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Canary Row is a 1950 Merrie Melodies short directed by I. Freleng.

Title[]

The title is a play on the 1945 John Steinbeck novel Cannery Row.

Plot[]

From his room in a building belonging to the "Bird-Watchers' Society", Sylvester uses binoculars to focus on the window opposite him, containing Tweety's cage. Tweety does the same (we see Sylvester's dark green eyes magnified enough to see the blood vessels in them, then Tweety's blue eyes—but lacking blood vessels). Tweety puts his binoculars down and says his catch phrase, “I tawt I taw a puddy tat!” Then he replaces his binoculars to confirm and, indeed, “I DID! I DID taw a puddy tat!” Sylvester jumps for joy and runs to the building Tweety is in (the Broken Arms Apartments), but fails to notice the sign banning cats and dogs from the building. This results in a confrontation with the guard just inside the door, who kicks Sylvester out shouts, "AND STAY OUT!!"

Next, Sylvester climbs up the drainpipe of the Broken Arms Apartments while Tweety sings the song "When Irish Eyes are Smiling". Behind Tweety and off-camera, Sylvester swings a paw in metronome rhythm to his "snack's" song. Only then does Tweety realize that Sylvester is watching him. He calls for help and jumps out of his cage; Sylvester chases him through the room. However, Tweety's owner, Granny is ready for him. She throws him out the window and, looking down on him, snarls, "Yeah! That'll teach you! Next time I'll give you what fer!" Tweety joins in the scolding: “Bad ol' puddy tat!”

Sylvester paces around the door, then gets an idea: to climb up in the drainpipe. Instead of getting scared again, Tweety now drops a bowling ball into the drainpipe. The heavy ball collides with Sylvester – and he swallows it! He frantically attempts to stop himself from rolling into "Champin's Bowling Alley" (a reference to animator Ken Champin), but to no avail. Sounds of bowling pins dropping emanate from said building.

Now Sylvester attempts to come up with a new plan for consumption of Tweety. He then notices a street busker with a monkey across the street. He slips across the street and then, after luring the monkey away from his master with a banana, hits him (off-screen) in the head and manages to pass himself off as said monkey to the busker. Tweety isn't fooled, though, realizing that "Uh-oh! Dat puddy tat's after me adain!" Sylvester enters Granny's room chasing Tweety, but has to stop running after him outright when Granny notices him. He now tries (without much success) to surreptitiously look for and eat Tweety. His attempt to pass himself off as a monkey is ruined when Granny gives him a penny and he can't resist tipping his hat politely to her. However, she smacks him in the head with an umbrella and then exposes that she was actually fully aware that he was a deliberately intruding cat who wanted to eat her canary rather than a legitimately in-business monkey whose busker master was trying to make a living. Sylvester, who now has a lump on his head, staggers out of the room, tipping his hat at the angry Granny in the process.

Next, Sylvester manages to gain access to the desk clerk's office undetected (how he did so is unknown) and hears the telephone ring. The desk clerk hurriedly rushes to pick it up, but is professionally calm and polite when talking to Granny. Eavesdropping on them, Sylvester hears that Granny is checking out of Room 158, and that she wants someone to pick up Tweety and her luggage.

This gives Sylvester the idea he wants: cut to a shot of Sylvester knocking on Granny's door. Granny opens it a crack and asks Sylvester what he's doing, to which Sylvester replies in his lisping voice, "Your bagth, Madame?" Granny answers, "Okay, they're behind the door. I'll see you in the lobby." Sylvester enters Room 158 and picks up Granny's suitcases and Tweety's cage. He carries them all out into the hall, then discards the suitcase and carries the cage down the stairs to the rear of the apartment building. There, he walks into the alley and opens the cage, expecting to enjoy Tweety – but Granny is in the cage! She hits Sylvester with her umbrella several times in rapid succession while chasing after him.

Next, Sylvester drags a box, a plank and a 500-pound weight to the point at the base of the apartment building that is in a direct vertical line with Tweety's window. He supports the plank with the box in the middle, stands on one end of the plank and heaves the weight onto the other end. This propels him up to Tweety's level and enables him to snatch the tiny bird. However, as he runs off, the weight lands hard on his head.

Sylvester next tries to swing over to Tweety's window, and uses all manner of scientific methods to ensure that he doesn't let Tweety slip by him again. However, he misjudges something that forces him to crash into the wall next to the drainpipe. Tweety remarks that Sylvester will hurt himself more badly unless he's more careful.

Finally, Sylvester's pacing stops quite abruptly when he notices the electric air cable wires over his head. He crosses the street, climbs the supporting pole and walks the wires across to the Broken Arms Apartment Building. However, he has to get out of the way when he hears the bell ringing to signal the approach of a trolley. His feet aren't quick enough to evade the trolley, and he is shocked several times as the trolley pursues him! The driver is shown to be: Tweety, who once again says, "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!" and Granny, who is sitting next to him, agrees with him, "You did, you DID! You DID taw a putty tat!". The trolley shocks Sylvester three times.

Caricatures[]

Censorship[]

The ABC version of this cartoon edits two scenes of Sylvester being surprise-attacked:[3]

  • When Sylvester takes the cage down to the back exit, only to find Granny in it, and Granny beats him with her umbrella, the original short had Granny beating Sylvester six times, including chasing Sylvester. On ABC, the beatings were cut down to one to remove the part where she chases him.
  • At the end of the cartoon, Sylvester is trying to outrun a streetcar that Granny is operating. On ABC, the first two electrocutions are looped over after a final shot of Tweety and Granny in the streetcar, concluding the cartoon this way instead of having Sylvester run off into the background. As such, there is no iris-out, but instead a sudden cut to black. The end soundtrack remains intact.

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Notes[]

  • This is the first appearance of Granny. She had prototypes dating back to 1937, starting with "Little Red Walking Hood", and most of her prototypes were voiced by Bea Benaderet, the same voice actor who played Granny from 1950–55.
  • The original closing was kept, due to it being reissued in the 1958–59 season.
  • On the opening titles, the cartoon's copyright year mentioned in Roman numerals is MCMXLIX, hence it reveals that this cartoon was made and copyrighted in 1949 and released in 1950.
  • A billboard advertising "Friz" appears near the building where Tweety lives. Also visible is a storefront reading "Champin & Sons".
  • Mel Blanc's voice for Tweety, except when singing, was edited to an extra higher pitch than usual for this cartoon, but would go back to its regular edited pitch in Tweety's next short, "Putty Tat Trouble". It would happen again in the 1952 short "A Bird in a Guilty Cage", and stayed that way from 1953 to early 1954, but would return to the original edited pitch again in "No Barking".
  • In 1949, this cartoon was announced as a nominee for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoon), along with "For Scent-imental Reasons". However, producer Eddie Selzer withdrew the film's nomination as only one cartoon could be voted on in each category, causing it to not appear on the final ballot.[4]

Gallery[]

References[]

← All a Bir-r-r-d Sylvester Cartoons Stooge for a Mouse →
← All a Bir-r-r-d Tweety Cartoons Putty Tat Trouble →
Sylvester Cartoons
1945 Life with FeathersPeck Up Your Troubles
1946 Kitty Kornered
1947 Tweetie PieCrowing PainsDoggone CatsCatch as Cats Can
1948 Back Alley OproarI Taw a Putty TatHop, Look and ListenKit for CatScaredy Cat
1949 Mouse MazurkaBad Ol' Putty TatHippety Hopper
1950 Home, Tweet HomeThe Scarlet PumpernickelAll a Bir-r-r-dCanary RowStooge for a MousePop 'Im Pop!
1951 Canned FeudPutty Tat TroubleRoom and BirdTweety's S.O.S.Tweet Tweet Tweety
1952 Who's Kitten Who?Gift WrappedLittle Red Rodent HoodAin't She TweetHoppy Go LuckyA Bird in a Guilty CageTree for Two
1953 Snow BusinessA Mouse DividedFowl WeatherTom Tom TomcatA Street Cat Named SylvesterCatty CorneredCats A-weigh!
1954 Dog PoundedBell HoppyDr. Jerkyl's HideClaws for AlarmMuzzle ToughSatan's Waitin'By Word of Mouse
1955 Lighthouse MouseSandy ClawsTweety's CircusJumpin' JupiterA Kiddies KittySpeedy GonzalesRed Riding HoodwinkedHeir-ConditionedPappy's Puppy
1956 Too Hop to HandleTweet and SourTree Cornered TweetyThe Unexpected PestTugboat GrannyThe Slap-Hoppy MouseYankee Dood It
1957 Tweet ZooTweety and the BeanstalkBirds AnonymousGreedy for TweetyMouse-Taken IdentityGonzales' Tamales
1958 A Pizza Tweety-PieA Bird in a Bonnet
1959 Trick or TweetTweet and LovelyCat's PawHere Today, Gone TamaleTweet Dreams
1960 West of the PesosGoldimouse and the Three CatsHyde and Go TweetMouse and GardenTrip for Tat
1961 Cannery WoeHoppy DazeBirds of a FatherD' Fightin' OnesThe Rebel Without ClawsThe Pied Piper of GuadalupeThe Last Hungry Cat
1962 Fish and SlipsMexican BoardersThe Jet Cage
1963 Mexican Cat DanceChili WeatherClaws in the Lease
1964 A Message to GraciasFreudy CatNuts and VoltsHawaiian Aye AyeRoad to Andalay
1965 It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the HouseCats and BruisesThe Wild Chase
1966 A Taste of Catnip
1980 The Yolks on You
1995 Carrotblanca
1997 Father of the Bird
2011 I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat


Tweety Cartoons
1942 A Tale of Two Kitties
1944 Birdy and the Beast
1945 A Gruesome Twosome
1947 Tweetie Pie
1948 I Taw a Putty Tat
1949 Bad Ol' Putty Tat
1950 Home, Tweet HomeAll a Bir-r-r-dCanary Row
1951 Putty Tat TroubleRoom and BirdTweety's S.O.S.Tweet Tweet Tweety
1952 Gift WrappedAin't She TweetA Bird in a Guilty Cage
1953 Snow BusinessFowl WeatherTom Tom TomcatA Street Cat Named SylvesterCatty Cornered
1954 Dog PoundedMuzzle ToughSatan's Waitin'
1955 Sandy ClawsTweety's CircusRed Riding HoodwinkedHeir-Conditioned
1956 Tweet and SourTree Cornered TweetyTugboat Granny
1957 Tweet ZooTweety and the BeanstalkBirds AnonymousGreedy for Tweety
1958 A Pizza Tweety-PieA Bird in a Bonnet
1959 Trick or TweetTweet and LovelyTweet Dreams
1960 Hyde and Go TweetTrip for Tat
1961 The Rebel Without ClawsThe Last Hungry Cat
1962 The Jet Cage
1964 Hawaiian Aye Aye
2011 I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat
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