The Jet Cage

...Not so much because of anything going on in the short itself, but because of what was going on behind the scenes. As you may know, composer Milt Franklyn died while scoring this short, and an uncredited Bill Lava had to step in to finish the remaining three and a half minutes. Franklyn is one of my favorite cartoon composers, so it's a shame that we never got to hear how he might have filled out the rest of the short. Instead, we have to listen to the unpleasant dings and dissonant "melodies" of Lava's work, which sharply contrasts with Franklyn's pleasing compositions in the first couple minutes. It's like he didn't even try to imitate Franklyn.

That trivia aside, it's kinda mediocre anyway, with few standout gags (only exception being Tweety tricking Sylvester into letting go of his flying handles). But a good score might have elevated the proceedings, which Franklyn had a great talent for. Unfortunately, Lava just made an OK cartoon worse.

The Jet Cage is one of the last Sylvester & Tweety shorts from the classic era of Looney Tunes. It is the final one directed by Friz Freleng, who directed more of their adventures together than anybody. It's also the short composer Milt Franklyn was working on when he died. Franklyn, along with Carl Stalling, was an unsung hero who helped make Looney Tunes cartoons so good with quality scores befitting a theatrically-released short. To finish out this cartoon, WB turned to Bill Lava. The less said about his work the better but you can watch this and compare the contrasting styles of old & new.

The short itself is nothing special with a story that's a little dumb, to be honest. Tweety laments being able to go outside and fly around with the other birds while Sylvester hungrily peers in from the window, waiting for his umpteenth chance to eat the little bird. Granny reads in the paper about a jet-powered bird cage that allows birds to fly around outside safely (see what I mean about dumb). So with his new bird cage (purchased at a cost of $12.95), Tweety zooms around like an airplane and Sylvester fails repeatedly to catch him. The gags aren't that funny but Mel Blanc does great voice work, as usual. The animation is colorful and bright with some nicely-drawn backgrounds. I disagree with another reviewer who says this is the worst Sylvester & Tweety short but I do think it is near the bottom. The series would end after one more lackluster effort, made two years after this.

The Looney Tunes are one of those great series that from a child you will like until your death, The Merrie Melodies and the Looney Tunes are a great series, more than 1000 animated shorts and all of them are enjoyable, well, actually not all of them, but here the main criticism is the Music.

Milt Franklin died of a Heart Attack in the Production of the short, so obviously his musical score was left unfinished, Bill Lava who would later work on the Pink Panther cartoons, makes a pretty bad replacement If you ask me, after the scene where Sylvester climbs a tree is when the music changes to Bill Lava's, Milt Franklin had given it a mildly amusing aura with his fantastic music, but Bill Lava throws all that away. Including Bizarre music that more than being funny, it's scary.

The Cartoon was Produced in the last year of the good Looney Tunes cartoons, after 1962 the quality fell downhill and everything is due to several bad decisions that I will explain in another review, here the first drop in quality occurs, the Music of Bill Lava is an Unforgivable Degradation of Franklin's Music, Lava composes music with a more tense and somber aura that ends up giving chills, but it's not as bad as some say.

Animation is mediocre, although Slightly better at best than in later years, Backgrounds don't draw too much attention, Character Designs are decent and resemble the Originals but Colors are Simple and look somewhat forced, although in general, the Animation is not so bad.

Voice Acting is unaffected, Mel Blanc and June Foray as always offer Decent performances in the best case, although in reality the voice acting does not affect too much in the short.

This is a mediocre short in General, not as bad as those that would follow in the following years but it shows how the quality was going lower and lower, the animation looks out of place with monotone colors and simple backgrounds, the Music leaves a lot to be desired, it has a gloomy and out of place atmosphere, Lava really was not for this type of cartoons, in that case he would have preferred Dean Elliot, or at least Eugene Poddany as Composer, but what can be done.

In itself, a rather weak Cartoon of one of the Best duos of all time, the Music and the Animation are too badly synchronized that makes the Cartoon shiver, I do not like the slow start that the short has, it lasts 6 minutes, but the first 3 are from Tweety Using his Flying Cage, Sylvester is not interesting and he is only as a villain, basically this short is not among the best but not among the worst either, I would dare to say that this is not the short that started the Fall of Quality of the Looney Tunes, but if one of the First to show drops in quality.

For everything I said before, this short gets a 6.

It is a shame, because to me their cartoons generally were very enjoyable(though of course with some better than others) and I've never minded Tweety.

The Jet Cage is certainly not all bad. Milt Franklyn scored half of the cartoon before his sudden death and his contribution while nowhere near his best work, his music has been livelier rhythmically before, is lovely, his scoring is beautifully and vibrantly orchestrated and meshes well with the action. The gag with Tweety tricking Sylvester into letting go of the flaps is well-timed and quite funny, and there are two good lines, that of the crow and Sylvester's final line. June Foray also does a great job as Granny, despite not having very much. And The Jet Cage does try to do something different conceptually, the basic story itself is rather tired and formulaic but the idea is unlike anything else we've seen with Sylvester and Tweety before and it does boast some imagination.

Bill Lava's music contribution, which can be heard for the last two and a half minutes, is a real disappointment. Whereas Franklyn's music was melodious and quirky Lava's is rather lifeless and discordant and these two completely different styles of composition have a really jarring and quite ugly effect. The animation is also not particularly great, some colours are nice but others look a little flat and the drawing looks rough and really lacking in smoothness, like with Granny's character design here. Although the concept was great and occasionally imaginative, it wasn't enough to stop the cartoon from feeling rather tired and predictable(both story and pacing), while outside of two lines and the letting-go-of-the-flaps gag the humour wasn't all that memorable or funny and would have benefited from some sharper timing. The characters have also been much better written, Sylvester has been funnier and more interesting but he does at least try to inject some energy while Tweety is just a plot device with no standout material and Granny is wasted. Even Mel Blanc, one of the greatest voice artists of all time, sounded off, not sounding as if his heart was properly in it(he actually sounded really disengaged as Tweety) and his voice sounded oddly deeper, which was odd considering how consistently he voiced Sylvester and Tweety for 15 years up to that point.

Overall, rather lacklustre and possibly Sylvester and Tweety at their weakest(before seeing this least favourite was Tom Tom Tomcat). 4/10 Bethany Cox

This Is One Of My Favorite Tweety Cartoon where Granny Is Ordering a Flying Bird Cage For Tweety Bird To Fly Around In His Backyard without Leaving His Cage after Sylvester Sees Tweety Bird from a Window. Then Tweety Bird Gets His Crash Helmet On And Despite Braking the Chandelier But Tweety Asking The Bad Ol Putty Tat How Do You Like My New Cage Then Takes Off Sylvester Climbs up the Tree With a Butterfly Net Trying To Catch That Canary Then Sylvester Bumps into The Phone Pole. When Tweety Goes Back Down and Gets The Instructions Sylvester Sneaks In To The Flying Bird Cage To Catch Tweety Then The Flying Bird Cage Drops Sylvester.