Tweet and Sour is a 1956 Looney Tunes short directed by Friz Freleng.
Title[]
The title is a play on the phrase "sweet and sour."
Plot[]
Granny leaves the house for an outing, but as she drives by the house and waves goodbye to Tweety, she sees Sylvester has gotten into the house and is about to eat the bird. Granny stops the cat in time and, fed up with his constant chasing after Tweety, gives him an ultimatum: "If there's so much as one little feather harmed on the canary, it's off to the violin string factory!" punctuating the warning by mimicking Frédéric Chopin's "The Funeral March".
Sylvester attempts to grab Tweety as soon as Granny leaves in her jalopy, but Tweety reminds him of Granny's threat by imitating "The Funeral March "just as she did. As Sylvester sulks in the corner of the room, Tweety is about to face a new threat — Sam Cat, here wearing an eyepatch. Sam is after a meal of his own and is uncaring that Sylvester will be deemed responsible if Tweety is noticed missing. As such, the chase now casts Sylvester not as the predator but as the (not-so-altruistic) protagonist who plans to save Tweety from the predatory Sam before Granny returns — more so to save his own skin. After several exchanges, with both Sylvester and Sam clobbering each other, Sylvester finally drives his rival off by blowing him up in Granny's chimney by way of a lighted TNT candle tied to a balloon.
However, Sylvester's efforts are in vain. As he is putting Tweety back in the cage, Granny enters and, assuming he was after Tweety, promises to make good on her earlier threat. Sylvester tries to explain what happened, but no avail and remarks "Aw, what's the use! She never believes me!" and runs to a stool and plays "Taps" on a violin and falls into a violin case as a coffin.
Availability[]
Streaming[]
Censorship[]
- In the 1980s, CBS cut the part where Sam grabs Sylvester by his tail and bashes him several times into the ground.
Notes[]
- Historical violin strings were made from "catgut", which were actually made from intestines from sheep or goats, not cats like Sylvester. The name was originally "cattle gut", but Granny played with the word's meaning to scare Sylvester to stop the cat from eating Tweety.