- "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat.....I Did, I Did, I Did Taw a Puddy Tat!"
Tweety, also known as Tweety Pie or Tweety Bird, is a yellow canary in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series. He is a yellow canary that has a somewhat large head. His temper was at first short and was often angry. His catchphrase is "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!" "I did! I did taw/tee a puddy tat!". As his character progressed, he became much calmer. He appears to be an innocent little bird, sweet and extremely gentle character. Tweety often went to Hector the Bulldog or hide behind Granny to avoid Sylvester, but in the end, he always manages to humiliate him, unless he ends up humiliating himself trying to catch him, which in turn does nothing. Tweety sometimes lives in a birdcage located in Granny's house; Granny is overprotective of Tweety and keeps Sylvester away from her prized bird. Contrary to popular belief, he was always a male despite having eyelashes like females.[2][3][4]
History
Golden Age
He made his first appearance in 1942 in "A Tale of Two Kitties", directed by Bob Clampett. His design was originally based on a baby picture of Bob Clampett. Prior to his first official appearance, a similar baby bird appears in one of the gags in "Wacky Blackout" as the child of a mother bird who wants to be a divebomber.
In "A Tale of Two Kitties", his speech is strange, as he mispronounces many words, such as "pussy cat", which he says as "puddy tat". His name was originally Orson, but this was soon changed, as his current name was already presented in his second cartoon, "Birdy and the Beast". He had initially been portrayed simply as a wild hatchling whose species had not yet been specified and resided in an outdoor nest high in a tree.
Clampett would leave the studio in 1945 while he was producing another Tweety cartoon, under the title "The Fat Rat and the Stupid Cat", which would've paired him for the first time with the then-unnamed Sylvester.[5] The project went dormant after Clampett's departure from the studio and was ultimately scrapped after Arthur Davis took over his unit. However, Friz Freleng would take a liking to Clampett's canary, and heavily redesigned him into his more known modernized appearance, giving him yellow feathers and smaller feet. Freleng's cartoon, "Tweetie Pie", would mark the first time the canary and cat was paired, and ultimately was a hit with theatrical audiences and netted the studio's first Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Although producer Eddie Selzer was initially against this pairing, so much that it almost cost Freleng his job at the studio, Selzer backtracked upon the film's success, leading to Freleng to produce numerous more cartoons featuring the duo.
Tweety and Sylvester are frequently after each other, much like Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner and the formerly-MGM owned, now-owned Warner Bros. cat and mouse duo Tom and Jerry. Sylvester is constantly trying to eat Tweety, and the yellow canary, in turn, is usually avoiding him with ease. Although Sylvester has laid hands on Tweety and got Tweety in his mouth on some occasions, most of the time he has never succeeded in eating the canary. In "Greedy for Tweety", Sylvester succeeded in eating Tweety in a hospital where Sylvester, Tweety, and Hector were hospitalized and Granny was their nurse and once Granny found out that Sylvester ate Tweety, she did an x-ray on Sylvester and cut him open and got Tweety out. Most of the time, when Tweety is under the care of Granny, Sylvester cannot successfully outwit his opponent.
In most cartoons since "Tweetie Pie", Tweety has been since depicted as a domestic bird often owned by Granny and protected by Hector the Bulldog, although in some cartoons such as "Tweet Tweet Tweety" and "Dog Pounded", he is still shown to live in nests. All cartoons during the golden age featuring Tweety since "Tweetie Pie" had him paired with Sylvester and were all directed by Freleng, with the only exceptions being a short cameo in the Chuck Jones-directed cartoon "No Barking" and Tweety's final cartoon, "Hawaiian Aye Aye", which was directed by Gerry Chiniquy after Freleng's brief departure to Hanna-Barbera.
Post-Golden Age
Tweety has starred in several roles outside of Looney Tunes. He, along with several other Looney Tunes stars, has made appearances in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Space Jam, and Looney Tunes Back in Action. He also starred as the main protagonist in the 2000 direct-to-video film Tweety's High-Flying Adventure. He also appears as a "baby" version of himself in the television series Baby Looney Tunes. He's also in many Six Flags theme parks.
He has a cameo in the Animaniacs episode "HMS Yakko".
He has a starring role in the series The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries.
He appears in Looney Tunes Back in Action, but one of being as a disguise of the Tasmanian Devil.
He appears in The Looney Tunes Show as a pet of Granny's. In the episode "Eligible Bachelors", Sylvester asks about the canary's gender, the answer to which Tweety whispers into Sylvester's ear, leaving the feline surprised.
Tweety appeared only in Season 2 of New Looney Tunes, where he has the more violent and aggressive personality that Bob Clampett originally gave him and was redesigned to closely resemble Clampett's original design, though retaining yellow feathers. However, his violent nature is often toned down since it was only used to defend himself. In addition to his pairings with Sylvester in "Easter Tweets", "Angry Bird," and "You're Kiln Me", he appeared without Sylvester in the episodes "Deduce, Part Deuce" and "Etiquette Shmetiquette", both co-starring Daffy Duck. In "Tweet Team" (his last appearance), he teamed up with Gabby Goat and Marc Anthony to help Speedy Gonzales save his mice friends from the cats Sylvester, Claude Cat, and Pete Puma.
Tweety appeared as a recurring character in Looney Tunes Cartoons, voiced by Eric Bauza, again with Clampett's more violent and aggressive personality, but often in self-defense and toned down.[6]
On 17 February 2021, it was announced Tweety will star in Tweety Mysteries, which is similar to The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries except that it will be a live-action/animated hybrid.[7][8] Tweety will not be living with Granny in this series but with a tween girl named Sydney. For unknown reasons, this series was later shelved.[9]
Tweety appeared in the direct-to-video film King Tweety as the titular character, which was released on 14 June 2022.[10]
Tweety appeared in the preschool series Bugs Bunny Builders.[11] Even though he was small, he shows everyone he can do anything.
Tweety is mentioned in Tiny Toons Looniversity. Unlike most versions of the character, Tweety is referred to with gender-neutral pronouns.
Filmography
- Main article: List of Tweety cartoons
Gallery
- Main article: Tweety/Gallery
References
- ↑ https://mobile.twitter.com/bauzilla/status/1006414336435376128
- ↑ Tweety - Male or Female?. Cartoon Brew (May 27, 2005). Archived from the original on December 23, 2012. Retrieved on February 18, 2017.
- ↑ Looney Tunes - Stars of the Show - Tweety. Warner Bros.. Archived from the original on October 1, 2002. Retrieved on February 18, 2017.
- ↑ Sylvester and Tweety. Cartoon Network. Archived from the original on January 23, 2001. Retrieved on February 18, 2017.
- ↑ https://comics.ha.com/itm/animation-art/-sylvester-and-tweety-110-original-storyboard-drawings-for-fat-rat-and-the-stupid-cat/a/997060-1048.s
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaBvcEDy8n0
- ↑ https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/warnermedia-kids-family-cartoon-network-hbo-max-gremlins-toons-1234909456/?cx_testId=51&cx_testVariant=cx_2&cx_artPos=1#cxrecs_s
- ↑ https://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/warnermedia-upfronts-cartoon-network-hbo-max-redraw-your-world-with-more-kids-content/
- ↑ https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/cartoon-network-warner-bros-discovery-animation-batwheels-1235453151/
- ↑ https://screenrant.com/king-tweety-animated-movie-trailer/
- ↑ https://www.animationmagazine.net/tv/warnermedia-upfronts-cartoonito-launches-on-hbo-max-with-20-series/