this legendary pair second only to Bugs Bunny in terms of Looney Tunes popularity.

Besides having all of the stock situations for this duo (Sylvester feeding out of garbage cans, the "I tawt I taw a putty tat" line, etc.), Tweety's S.O.S also stars Granny, who is one of those types of supporting characters that these Warner Bros. classics had in abundance to enrich the color and flavor of them. This time out the cat and bird are aboard an ocean liner and the gags that are extracted from this situation are creative and lively.

What a day that was in cartoon history when Friz Freleng decided to pair his Sylvester with the departed Robert Clampett's little yellow bird.