''Tweet Zoo'' is a 1957

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 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 '' ...

. Originally released on May 29, 1957 (before being re-issued on May 26, 1962), this short 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 the Cat Sylvester Pussycat, Sr. is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic tuxedo cat in the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. Most of his appearances have him often chasing Tweety, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper. He appea ...

. Audio from this cartoon was sampled by

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

on the song "Check My Machine", released in 1980 as the B-side to the single "

Waterfalls A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

Plot

The cartoon, set in a city

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for Conservation biology, conservation purposes. The term ''zoological g ...

, begins with a tour guide showing various animal exhibits to visitors. The final stop (at least as far as viewers can see) is the exhibit featuring the "one and only example" of the Tweety Bird species. This draws tag-along tourist Sylvester's interest and becomes separated from the group. After the requisite "I tawt I taw a puddy tat" lines, Sylvester begins his latest pursuit. The attempts, all unsuccessful, are as follows: * Tweety taking refuge in the

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

pit. Sylvester uses a net to try to capture the bird, but as the shifty Tweety dodges the net, the cat hits a bear with the net. The bear grabs the net, pulls Sylvester in and expresses his displeasure. * At feeding time, Sylvester hides in the zookeeper's meat cart. Hoping to get "fed" to Tweety, he instead is thrown to a pack of

Bengal tigers The Bengal tiger is a population of the ''Panthera tigris tigris'' subspecies. It ranks among the biggest wild cats alive today. It is considered to belong to the world's charismatic megafauna. The tiger is estimated to have been present in ...

. * Tweety hides in a hole inside the

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...

's abode. Sylvester enters in search of his prey, but the elephant immediately covers the hole to protect the bird. After unsuccessfully trying to pry the elephant's leg off the hole, Sylvester kicks the elephant in the knee, stubbing his toes in the process. Sylvester uses a wind-up mouse to frighten the elephant, but instead of simply moving away, the elephant inadvertently jumps and lands on Sylvester, flattening the puss. * Sylvester catches Tweety walking along a bridge, and chases him onto a tree branch overlooking an

alligator An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis''). Additiona ...

pond. While planning how to get in the pond without injury, a

lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...

roars, scaring Sylvester and stopping him from pacing back and forth. Sylvester smashes an oar over the lion's head in anger, using the requisite "Ah, shaddap!". * In a second attempt to navigate the alligator pond, Sylvester uses a rowboat, unaware of his passenger, the lion from earlier has entered. However, he escapes upon discovering the lion. The boat consequently sinks under the lion's weight, and the alligators snap at the lion. Once the lion regains his senses and gets out of the water, he grabs Sylvester and, after letting the gators have another go at the cat, he kicks him back into the bear's pit, where the bear mauls the puddy again. * Sylvester pole-vaults across the alligator pond to grab Tweety, who is hiding in a tree. Instead, the jump is mistimed (Tweety dropped a banana peel) and the cat ends up in the water again, though he manages to fight off the gators with his now-broken pole and escape (for once) unharmed. In the end, a frustrated Sylvester leaves the zoo and strikes

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

off his diet list. In response, a cluster of birds land on his shoulders and head as he is walking away, muttering about his awful timing for going on a diet.

Home media

The short is available on the "Stars Of

Space Jam ''Space Jam'' is a 1996 American live-action/animated sports comedy film directed by Joe Pytka, with animation sequences directed by Bruce W. Smith and Tony Cervone, and written by Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris, and Herschel We ...

: Sylvester and Tweety" VHS

References

External links

* 1957 animated films 1957 short films Merrie Melodies short films Short films directed by Friz Freleng Films scored by Milt Franklyn Films set in zoos 1950s Warner Bros. animated short films 1957 films Animated films about cats Animated films about birds Films produced by Edward Selzer Sylvester the Cat films Tweety films 1950s English-language films {{MerrieMelodies-stub

Plot

Home media

See also

References

External links