''Tom Tom Tomcat'' 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 ...
''
animated short
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...
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 June 27, 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.
Plot
In the
Wild West
The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...
, Granny and Tweety are riding through the desert in their wagon and singing "
Oh! Susanna
"Oh! Susanna" is a minstrel song by Stephen Foster (1826–1864), first published in 1848. It is among the most popular American songs ever written. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all tim ...
", when they are ambushed by a large group of
"puddy tats" as
Indians (many of whom appear to be clones of Sylvester). They flee to a deserted fort, where Granny begins to shoot them down while Tweety counts ("
Ten Little Indians
"Ten Little Indians" is a traditional American children's counting out rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 12976. The term "Indians" in this sense refers to Indigenous North American peoples.
In 1868, songwriter Septimus Winner adapt ...
"). The tenth one nearly takes Tweety, but is struck down by Granny just in time.
More attempts include an archer and a battering ram, both foiled. One archer almost drags Tweety out again ("Granny! Help! A
Mohican
The Mohican ( or , alternate spelling: Mahican) are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe that historically spoke an Algonquian language. As part of the Eastern Algonquian family of tribes, they are related to the neighboring Lenape, who ...
got me!") but Granny surprises him with a
bomb
A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the Exothermic process, exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-t ...
instead. The cats' attempts continue like this, all of them backfiring or being foiled; usually the cats are blown up or shot. In one instance, Chief Rain-In-The-P-P-Puss orders the actual Sylvester to sneak into the fort; Sylvester emerges later with the top of his head having been scalped off by Granny ("Ya got any more bright ideas?").
Finally, Granny and Tweety disguise themselves as a fellow Indian, and lead the cats into the powder house. When one asks for a match, they kindly oblige, and the powder house explodes, causing all the cats to erupt into the sky and then fall. "Oh my goodness," Tweety comments, "it's raining putty cats!"
See also
*
List of cartoons featuring Sylvester
This is a list of cartoons featuring the Warner Bros. cartoon character Sylvester.
Original shorts 1945
* '' Life with Feathers'' (3/24/1945, MM) - First appearance of Sylvester; directed by Friz Freleng
* '' Peck Up Your Troubles'' (10/2 ...
References
External links
*
1953 films
1953 short films
1953 comedy films
1953 animated films
1950s Western (genre) comedy films
1950s Warner Bros. animated short films
Merrie Melodies short films
Sylvester the Cat films
Tweety films
Animated films about birds
Films about Native Americans
Films set in 1890
Short films directed by Friz Freleng
Films scored by Carl Stalling
Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films
1950s English-language films
Films set in deserts
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