Tugboat Granny

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Napoleon Bunny-Part	Stupor Duck

Airdate:
23 June 1956

Series:

Merrie Melodies

MPAA Number:	Production Number:	Vitaphone Number:
17550	1417	2618

Runtime:

6 minutes, 49 seconds

Copyright Renewed:

18 April 1984

Starring:

Granny
Tweety
Sylvester

Crew

Background Artist:

Irv Wyner

Film Editor:

Treg Brown

Musician:

Milt Franklyn

Tugboat Granny is a 1956 Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng.

Title[]

The title is a play on Tugboat Annie, and this is the only Warner Bros. cartoon to bear Granny's name.

Plot[]

Granny and Tweety are happily piloting a rented tugboat in a harbor, singing a kiddie-song duet about the carefree joys of their activity. Sylvester hides in a fisherman's basket wanting to get a meal, but is attacked by a crab when a fisherman catches one. He sees the boat carrying the canary chug past.

Sylvester's attempts, all unsuccessful, include the following:

Using a rowboat to get to the tug. Tweety drops anchor in the boat's hull, sinking Sylvester (though he comes out onto the beach still rowing with the oars).
Using an inflatable raft, which is deflated by Tweety's dart ("Hey, puddy tat! Wook what I found! Here, you can have it!").
Two attempts at jumping off the bridge. The first jump is mistimed, as Sylvester lands in the smokestack, leaving him with his rear end on fire. A follow-up attempt from another bridge to parachute onto the boat's deck ("Oh, that bad ol' puddy tat! He never give up!") results in a jammed pack, which only opens after Sylvester sinks to the bottom of the canal ("Aww, the poor puddy tat. Got himself all soaking wet'").
Using a snorkel to swim to the boat. A seagull finds Sylvester's pipe the perfect resting place (blocking the airway); the cat is left holding the egg.
Driving a motorboat, but Sylvester drives instead into the rapids and over a waterfall.
A lasso ("That puddy tat thinks he a cowboy!"), which instead grabs the antenna of a speedboat. Sylvester decides to show off several waterskiing tricks ... until the inattentive puddy smashes into a pole. As he floats upside-down, a fish gurgles Tweety's signature line: "I tawt I taw a puddy tat."

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Goofs[]

The 2020 restoration scraps the original end card and replaces it with the 1959-61 Merrie Melodies ending title card. This error is also present in the HBO Max restorations of "Hare Brush" and "Tweety's Circus", and was not fixed in any future releases such as the Looney Tunes Collector's Choice: Volume 3 print.

Notes[]

Though her name appears in the title, Granny only appears in the opening scene.
Some of the scenes would later be recycled in a Pink Panther cartoon called "Reel Pink", due to the fact that some of the Warner Bros. animators would establish DePatie-Freleng Enterprises as well as being hired by United Artists to create Pink Panther and other cartoons eight years later.
Sylvester's scream would later be reused in "To Beep or Not to Beep", "Tease for Two", and Daffy Duck's Quackbusters.
This was one of the last cartoons that aired on the final installment of ABC's The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show in 2000, joining "Guided Muscle" and an edited version of "The Grey Hounded Hare".

Gallery[]

External links[]

Nuance and Suggestion in the Tweety and Sylvester Series - Written by Kevin McCorry