Tree Cornered Tweety

Tree Cornered Tweety

Directed By: Friz Freleng Produced By: Eddie Selzer Released: May 19, 1956 Series: Merrie Melodies Story: Warren Foster Animation: Arthur Davis Gerry Chiniquy Virgil Ross Layouts: Hawley Pratt Backgrounds: Irv Wyner Film Editor: Treg Brown Voiced By: Mel Blanc June Foray Music: Milt Franklyn Starring: Sylvester Tweety Preceded By: Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z Succeeded By: The Unexpected Pest

Tree Cornered Tweety is a 1956 Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng.

Plot

Tweety narrates his daily activities as he is spotted, then chased by Sylvester. Utilizing a Jack Webb impression, Tweety delivers his signature "I tawt I taw a puddy tat" line, then describes his adversary in detail: "A bwack cat, wed nose, white chest. Name, 'Tilvester."

Tweety describes Sylvester's attempts, as follows:

• Sylvester simply crosses the street and walks up the stairs to Tweety's room. An unseen woman tells him "SCAT!" and throws plates at him. Sylvester scurries down the stairs and out of the building.
• Subsequently, Sylvester builds a makeshift bridge of wooden planks and uses a swing to get to the building across the way, where Tweety is housed. The bridge collapses as the nails come loose at the base, due to the cat's weight and its poor construction; Sylvester is flattened by a piledriver in the swing gag.
• Sylvester uses a pilot's ejector chair to get at the high story window where Tweety is, but it hurls him straight through light wires, splitting the cat into several lengthwise pieces.
• Tweety feeds with the pigeons at the city library. Sylvester stops by and chases his prey into an automat. Tweety takes refuge behind a window (conveniently labeled "Tweety Pie," right next to the lemon pie). Sylvester inserts a nickel into the slot, opens the door and gets a spring-loaded pie thrown into his face.
• Following a mountain blizzard, Tweety puts spoons on his feet (as snowshoes) to search for food. Sylvester comes after him on skis, and it appears the speedy cat will catch his dinner ... until he crashes into a tree.
• Tweety hides in a treetop in a mine field. Sylvester uses a metal detector to try to avoid the mines, but Tweety throws a magnet at the cat, which draws all the mines and results in an explosion.
• A chase on a high wooden bridge in Colorado, where Tweety hides beneath the deck, out of the cat's reach. A determined Sylvester saws a hole in the center of the bridge, but doesn't realize he is standing in the middle of the portion he's sawing off until well after he has begun his plummet to the river below. Unseen by his predator, Tweety steps out of his way. A British-accented man in a fishing boat spots the falling projectile headed straight for him and takes note of the situation:(Tweety's catchphrase) "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!" Sylvester plunges straight through the boat's hull, causing the cat, the man and his boat to sink ("I did! I did! I did ..." the man states as he sinks below the surface).

Availability

• (1996) VHS - Stars of Space Jam: Sylvester and Tweety
• (1998) VHS - Looney Tunes Presents:Tweety: Home Tweet Home
• (1999) VHS - Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 3: The Vocal Genius
• (2001) DVD - I Love Tweety: Volume 2 (restored)
• (2018) DVD - Stars of Space Jam: Sylvester and Tweety (unrestored)

Censorship

• On ABC, the entire minefield sequence was cut, leaving an abrupt jump from the skiing sequence to the bridge sequence. Also, the skiing sequence itself was also edited on ABC to remove the shot of Sylvester crashing into a tree, though the sound was left intact and superimposed over a shot of Tweety running as Sylvester's snowshoes pass him. It should be noted that the same tree gag was left uncensored in the cheater short "Trip for Tat". ^[1]

Notes

• The cartoon is a parody of Dragnet, with Tweety narrating the short in the style of Joe Friday.
• This is one of the few Sylvester and Tweety shorts where Tweety does not directly influence the outcome.
• This cartoon was used in the TV special Bugs Bunny's Mad World of Television, using the name "Drag-Nest".
• Sylvester does not speak in this short; the other Tweety shorts where Sylvester is mute are "Tweetie Pie", "Bad Ol' Putty Tat", and "Putty Tat Trouble".

References

External Links

• Tree Cornered Tweety at the Internet Movie Database
• Nuance and Suggestion in the Tweety and Sylvester Series - Written by Kevin McCorry
• Tree Cornered Tweety on the SFX Resource