The Jet Cage

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

...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.

Sensing her little Tweety Pie longs to fly with the other birds, Granny buys a jet cage that allows Tweety to fly inside his new cage. Seeing his prey out of the house for the first time in ages, Sylvester plots to capture the bird for his supper –even if it means taking to the sky to get him.

From director Freleng I had reasonable hopes for this film and it did well to take the time honoured battle between Tweety and Sylvester and make it still feel quite fresh and funny. Tweety Pie is not my favourite character but I still enjoyed this short. It had touches of imagination and the basic jokes were delivered in such a way that I still was amused by them.

Minor characters deliver the odd line and the end result is the same old material, altered slightly by the plot device of the flying cage. If you like the material then you'll like this short. I'm not a big fan but still found enough to laugh about and enjoy.

Overall, yet another amusing entry in the series, this time altered by another different plot device. Fun but not anything you haven't seen before.

Lackluster entry in the Tweety-Sylvester series has Tweety given flight by using a jet-propelled bird cage that Granny has bought for him. The jokes don't seem to work very well here, as Sylvester's largely silent performance makes this more of a Road-Runner movie. Mel Blanc's voicing seems off here, more of a high-pitched cross between Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny than Tweety's usual innocent malignity, and Sylvester sounds a lot drier than usual.

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.