Putty Tat Trouble

I wonder why Sylvester doesn't just give up on trying to get Tweety. Clearly that bird has a bad-ass streak. But Sylvester keeps going after him, and in "Putty Tat Trouble" has to vie with an unidentified orange tabby around Christmas. Needless to say, their attempts have rather detrimental results (to them, that is).

I agree with a previous reviewer that Sylvester and the other cat could have just made a deal to divide up Tweety equally. But it appears that they're both really greedy (these toons have a real problem with that, don't they?). And anyway, their misfortunes are their own fault for trying to harm someone else.

So, it's not the best Sylvester-Tweety cartoon, but still worth seeing.

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.

Putty Tat Trouble (1951)

*** (out of 4)

It's Christmas time and Tweety is out shoveling the snow from his nest when Sylvester and another cat spot him. The two cats go full battle to try and get Tweety but he's much smarter than them. I'm not a huge fan of the Sylvester/Tweety cartoons but this one here is pretty good because for the most part the two cats are fighting each other while the bird stays pretty safe. The cuteness of Tweety is certainly on full display as is his other side, which is perfectly shown during a scene where the two cats are on a frozen pond. There are some nice laughs throughout as well as some good action so fans of the two will certainly be entertained.

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.

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