Gift Wrapped

"Gift Wrapped" a 52 short from "Looney Tunes" is one memorable and well done Christmas cartoon. It's set on Christmas morning as Sylvester the cat awakes to be disappointed at his present so he wants to move in and take granny's present which is that cute pretty yellow little flying bird "Tweety". In typical fashion the chase and fun clever gags begin it's a trio triangle effect Sylvester after Tweety, then Bulldog is after Sylvester, only the subplot and wild card is sweet old smart Granny is around to keep peace and joy on Christmas. The scenes go in with Christmas of the tree and the singing only in the end Tweety is comfortable and right at home with Granny and singing carols as the Bulldog and Sylvester are wrapped with their voices put to rest! Well done Christmas cartoon that's fun and memorable!

Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Sylvester gets up on Christmas Day and is eager to unwrap his gifts. He is disappointed with his rubber mouse gift. There is Tweety Bird in a wrapped cage with a label for Granny. Sylvester switches the label and attempts to eat Tweety.

This is a solid Tweety and Sylvester and Granny short. On top of that, this is a solid Christmas short. On top on top of that, I absolutely love Granny smacking their butts like a ketchup bottle. That is always hilarious to me. This is a good short in many ways.

. . . being swallowed by a slightly larger finned friend, which in turn is gobbled up by a yet more formidable sea creature, and so forth. GIFT WRAPPED trots out this tried and true formula, switching the interminable sequence of fish to multiple montages of a feathered being getting et up by a feline who is then consumed by a bulldog. This whole sequence of events may give young tater tots misconceptions about the basics of food consumption. On the other hand, GIFT WRAPPED is more likely than not to push an impressionable urchin into the Vegetarian Camp just in time to refuse their helpings of Christmas goose and mincemeat pie.

OK, since "Gift Wrapped" is set around Christmas, we can safely assume that Granny and Tweety are being good, while Sylvester and the dog - presumably named Hector - are being naughty. The main humor here is seeing how Sylvester uses the presents to go after Tweety...and when the dog appears unexpectedly (come to think of it, I could occasionally guess when he was going to appear). Everyone likes to use Christmas as the setting for something unusual (or would all this count as usual?); "Gremlins" did a really neat job with that.

I figure that the cartoon mainly functions as a place holder in between the really great cartoons (1952 also saw "Operation: Rabbit"). So this is an OK, not great addition to the pantheon of Sylvester/Tweety cartoons. Passable.

This is another winner from the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two, with fantastic artwork that captures the colorful Christmas setting magnificently.

We open with a beautiful depiction of an old house under a snowfall. It's "the night before Christmas and all through the night...."

Sylvester interrupts the calm narrative voice and spits out "oh, goody, Santy Clause has been here and I've been a good pussycat" as he admires all the gifts under the tree. He opens one of them and discovers a rubber mouse, which doesn't exactly thrill him. In seconds, he hears a bird singing "Jingle Bells." It's Tweety in his cage, gift-wrapped "to Granny." Sylvester switches tags and puts "to kitty" on the birdcage instead.

Suffice to say, without spoiling anything, Sylvester is not in Christmas spirit, only wanting to eat Tweety, and when a big bulldog jumps out of another present and eats Sylvester, Granny has to keep on top of things or there will be nothing left of either Tweety or Sylvester.

Granny sums it up best: "Land sakes alive: what a house!"