Sylvester and Tweety

62 years ago today, two of the most beloved animated characters co-starred in their first picture together in "Tweety Pie" This synopsis is taken from page 174/175 of "Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies - A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Brothers Cartoons" by Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald.

As I told you back on March 24, Sylvester made his screen debut in "Life with Feathers" in 1945.

Tweety had made his debut as an unnamed character in "A Tale of Two Kitties" on November 21, 1942 (6:38). The little birdie was featherless and a little harsher in character but the mannerisms and phrasing is most definitely Tweety! He was pursued by two cats named Babbit and Castello (a takeoff on Abbot and Costello). His second feature was "Birdy and The Beast" which was released on August 19, 1944 (7:25) also features a featherless and nameless bird. The unnamed cat could easily be a close relative of Sylvester. "A Gruesome Twosome" (June 9, 1945) was his last cartoon without feathers and also the last before he is permanently paired with Sylvester.

Together the two starred in over 40 animated shorts:
Tweety Pie (1947)
I Taw A Puddy Tat (1948)
Bad Ol' Ouddy Tat (1949)
Home Tweet Home (1950)
All Abir-r-r-d! (1950)
Canary Row (1950)
Putty Tat Trouble (1951)
Room and Bird (1951)
Tweety's S.O.S. (1951)
Tweet Tweet Tweety (1951)
Gift Wrapped (1952)
Ain't She Tweet (1952)
Bird in a Guilty Cage (1952)
Snow Business (1953)
Fowl Weather (1953)
Tom Tom Tomcat (1953)
A Street Cat Named Sylvester (1953)
Catty Cornered (1953)
Dog Pounded (1954)
Muzzle Tough (1954)
Satan's Waitin' (1954)
Sandy Claws (1955)
Tweety's Circus (1955)
Red Riding Hoodwinked (1955)
Tweet and Sour (1956)
Tree Cornered Tweety (1956)
Tugboat Granny (1956)
Tweet Zoo (1957)
Tweety and the Beanstalk (1957)
Birds Anonymous (1957)
Greedy For Tweety (1957)
A Pizza Tweety Pie (1958)
A Bird in a Bonnet (1958)
Trick or Tweet (1959)
Tweet and Lovely (1959)
Tweet Dreams (1959)
Hyde and Go Tweet (1960)
Trip For Tat (1960)
Rebel Without Claws (1961)
The Last Hungry Cat (1961, spoof of Alfred Hitchcock Presents)
The Jet Cage (1962)
Hawaiian Aye Aye (1964)
Carrotblanca (1995)

Sylvester and Tweety also made cameo appearances in several Looney Tunes retrospectives and specials, as well as on the big screen in movies like: "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", "Space Jam" and "Looney Tunes: Back in Action"

They also costarred in the Warner Brothers cartoon series called "The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries" which ran for 53 episodes from September 9, 1995 – December 13, 2002. In this series, Granny was a renowned detective who traveled around the world with Sylvester, Tweety and a bulldog named Hector who helped her solve cases when they weren't getting into mischief! Although it was not quite as witty as the original cartoons, there was a still a lot of great rapport and topical references mixed in with the humour.

I came across this video on YouTube called "The Sylvester and Tweety Song". The creator goes by the name of toocute4you2 and obviously spent a lot of time adding just the right pictures to the song. I don't know for sure when the song was originally recorded and could not verify if the voice is that of Mel Blanc, but I have my doubts. The Sylvester is fairly close, but the Tweety doesn't quite sound like the way Mel Blanc would do it. Even so, it is a very cute little ditty and a very fitting tribute to this lovable duo!



Happy Anniversary Sylvester and Tweety!

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