''Catty Cornered'' is a 1953

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animation, animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 197 ...

'' cartoon directed by

Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng (August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, director, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and '' ...

. The short was released on October 31, 1953, and stars

Tweety Tweety is a yellow canary in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of animated cartoons. The name "Tweety" is a play on words, as it originally meant "sweetie", along with "tweet" being an English onomatopoeia for th ...

and Sylvester. It features a forerunner of the

Rocky and Mugsy The '' Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of animated shorts released by Warner Bros. feature a range of characters which are listed and briefly detailed here. Major characters from the franchise include Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer ...

duo.

Plot

Tweety, who is a rare and valuable bird, has been captured and held for ransom by a duo of criminals: Rocky and his assistant Nick. Sylvester, who is interested only in finding food to eat, makes a number of attempts to steal Tweety: *Sylvester climbs up the fire escape, then edges along a ledge to the apartment. Rocky sees him and places a banana peel on the ledge, causing Sylvester to slip and fall off. *Sylvester climbs up the main stairs. Tweety escapes and meets Sylvester on the landing. Tweety refuses Sylvester's offer to use his mouth as a hiding place (the cat tried to eat him; "Not so hard!"). Sylvester instead hides Tweety under a can just as the criminals arrive. Nick takes Sylvester inside for searching, while Rocky removes Tweety from under the can and replaces the bird with a

firecracker A firecracker (cracker, noise maker, banger) is a small explosive device primarily designed to produce a large amount of noise, especially in the form of a loud bang, usually for celebration or entertainment; any visual effect is incidental t ...

. Sylvester escapes with the can, unaware of the firecracker, and is injured when it explodes. *Sylvester hoists himself up using a pulley on a building site. He grabs Tweety and escapes, but the steel plate on the end of the pulley falls back down and lands on him. Sylvester then gains access using a

dumbwaiter A dumbwaiter is a small freight elevator or lift intended to carry food. Dumbwaiters found within modern structures, including both commercial, public and private buildings, are often connected between multiple floors. When installed in restaur ...

. At the same time, police surround the building. Nick hides Tweety in the dumbwaiter, unaware that Sylvester is in there. Rocky is arrested (and likely Nick too). Sylvester escapes from the apartment block with Tweety and is quickly hailed as a hero by the press, who are unaware that he was only interested in eating the bird. Sylvester is forced to attend a celebration in which the mayor requests Sylvester to kiss Tweety, but he eats him, only to get forced to spit Tweety out by the mayor. Tweety ended the cartoon with "Oooh, he's a bad putty tat". Note: One of the broadcast stations at the celebration was

KFWB KFWB (980 AM) is a commercial radio station in Los Angeles, California. It airs a classic Regional Mexican music format. KFWB is owned by Lotus Communications. The station has a colorful history, being the radio voice of Warner Bros. Studios i ...

Cast

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908July 10, 1989) was an American voice actor and radio personality whose career spanned over 60 years. During the Golden Age of Radio, he provided character voices and vocal sound effects for comedy ra ...

, Sylvester, Rocky, Nick, Paperboy, News Reporter, Police Officer, Photographer and Mayor. * Ralph James as Narrator.

Clip reusage

Part of this cartoon was edited into '' Friz Freleng's Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie''. With new animation with Bugs Bunny giving Sylvester a badge.

References

External links

* * Merrie Melodies short films Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films 1953 animated films Short films directed by Friz Freleng 1953 short films Animated films about cats Animated films about birds Films scored by Carl Stalling 1950s Warner Bros. animated short films Tweety films Sylvester the Cat films 1950s English-language films American animated short films Rocky and Mugsy films {{MerrieMelodies-stub