Putty Tat Trouble

In the large Looney Tunes canon of some of the greatest cartoons ever made, the Tweety and Sylvester entries give them even further solidity by being one of their most popular series and never letting the audience down with a below par effort. Most, including this one in particular, have an elegance enhanced by the music of Carl Stalling. Many of the gags are of the two putty tats competing against one another to be the one to catch Tweety, but when the action comes out of the cold outdoors to the scene in the basement of one of the apartment buildings, we have one of those transcendental moments of pure Looney Tunes genius when the little yellow bird meets another little yellow bird perched on a glass of water.

I hate Tweety. I hate his stupid head, his stupid eyes, his stupid voice and that whole androgynous thing he has going on. At one point in this cartoon Sylvester even gets him in his mouth but doesn't swallow. Why? I want Tweety to be digested and never seen again!

The story in this one is the rivalry between Sylvester and another, uglier, cat out for Tweety's blood. As they are constantly working against each other the annoying bird always gets away. If they just cooperated they might have put and end to his irritating catchphrase once and for all.

The Xmas theme gives it a cheery holiday feel though.

Tweety is outside, shoveling the snow out of his bird's nest, mumbling that he shouldn't have wished for a white Christmas. In one building, Sylvester cleans off the window and spots Tweety while in an adjacent building, another cat - an unnamed orange feline - does the same. They both pound on the doors to have their respective owners let them out.

They race from opposite directions and arrive at Tweety's nest at the same time. From that point on, it's a battle to see who gets the bird. A short time later, the orange tabby thinks he won, but swallows a mechanical dunking yellow bird by mistake. That scene might have been the funniest.

Tweety looks like a goner a few times but always seems to come out unscathed while the two cats beat the crap out of each other.

In all, nothing super but entertaining and a nice DVD transfer. The colors are bold and the picture sharp.

I'm not the biggest fan of Friz Freleng's generally quite repetitive Tweety and Sylvester series of cartoons but 'Putty Tat Trouble' is definitely an exception. This is partially due to the fact that this short was regularly shown at Christmas and is therefore linked to some warm and cosy memories of childhood but it's also because 'Putty Tat Trouble' is undoubtedly one of the best Tweety and Sylvester cartoons. It is the presence of a scraggy orange cat as a rival for Sylvester that really gives 'Putty Tat Trouble' a shot in the arm. Rather than just having a bulldog occasionally wander in and clobber him, Sylvester is pitted against an equal force in terms of brains and brawn. This sets in motion a high speed pursuit/tug of war that continues throughout the whole cartoon which makes for a pacier experience than the usual pattern of blackout gags. For the most part, Tweety is little more than a baton being passed from cat to cat, a motive to trigger off a brutal war between the two felines. With its attractive snowy scenery and speedy narrative, 'Putty Tat Trouble' is a lovely cartoon to look at and the furious pace (which only breaks for a cutesy conversation between Tweety and a toy drinking bird) means that any weak or predictable gags aren't so problematic because we move so quickly onto the next one. 'Putty Tat Trouble' improves upon a rapidly wearing formula simply by throwing in an extra antagonist, a decision which results in a fast-moving, exciting and funny cartoon

Putty Tat Trouble may have a formulaic story with an ending that doesn't come too much of a surprise, if you are familiar with the formula of the Sylvester/Tweety series there's not much new here. But in all honesty most of their cartoons are on the formulaic side anyway. That said, Putty Tat Trouble is great stuff and among their better cartoons. The bold and colourful animation with fluid detail aplenty is a definite thing to like as well as Carl Stalling's characterful and lively music score that not only is orchestrated so lushly but accentuates the action so well. Putty Tat Trouble has dialogue that will make you laugh and put you in a good line, Tweety's rather cutesy conversation with the mechanical bird being the only lull, the action is violent without being sadistic and exciting and the gags, especially the orange cat mistaking the mechanical yellow bird for Tweety and Sylvester and the orange cat literally bashing each other over the heads fighting over Tweety(doing so repeatedly but in different ways that are inventive and funny, no repetition whatsoever). The story is relentlessly energetic and for there is a festive feel and a real sense of the holiday season even amid the humour and manic mayhem. Tweety shows both his cute and anarchic sides and is not annoying at all(unlike some people I never had a problem with him) but the best moments are between the two cats, who are more interesting characters and have meatier material(that is true generally with Sylvester in his cartoons with Tweety), at the end you do feel sympathy for them. Mel Blanc as ever provides stellar vocals. All in all, lots of fun and among the better entries of a mostly entertaining if routine series of cartoons. 9/10 Bethany Cox