''Tree Cornered Tweety'' is a 1956

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 ...

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

. The short was released on May 19, 1956, 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 ...

. The title is a play on "three-cornered hat". The voices were 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 ...

. It is one of a few Sylvester and Tweety shorts wherein Tweety does not directly influence the outcome. The cartoon is a parody of '' Dragnet'', with Tweety narrating the short in the style of

Joe Friday Joe Friday is a fictional character created and portrayed by Jack Webb as the lead for his series '' Dragnet''. Friday is a detective in the Los Angeles Police Department. The character first appeared on June 3, 1949, in the premiere of the NB ...

Plot

Tweety narrates his daily activities as he is spotted, then chased by Sylvester. Utilizing a

Jack Webb John Randolph Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982) was an American actor, television producer, Television director, director, and screenwriter, most famous for his role as Joe Friday in the Dragnet (franchise), ''Dragnet'' franchise ...

impression, Tweety delivers his signature "I tawt I taw a puddy tat" line (adding the line "I checked" in the middle of it), then describes his adversary in detail: "A bwack puddy tat, wed nose, white chest. Name...'Tilvester." Tweety describes Sylvester's attempts, as follows: * The opening scene, where Sylvester simply crosses the street and walks up the stairs to the room Tweety is located in. An unseen woman roars "Go away! You alley cat! You hooligan! You troublemaker!" and throws plates at him. Sylvester scurries down the stairs and out of the building. * Subsequently, Sylvester builds a makeshift bridge of wooden planks to get to the building across the way where Tweety is housed. The bridge collapses as the nails come loose at the base, due to the cat's weight and its poor construction. * Syvlester then uses a swing to get to Tweety's apartment, but smashes into a telephone pole. * Sylvester's fourth attempt involves the use of a pilot's ejector seat to get at the high story window where Tweety is, but it hurls him straight through overhead wires, splitting the cat into several lengthwise pieces. * Tweety feeds with the pigeons at the city

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

. Sylvester stops by and chases his prey into an

automat An automat is a type of fast-food restaurant where food and drink are served through a vending machine, typically without waitstaff. The world's first automat, Quisisana, opened in Berlin, Germany in 1895. By country Germany The first docu ...

. Tweety takes refuge behind a

window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent ma ...

(conveniently labeled "Tweety Pie," right next to the

lemon The lemon (''Citrus'' × ''limon'') is a species of small evergreen tree in the ''Citrus'' genus of the flowering plant family Rutaceae. A true lemon is a hybrid of the citron and the bitter orange. Its origins are uncertain, but some ...

pie A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), fruit preserves ( jam tart ...

). Sylvester inserts a nickel into the slot, opens the door, and gets a spring-loaded pie thrown into his face. * Following a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

blizzard, Tweety puts spoons on his feet (as snowshoes) to search for food. Sylvester comes after him on skis, and it appears the speedy cat will catch his dinner...until he crashes into a

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

. * Tweety hides in a treetop in a mine field. Sylvester uses a

metal detector A metal detector is an instrument that detects the nearby presence of metal. Metal detectors are useful for finding metal objects on the surface, underground, and under water. A metal detector consists of a control box, an adjustable shaft, and ...

to try to avoid the mines, but Tweety throws a

magnet A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel, ...

at the cat, which draws all the mines at him and results in an explosion. * A chase on a high wooden

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, where Tweety hides beneath the deck, out of the cat's reach. A determined Sylvester saws a hole in the center of the bridge, but does not realize he is standing in the middle of the portion he is sawing off until well after he has begun his plummet to the

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

below. Unseen by his predator, Tweety steps out of his way. A

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

-accented man in a

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

ing

boat A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size or capacity, its shape, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically used on inland waterways s ...

spots the falling

projectile A projectile is an object that is propelled by the application of an external force and then moves freely under the influence of gravity and air resistance. Although any objects in motion through space are projectiles, they are commonly found ...

headed

straight Straight may refer to: Slang * Straight, slang for heterosexual ** Straight-acting, normal person * Straight, a member of the straight edge subculture Sport and games * Straight, an alternative name for the cross, a type of punch in boxing * Str ...

for him and takes note of the situation, using Tweety's catchphrase: "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!" Sylvester plunges straight through the boat's hull, causing the

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

, the man and his boat to sink ("I did! I did! I did..." the man states, bubbling the last line "...taw a puddy tat!" as he sinks below the surface to end the cartoon).

References

External links

*
Nuance and Suggestion in the Tweety and Sylvester Series
- Written by Kevin McCorry {{Dragnet Merrie Melodies short films Short films directed by Friz Freleng 1950s parody films Films scored by Milt Franklyn 1950s Warner Bros. animated short films Tweety films Sylvester the Cat films Films produced by Edward Selzer 1950s English-language films American animated short films Films with screenplays by Warren Foster English-language short films 1956 animated short films