Tweetie Pie (1947)
9/10
The debut of the famous bird and cat duo and a great one
23 July 2014
There are better Looney Tunes cartoons than the Sylvester and Tweety series but the series is still entertaining and nice to watch. Sylvester and Tweety are not among Looney Tunes' greatest duos, but at least their duo makes sense and doesn't feel odd(unlike Daffy and Speedy). Tweetie Pie signals their debut together- having been seen before solo- and it is a great one and one of their better cartoons. The cruelty of Sylvester/Thomas' owner is a turn-off point, the one character here who you dislike from the get go, but that's a personal nit-pick above all else. The animation is vibrant and detailed and with plenty of bounce, both Tweety and Thomas/Sylvester well and recognisably drawn and Thomas/Sylvester's facial expressions are expressively done. Carl Stalling's music not only is orchestrated beautifully but rhythmically it bursts with character and it gives great energy to the action. It's not just it sounding nice and that it's action-enhancing but also how well it accompanies the gestures and expressions of the characters and even the sound effects too. The dialogue is sharp and the gags while not surprising are made funny, in some instances hilarious(especially the one with Thomas/Sylvester trying to fly up to the cage via an electric fan), by the interactions between the duo and Thomas/Sylvester's facial expressions. Which like with Wile E. Coyote induces some of the laughs on their own, I don't think the fireplace gag would have worked quite so well without his reaction to that he was burning. Tweetie Pie is violent but actually not in a sadistic or bizarre way that it churns the stomach like the Gene Deitch Tom and Jerry cartoons did. Tweety has the cute- but not too sickly sweet- persona that he is now famous for but he also has shades of the anarchic personality that was given to him in the Bob Clampett outings. But Thomas/Sylvester makes the biggest impression, not just because he has the funniest moments but you also root for him, and this is in general not just here. He may have a different name and be fatter but the voice and the catchphrase are unmistakable. The two work great together and as aforementioned at the beginning of the review their chemistry makes sense, plus as usual Mel Blanc voices superbly. All in all, a great debut for this bird and mouse duo, one of their best if not their very best. 9/10 Bethany Cox
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