Another original titles discovery, nomn! Production #1072 is the excellent Friz Freleng cartoon I Taw a Putty Tat. For my money, this is probably the best of the Tweety & Sylvester series, although there would be many worthy contenders for that title throughout the years (Putty Tat Trouble, Ain’t She Tweet, Birds Anonymous, Hyde & Go Tweet). Freleng deserved his Oscar for instilling much needed personality into the two-character chase format, and this is a fine example of it at its most successful.
Just so this is not quite breaking from the barrage of Tashlin posts, some of the framework with the owner is lifted directly from Puss N’ Booty. Comparing that short with this one doesn’t accomplish a ton other than showing the differences in what satisfied each of the very different directors. The Tashlin cat-bird picture is a borderline cinematic masterpiece, whereas the Freleng shows how he perfected the art of directing meticulous and absolutely hilarious comedies. Every scene and gag works, right down to the frame. A great deal of this credit should go to Freleng’s right-hand man Hawley Pratt, one of Golden Age of Animation’s unsung greats whose amazing draftsmanship made so much of this happen.
There are some instances here and there in this short where it isn’t fine-tuned though. Tweety’s “Forgot my wittle hat again” is out of sync. Sylvester’s body isn’t properly shot after he inhales Tweety, and his lipsync is distractingly all over the place when he enters as a Swedish maid. I might attribute this to the fact that this one was rammed through the system as a Cinecolor short to help cash in on the popularity of the new comedy team after the Oscar win for Tweetie Pie. (Had it gone the ‘normal’ way in Technicolor, it wouldn’t have seen release until early 1949 at the latest.) Given how all of these directors were essentially well into working in an artistic vacuum at this point, it’s amazing how perfected they are most of the time.
Gerry Chiniquy is the star animator of this cartoon, animating the lion’s share of the footage. I’ve had reservations about his drawing style before (it’s pretty wiry, isn’t it?), but it’s the actual animation that counts, and he’s absolutely hilarious in the way he phrases his actions (in the 1940s anyway). The scene of Sly missing the first door only to be slammed by a second is a different kind of crazy than the Tashlin or Clampett kind. The cat goes through a ton of poses in a very short length of time, in a very limited kind of movement, but each of them reads properly.
The maid gag (Chiniquy again) may be one of the most underrated gags in cartoon history. While it proves once again Freleng had the best explosion timing of any director, some of the covert racism in the punchline is actually acceptable because the reference to his scorched flesh and passing out is the focus. Most other directors, including Tex Avery unfortunately, would have been satisfied with fading out after the results of the explosion, making the punchline that Sylvester sort of looks black.
Virgil Ross doesn’t get a ton to do in this cartoon, which is a shame. His drawings of Tweety are true things of beauty in the Warner art library, and there’s a real elegance to his approach in animating the characters. Ross makes a lot of what he’s doing easy when it’s really insanely difficult. When Tweety shoves the bulldog into the cage with Sylvester, he has the dog slowly scrunch up with Sylvester registering a look of horror, then machine guns to the next pose with the two face to face. You won’t find this kind of subtlety in many other cartoons, because it’s a kind of long-gone subtlety that doesn’t draw attention to itself.
Manny Perez gets away with a New York-patented popping effect that Bob Jaques writes about here. Rather than draw Tweety stepping away, Perez just makes him disappear completely, making the timing of Sly crushing his own foot even funnier. For what its worth, Ralph Bakshi always speaks highly of Manny Perez’s greatness whenever he talks about the old guard that regularly worked for him.
The uncredited Pete Burness scenes are a little awkward looking. The accenting of the poses is a little too elongated for the Freleng unit animation style, and his Tweety is between good off-model and bad off-model. The acting on Sylvester is fine, probably due to Burness’s experience animating Tom Cat for years.
I don’t have much to say about Ken Champin’s animation here. His scenes are well drawn and make the gags read as well as Freleng could hope for. Sylvester trying to stubbornly shove Tweety into his mouth could’ve been very easy to mush up, but it’s solid, man, solid.
There’s a large amount of tactful violence in Freleng’s cartoons in general. Sylvester suffers some fairly brutal treatment, but because the ridiculousness of the violence rather than the violence itself is emphasized. Not actually showing the carnage of the bulldog mauling Sly, but the hilarious covered, bouncing Chiniquy cage instead, is a completely Freleng touch. It’s too easy to imagine the same gags falling flat in a later Tom & Jerry or Famous Studios cartoon.
Another breakdown is coming up. It might have original titles too.
The way Sylvester’s feet flop in the maid’s shoes when he first appears is a great little detail.
The more titles we find, the better…. er… the more titles you and David find… and Jerry… hm… you know what I mean.
Enjoyed fondling the Cinecolor print- you’re welcome, Thadd
Why was Tweety wearing a hat? He was also wearing one in another cartoon.
BEAUTIFUL!!!
I love “I Taw A Putty Tat”
Best Tweet & Sylvester cartoon ever…
Yay, more titles!
Pete Burness was actually behind my favorite animation in the cartoon, even if it didn’t mesh too well with everything else. I love his bouncy work.
Another gem from Friz Freleng, highlighting his often underrated sense of timing (e.g., the hide-and-seek scene; you just know Sly will whack himself with the hammer, but Friz lets the anticipation build just enough so that it’s still funny when it finally happens).
Thanks for the breakdown, I loved Burness’ animation in this one.
Thank you Kris Kringle!
Chiniquy’s talking Sylvester and dynamite gag timing is brilliant. As is Virgil’s Tweety “developing his widdle muscles”.
THANK YOU for all of your great breakdowns and original titles finds! I wonder what breakdown is coming soon…
Mel’s voice change and Sylvester’s lapsing-into-unconsciousness stagger is what makes the maid gag one of the greatest gags ever for the cat. Changing from the worst Swedish accent ever to Eddie Anderson was already done in a variation by Clampett twice, at the end of “Jeepers Creepers” and “Goofy Groceries”, but both those gags simply iris out; Friz and Gerry add on the stagger and fall that extends the gag for another few seconds.
(The cartoon also benefits from the energy and budget. Outside of Art Davis’ own maid gag and the ball bearing gag at the end of “Catch as Cats Can”, Sylvester probably never takes as much of an on-screen pounding as he does in this cartoon, and even the hidden pounding he gets inside the covered bird cage is some pretty frantic cloth-and-wire animation.)
BTW, the song over the title card: That’s “The Wish That I Wish Tonight” by M.K. Jerome, right?
Yes it is, Ian.
You can really hear the influence of Red Skelton’s Mean Widdle Kid on Blanc’s Tweety in this one. (“He not in here, too!” is very Skeltonesque.)
Tweety is ten thousand times more interesting when he’s still a little brat. (Wow, a Dhave comment with no historical rambling whatsoever.)
I agree with Dave. Tweety was much more fun and funny when he was an active character. I think it also adds a bit of subtle pathos to Sylvester.
Wonderful cartoon. This is one of Freleng’s best. The animation style truly suits the gags and comedic timing to the tee. Pete Burness’ animation does stick out in this. It has that full, MGM feel to it.
My favorite gag is the maid gag, ending with Rochester’s voice. It always gets a laugh out of me.
Superb cartoon all the way around.
So, this was made by a crew of 10, deadline of around 6 weeks?! Is that right?
Do you know if there’s any documentation about the budget of these things? I wonder what they’d have cost when adjusted for inflation.
I’m betting that dollar for dollar, this system of production could be more cost effective than most 11 minute television cartoons produced today using Flash.
I really dig these breakdowns, pal. Keeps reminding me how hard I gotta work to keep up…too many crews are lazy in comparison to these dudes.
Sylvester’s metamorphosis into a ’40s racial stereotype of a black maid courtesy of the dynamite is obvious, but is it me or is Tweety’s rising pitch of voice, general intonation and stylised syntax modelled on a Charlie Chan Number One Son charicatured type Chinese too?
I’ve watched many Sylvester and Tweety Pie’s over five decades, and never noticed this before, so at first I thought I must be imagining it – then it hit me how the choice of voice could be explained by the fact Tweety’s yellow.
SO Thad and Ian, “The Wish that I wish tonight” is the song on the soundtrack? If I recall, wasn’t that the song at the end of
Goofy Gophers”, when the hammy Shakespeare dog gets rocketed to the moon?
Sorry Thad, i want to see the titles, but the video is down, great post anyway!!! this is the cartoon that breaks the Tom and jerry’s Winning Streak since 1943