''Bad Ol' Putty Tat'' is a 1949

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was part of the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise and featured many of the same characters. Originally running from August 2, 1931, to Septem ...

animated cartoon Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

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, Film director, director, Film producer, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons ...

. The short was released on July 23, 1949, and stars

Tweety Tweety is an animated character, a yellow canary bird in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of animated cartoons. His characteristics are based on Red Skelton's famous "Junior the Mean Widdle Kid". He appeared in ...

and

Sylvester Sylvester or Silvester is a name derived from the Latin adjective ''silvestris'' meaning "wooded" or "wild", which derives from the noun ''silva'' meaning "woodland". Classical Latin spells this with ''i''. In Classical Latin, ''y'' represented a ...

. Tweety must evade the titular "puddy tat," Sylvester, who is once again in hot pursuit of Tweety, just so that he can eat him for his own personal snack. It provides an anomaly in the Sylvester & Tweety pairings: In this one, Tweety provides almost all the dialogue, and then mainly to the audience. Tweety's voice is performed by

Mel Blanc Melvin Jerome Blanc (born Blank ; May 30, 1908 – July 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 come ...

, who also screams out Sylvester's pain in mid-film. The story was written by

Tedd Pierce Edward Stacey "Tedd" Pierce III (August 12, 1906 – February 19, 1972) was an American screenwriter and voice actor of animated cartoons, principally from the mid-1930s to the late 1950s. Biography Pierce was the son of a stockbroker, Samuel ...

; he and fellow Warner Bros. cartoon writer

Michael Maltese Michael Maltese (February 6, 1908 – February 22, 1981) was an American screenwriter and storyboard artist for classic animated cartoon shorts. He is best known for working in the 1950s on a series of '' Merrie Melodies'' cartoons with director ...

appear in caricature form as a pair of badminton players.

Plot

The film begins with a shot of Tweety's house, at the top of a tall wooden pole, with a

Do not disturb sign A door hanger (also spelled ''doorhanger'' or ''door-hanger'') is a plastic or cardboard sign, generally rectangular in shape, cut to hang from the handle or knob of a door. They are sometimes used to distribute print advertising to residences. ...

. There is barbed wire wound around the pole and, on the ground at the bottom, a barbed wire damaged Sylvester, glaring angrily back up at Tweety's house following his off-camera failed attempt to get at Tweety leading to his current injured appearance. Sylvester builds a trampoline and launches himself to the entrance of the birdhouse; Tweety fights back with various weapons and, ultimately, a stick of dynamite. Next, Sylvester begins sawing the pole. To escape, Tweety pins himself to a clothesline and begins sliding down it; at the last minute, he sees the cat with the end of the line tied to his tooth and his mouth open, awaiting Tweety. When the line collapses, Sylvester sees the bird has attached the other end to a firework, which he lights and launches, taking Sylvester's teeth with it. Sylvester paints his finger to look like a female Tweety. At first, this works, but Tweety discovers the ploy and switches hats with "her". This results in Sylvester chomping down on his finger. Tweety accidentally becomes the badminton birdie in a spontaneous match. The cat manages to take one player's place and, again, awaits the bird with his mouth open. Tweety drops a stick of dynamite, which travels right into Sylvester's stomach. He rushes to a water cooler and, as he's drinking in order to put out the fire, the explosion pilots him into the cooler. Finally, he builds a new birdhouse, puts it over his head (the entrance being located at mouth-level) and climbs to the top of a pole, hoping to attract Tweety inside. Tweety, having frightened himself with thoughts of Sylvester, does fly into the cat's mouth. Instead of being digested, he takes manual control of Sylvester, turning him into a train which crashes into a brick wall. Tweety then says

fourth wall The fourth wall is a performance dramatic convention, convention in which an invisible, imaginary wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this "wall", the convention assumes the actors act as if they cannot. ...

, "You know, I woes no puddy tats that way?" and smiles.

Home media

''Bad Ol' Putty Tat'' is available on the '' Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bad Ol' Putty Tat 1949 films 1949 animated short films 1940s American films 1940s English-language films 1940s Warner Bros. animated short films American animated short films American comedy short films English-language short films Films scored by Carl Stalling Merrie Melodies short films Short films directed by Friz Freleng Sylvester the Cat films Tweety films Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films