I Taw a Putty Tat
Encyclopedia
I Taw a Putty Tat is a 1947 short animated cartoon
, released in 1948, directed by Friz Freleng
. It stars Tweety
and Sylvester
, both voiced by Mel Blanc
. The uncredited voice of the lady of the house (seen only from the neck down, as she talks on the phone) was Bea Benaderet
.
The bird's inability to enunciate certain letters (presumably due to having a beak instead of lips) is the reason for the pronunciation of his famous catch-phrase that forms part of this cartoon's title (as in "I Thought I Saw a Pussy Cat"). This is the first film whose title included Tweety's speech-impaired term for a cat. The "standard" spelling was eventually changed from "putty tat" to "puddy tat".
A series of violent visual gags ensues in which Tweety physically subdues the threatening cat by smoking him up, hitting him on the foot with a mallet, feeding him some alum
and using his uvula as a punching bag. (See illustration)
A couple of racial/ethnic gags are included. Sylvester imitates a Scandinavian-sounding maid, who feigns complaining about having to "clean out de bird cage." He reaches into the covered cage and grabs what he thinks is the bird. The canary whistles at him. The confused cat opens his fist to find a small bomb, which promptly explodes, covering the cat in "blackface" makeup. His voice pattern then changes to something sounding like "Rochester
", and he says, "Uh-oh, back to the kitchen, ah smell somethin' burnin'!" just before passing out.
A more subtle gag with a racist legacy occurs when Tweety, inside the cat's mouth, yells down its gullet. The answer comes back, "There's nobody here but us mice!" This is a variant on an old joke in which a black man is hiding in a henhouse, and when the farmer yells who is there, the would-be chicken thief answers, "Dey's nobody here but us chickens!"
At the climax, Tweety has managed to trap Sylvester inside the birdcage, and has introduced a "wittle puddy dog" (rhymes with "puppy dog"; a not-so-little "pug dog
", an angry bulldog - in his first appearance). Their deadly battle occurs under the wrap the bird has thrown over the cage.
The film ends with the lady of the house calling the pet shop again, this time ordering a new cat, while Tweety lounges in Sylvester's old bed. Overhearing the woman telling the pet shop that the cat will have a nice home here, Tweety reveals the silhouette of a cat now stencilled on the wall, and closes the cartoon with a comment to the camera, "Her don't know me very well, do her?" a variant on one of Red Skelton
's catchphrases by his "Mean Widdle Kid" character from radio.
of a 1943 black and white short film titled Puss N' Booty which was directed by Frank Tashlin
and written by Warren Foster. In this previous version, a generic cat and canary team called Rudolph and Petey were used but the plot along with some gags and story elements were re-used. Puss N' Booty was notable as it was the final black and white cartoon ever released by WB.
After winning the Academy Award for Animated Short Film
in 1947 for Tweetie Pie
, a film which combined for the first time two of the studio's latest animated stars, Tweety Bird and Sylvester
, there was a demand for more short films using the characters. Freleng himself said he could not imagine Tweety working with any other partners than Sylvester (in contrast, Sylvester still had his fair share of cartoons without Tweety).
I Taw a Putty Tat was Freleng's second film teaming the characters and was released less than a year after Tweetie Pie
.
It is noticeable that while this cartoon was directed by Friz Freleng
, the Tweety we see in it is by far closer to the aggressive little bird used in his first few cartoons directed by Bob Clampett
than the more subdued and naive character he would become a few years later as the series progressed.
provided the voice of the housemistress but she did not get credit as with most voice actors at the studio, Mel Blanc
being the exception. Amongst the musical quotation
s in the Carl Stalling
film score
(with or without lyrics accompanying them) are extracts from Singin' in the Bathtub
, She Wa an Acrobat's Daughter and Ain't We Got Fun.
The animators for the cartoon were Ken Champin, Gerry Chiniquy
, Manuel Perez, Virgil Ross, and an uncredited Pete Burness
. Paul Julian
was the background artist, while Hawley Pratt
was the layout artist.
(1975), along with other short films from the 1940s. This feature was later made available on VHS
and Laserdisc
before it was discontinued in 1999.
The short film has also been made available on VHS through two compilations released by MGM/UA and Turner Entertainment
in the 1980s : Little Tweety and Little Inki Cartoon Festival Featuring "I taw a Putty Tat" and Tweety and Sylvester.
The short was part of the Golden Age of Looney Tunes volume 4 Laserdisc set. It also occurs in its entirety in the documentary Bugs Bunny: Superstar
Part 1, which is available as a special feature on Discs 1 and 2 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4
, although it has not been refurbished or released independently in that DVD
series.
The Turner dubbed version (which also has the same edit seen on TV to remove the blackface gag) has been made available as a bonus feature on the DVD release of Romance on the High Seas
.
Prints with this cartoon's original titles exist on Youtube
.
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
, released in 1948, directed by Friz Freleng
Friz Freleng
Isadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros....
. It stars Tweety
Tweety
Tweety Bird is a fictional 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 a typical English onomatopoeia for the sounds of birds...
and Sylvester
Sylvester (Looney Tunes)
Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr., Sylvester the Cat or simply Sylvester, is a fictional character, a three-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic Tuxedo cat in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies repertory, often chasing Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper...
, both voiced by Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...
. The uncredited voice of the lady of the house (seen only from the neck down, as she talks on the phone) was Bea Benaderet
Bea Benaderet
Bea Benaderet was an American actress born in New York City and raised in San Francisco, California. She is best remembered for her wide variety of television work, which included a starring role in the 1960s television series Petticoat Junction and Green Acres as Shady Rest Hotel owner Kate...
.
The bird's inability to enunciate certain letters (presumably due to having a beak instead of lips) is the reason for the pronunciation of his famous catch-phrase that forms part of this cartoon's title (as in "I Thought I Saw a Pussy Cat"). This is the first film whose title included Tweety's speech-impaired term for a cat. The "standard" spelling was eventually changed from "putty tat" to "puddy tat".
Plot
Sylvester awaits the arrival of a new canary after the previous house bird has mysteriously disappeared (one of several such disappearances, according to stencils the cat keeps on a wall hidden by a curtain, confirmed by his "hiccup" of some yellow feathers). Upon the arrival of the bird, Sylvester pretends to play nice in order to abuse and eventually make a meal of the pretending-to-be-naive canary.A series of violent visual gags ensues in which Tweety physically subdues the threatening cat by smoking him up, hitting him on the foot with a mallet, feeding him some alum
Alum
Alum is both a specific chemical compound and a class of chemical compounds. The specific compound is the hydrated potassium aluminium sulfate with the formula KAl2.12H2O. The wider class of compounds known as alums have the related empirical formula, AB2.12H2O.-Chemical properties:Alums are...
and using his uvula as a punching bag. (See illustration)
Eddie Anderson (comedian)
Edmund Lincoln Anderson , also known as Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, was an American comedian and actor. His most famous role was that of Rochester van Jones, valet of Jack Benny, on his radio and television shows.-Early life:Anderson was born in Oakland, California...
", and he says, "Uh-oh, back to the kitchen, ah smell somethin' burnin'!" just before passing out.
A more subtle gag with a racist legacy occurs when Tweety, inside the cat's mouth, yells down its gullet. The answer comes back, "There's nobody here but us mice!" This is a variant on an old joke in which a black man is hiding in a henhouse, and when the farmer yells who is there, the would-be chicken thief answers, "Dey's nobody here but us chickens!"
At the climax, Tweety has managed to trap Sylvester inside the birdcage, and has introduced a "wittle puddy dog" (rhymes with "puppy dog"; a not-so-little "pug dog
Pug
The pug is a "toy" breed of dog with a wrinkly, short-muzzled face, and curled tail. The breed has a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colors, and a compact square body with well-developed muscle. They have been described as multum in parvo , referring to the pug's personality and...
", an angry bulldog - in his first appearance). Their deadly battle occurs under the wrap the bird has thrown over the cage.
The film ends with the lady of the house calling the pet shop again, this time ordering a new cat, while Tweety lounges in Sylvester's old bed. Overhearing the woman telling the pet shop that the cat will have a nice home here, Tweety reveals the silhouette of a cat now stencilled on the wall, and closes the cartoon with a comment to the camera, "Her don't know me very well, do her?" a variant on one of Red Skelton
Red Skelton
Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...
's catchphrases by his "Mean Widdle Kid" character from radio.
History
This cartoon is a color remakeRemake
A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...
of a 1943 black and white short film titled Puss N' Booty which was directed by Frank Tashlin
Frank Tashlin
Frank Tashlin, born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, also known as Tish Tash or Frank Tash was an American animator, screenwriter, and film director.-Animator:...
and written by Warren Foster. In this previous version, a generic cat and canary team called Rudolph and Petey were used but the plot along with some gags and story elements were re-used. Puss N' Booty was notable as it was the final black and white cartoon ever released by WB.
After winning the Academy Award for Animated Short Film
Academy Award for Animated Short Film
The Academy Award for Animated Short Film is an award which has been given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of the Academy Awards every year since the 5th Academy Awards, covering the year 1931-32, to the present....
in 1947 for Tweetie Pie
Tweetie Pie
Tweetie Pie is a 1947 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng and produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, depicting the first pairing of Tweety and Sylvester.When Tweety's creator, director Bob Clampett, left the Warner Bros...
, a film which combined for the first time two of the studio's latest animated stars, Tweety Bird and Sylvester
Sylvester (Looney Tunes)
Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr., Sylvester the Cat or simply Sylvester, is a fictional character, a three-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic Tuxedo cat in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies repertory, often chasing Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper...
, there was a demand for more short films using the characters. Freleng himself said he could not imagine Tweety working with any other partners than Sylvester (in contrast, Sylvester still had his fair share of cartoons without Tweety).
I Taw a Putty Tat was Freleng's second film teaming the characters and was released less than a year after Tweetie Pie
Tweetie Pie
Tweetie Pie is a 1947 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng and produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, depicting the first pairing of Tweety and Sylvester.When Tweety's creator, director Bob Clampett, left the Warner Bros...
.
It is noticeable that while this cartoon was directed by Friz Freleng
Friz Freleng
Isadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros....
, the Tweety we see in it is by far closer to the aggressive little bird used in his first few cartoons directed by Bob Clampett
Bob Clampett
Robert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros., and the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil...
than the more subdued and naive character he would become a few years later as the series progressed.
Production
Bea BenaderetBea Benaderet
Bea Benaderet was an American actress born in New York City and raised in San Francisco, California. She is best remembered for her wide variety of television work, which included a starring role in the 1960s television series Petticoat Junction and Green Acres as Shady Rest Hotel owner Kate...
provided the voice of the housemistress but she did not get credit as with most voice actors at the studio, Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...
being the exception. Amongst the musical quotation
Musical quotation
Musical quotation is the practice of directly quoting another work in a new composition. The quotation may be from the same composer's work , or from a different composer's work ....
s in the Carl Stalling
Carl Stalling
Carl W. Stalling was an American composer and arranger for music in animated films. He is most closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Warner Bros., where he averaged one complete score each week, for 22 years.-Biography:Stalling was born to Ernest and...
film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
(with or without lyrics accompanying them) are extracts from Singin' in the Bathtub
Singin' in the Bathtub
Singing in the Bathtub is a song written in 1929 by Michael H. Cleary, with lyrics by Herb Magidson and Ned Washington for the film The Show of Shows. The Show of Shows was Warner Bros.' answer to MGM's The Hollywood Revue of 1929, and "Singing in the Bathtub" spoofs Hollywood Revue's song...
, She Wa an Acrobat's Daughter and Ain't We Got Fun.
The animators for the cartoon were Ken Champin, Gerry Chiniquy
Gerry Chiniquy
Germain Adolph "Gerry" Chiniquy was an American animator. He is best known for his work with Friz Freleng, at both Warner Bros. and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises....
, Manuel Perez, Virgil Ross, and an uncredited Pete Burness
Pete Burness
Wilson D. "Pete" Burness was an American animator and animation director. He won two Academy Awards during his career and was perhaps best known for his work on the Mr. Magoo series. He also contributed to the Tom and Jerry series, Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies, and Rocky and His Friends.Burness...
. Paul Julian
Paul Julian
Paul Julian was an American artist and designer most noted for his work as a background artist for Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes cartoon shorts. He worked primarily for director Friz Freleng's Sylvester and Tweety Bird shorts...
was the background artist, while Hawley Pratt
Hawley Pratt
Hawley Pratt was an American film director, animator, and illustrator. He is best known for his work during the heyday of Warner Bros. Cartoons and as the right-hand man of director Friz Freleng as a layout artist and later as a director...
was the layout artist.
Availability
After its original release in theaters I Taw a Putty Tat was re-released as part of the compilation film, Bugs Bunny: SuperstarBugs Bunny: Superstar
Bugs Bunny: Superstar is a 1975 Looney Tunes documentary film, narrated by Orson Welles and produced and directed by Larry Jackson.The film includes nine Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons which were previously released during the 1940s :* What's Cookin' Doc? * The Wild Hare Bugs Bunny:...
(1975), along with other short films from the 1940s. This feature was later made available on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and Laserdisc
Laserdisc
LaserDisc was a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially licensed, sold, and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978, the technology was previously referred to interally as Optical Videodisc System, Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Optical...
before it was discontinued in 1999.
The short film has also been made available on VHS through two compilations released by MGM/UA and Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. is an American media company founded by Ted Turner. Now owned by Time Warner, the company is largely responsible for overseeing its library for worldwide distribution Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. (commonly known as Turner Entertainment Co.) is an American...
in the 1980s : Little Tweety and Little Inki Cartoon Festival Featuring "I taw a Putty Tat" and Tweety and Sylvester.
The short was part of the Golden Age of Looney Tunes volume 4 Laserdisc set. It also occurs in its entirety in the documentary Bugs Bunny: Superstar
Bugs Bunny: Superstar
Bugs Bunny: Superstar is a 1975 Looney Tunes documentary film, narrated by Orson Welles and produced and directed by Larry Jackson.The film includes nine Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons which were previously released during the 1940s :* What's Cookin' Doc? * The Wild Hare Bugs Bunny:...
Part 1, which is available as a special feature on Discs 1 and 2 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4
Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4 is a Looney Tunes collection on DVD. Following the pattern of one release each year of the previous volumes, it was released on November 14, 2006...
, although it has not been refurbished or released independently in that DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
series.
The Turner dubbed version (which also has the same edit seen on TV to remove the blackface gag) has been made available as a bonus feature on the DVD release of Romance on the High Seas
Romance on the High Seas
Romance on the High Seas is a 1948 Technicolor musical romantic comedy film starring Jack Carson, Janis Paige, Don DeFore, and Doris Day in her film debut....
.
Prints with this cartoon's original titles exist on Youtube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.