Tweetie Pie

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Tweetie Pie

Lobby card.
Production company Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributor Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date May 3, 1947
Run time 7:02
Starring Mel Blanc
Bea Benaderet[1]
Producer(s) Edward Selzer (uncredited)
Music composed by Carl Stalling
Story by Tedd Pierce
Michael Maltese[2]
Animation Gerry Chiniquy
Manuel Perez
Ken Champin
Virgil Ross
Director(s) I. Freleng
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Title card

Tweetie Pie is the two hundred and seventy-second short in the Merrie Melodies theatrical short. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation on May 3, 1947. It was written by Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce, produced by Edward Selzer, and directed by Friz Freleng.

When Tweety is adopted by a kindly woman, her cat Thomas attempts to seize him in spite of her instructions to leave the bird alone.

Detailed Summary

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Memorable Quotes

Thomas' owner: Thomas, aren't you ashamed? Come over here and kiss the poor little birdie and make up.
Tweety: Come here, Thomas, and kiss the itty birdie!
(Thomas swallows Tweety whole from his owner's hand)
Thomas' owner: THOMAS!


Tweety: Poor puddy tat! Without his pawachute.


Tweety: Thomas, you coward! You bwute! Take that, and that! You bad ol' puddy tat!

Characters

Legend
Character debut Speaking debut Ep. debut No lines Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character Actor
Tweety Bird Mel Blanc
Thomas Mel Blanc
Thomas' owner Bea Benaderet


Locations

Objects

  • Cigar
  • Handsaw
  • Broom
  • Torch burner
  • Table fan
  • Fishing pole
  • Woodfire
  • Shovel

Production

Development

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Second lobby card.

Filming

The film was copyrighted on 1946 (MCMXLVI).

Behind the scenes

  • The MPAA certificate number is 11104.
  • Bob Clampett was originally slated to direct this short, but was left dormant when he left on May 1, 1945, until Friz Freleng took over.
  • The short's title while under Clampett's direction would have been "The Fat Rat and the Stupid Cat."[3]
  • In the storyboard left over from Clampett's version of the short, Sylvester was originally going to talk, whereas in the final film, he doesn't say anything.[3] Despite this, Sylvester yells "Yeowch!" when Tweety lights up a fireplace while climbing down the chimney.
  • Sylvester is named "Thomas" in this short, a play on the term "Tomcat" and possibly a reference to Tom from the Tom and Jerry shorts.
  • Sylvester's complex contraption was previously used in Trap Happy Porky.
  • This is the first short in which Tweety calls Sylvester a "bad ol' puddy tat!"
  • While not a direct remake, most of the cartoon's concept was derived from the 1941 short Cage Canary, originally planned by Tex Avery and finished by Bob Clampett, which also featured a cat-and-canary pairing. Coincidentally, Michael Maltese was attached to writing these two shorts.
  • This is the first short to depict Sylvester's tail with a white tip.

Legacy

  • The paring between Tweety and Sylvester in this short would become a fixture for future Tweety shorts.
  • Despite being called "Thomas" in this short, Sylvester wouldn't be referred by his official name until the 1948 short Scaredy Cat.
  • The gag where Sylvester is asked to kiss Tweety, only to eat him and get forced to spit him out, would be repurposed in Gift Wrapped and Catty Cornered.
  • The animation of Sylvester running away while being hit by a broom was reused in Gift Wrapped.
  • The opening scene of Tweety warming himself in front of a cigar would be echoed in A Street Cat Named Sylvester.

In popular culture

  • In the 2020 film Birds of Prey, Harley Quinn and Cassandra Cain watch a snippet of this cartoon at Harley's home.

Critical reception

The short was the first Warner Bros. cartoon to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film,[4] after 10 previous nominations and breaking Tom and Jerry's streak of four consecutive wins in the category. When Selzer accepted the award for this short from Shirley Temple, he said:

In accepting this award, I'm naturally thrilled, but I accept it for the entire Warner Bros. Cartoon Studio. It might interest you to know that in production of this "Tweetie Pie," 85 percent of our personnel were directly connected with its construction. However, the one man who really should be up here getting this award and not me, is the director of the picture, Friz Freleng, who is in the audience. I can't pay him too great a tribute. Thank you. [5]

Accolades

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient Result
Academy Award 1948 Best Animated Short Film Edward Selzer Won

Home availability

References

  1. ↑ Scott, Keith (2022). Cartoon Voices from the Golden Age, 1930-70, pp. 68-69. BearManor Media. ISBN 979-8-88771-010-5.
  2. ↑ Beck, Jerry (1991). I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty Years of Sylvester and Tweety, p.90. New York: Henry Holt and Co. ISBN 0-8050-1644-9.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Storyboards for "The Fat Rat and Stupid Cat".
  4. ↑ "The 20th Academy Awards | 1948". Retrieved March 10, 2025.
  5. ↑ "Edwar Selzer acceptance speech".
  6. ↑ https://www.dohtem.com/bugs/foreign/uk/
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