Don't expect any jokes about the late James Dean in this short. Apart from title puns, on the whole classic Loony tunes wisely refrained from spoofing anything topical (unlike some early Nineties episodes from "Animaniacs" that are already hopelessly outdated). This Tweety/Sylvester vehicle takes place in the civil war.
The Confederate signal corps carrier pigeons Jet, Spitfire, Thor and Flying Tiger are all missing in action, leaving just Tweety to bring a top secret message to General Lee. Proving once again that the tiny stubs he calls wings are of no use to anyone (and since when is he a pigeon anyway?), Tweety makes a run for the Mason Dixie Line while being persued by Sylvester the 'Messenger destroyer'.
It is always nice to see the Warner Brothers putting in the extra effort and money to create historical set pieces for their Toon stars. Not only does "Rebel without claws" feature vast battlefields, they even included an early submarine and an ancient tomato soup can (uses by the Tweetster to peddle over to the sub). All the humans are caricatures, with the blue Union soldiers looking only slightly more dastardly then the gray (in a Mad agent from Inspector Gadget' kind of way).
Near the end Sly makes a comment about cats having nine lives, but according to my count, the poor old pussycat has at that point already been shot and/or blown up at least eleven times in a row. Still you can't feel too bad for Sylvester. After all he did get to munch on Jet, Spitfire, Thor and Flying Tiger.
7 out of 10
