Tweety's Circus
Tweety's Circus | |
---|---|
Directed by | I. Freleng |
Story by | Warren Foster |
Produced by | Eddie Selzer |
Starring | Mel Blanc |
Music by | Milt Franklyn |
Animation by | Gerry Chiniquy Ted Bonnicksen Arthur Davis[1] |
Layouts by | Hawley Pratt |
Backgrounds by | Irv Wyner |
Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 7 minutes 4 seconds |
Language | English |
Tweety's Circus is a 1955 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon short directed by Friz Freleng.[2] The short was released on June 4, 1955, and stars Tweety and Sylvester.[3]
Plot
[edit]The story centers on Sylvester visiting a circus, where he not only tries to catch Tweety for his meal, but attempts to one-up a lion (an attraction billed as "King of the Cats").
A carefree Sylvester walks into the circus singing his theme "Meow!" where he visits the various animal exhibits. There, upon seeing the lion exhibit, the unimpressed cat immediately expresses his displeasure over the large feline's billing. All that changes when he realizes he'd just passed by the Tweety Bird... and thus the chase begins.
Tweety runs into the big top, where the lion, now uncaged, is waiting to maul Sylvester for his earlier remarks (not to mention Sylvester clobbering him with a shovel). From this point forward, the lion serves as both an antagonist for Sylvester and a protector of Tweety.
Sylvester tries beating what he thinks is a fire hose to free Tweety, unknowing that the "hose" is an elephant's trunk. The elephant grabs Sylvester with his trunk and—after crushing his chest—throws the battered puss into the lion's cage, where the lion finishes the job.
Other run-ins with the lion, elephant and other animals, all ending with Sylvester getting the worst of things, involve him exploiting his abilities as a high diver (Tweety directs the elephant to "drink it all down" (referring to the water before Sylvester lands), a fire eater (the lion makes Sylvester eat the fire) and a high-wire walker ("hewwooooo, puddy tat!").
In the end, Sylvester finally gets rid of the lion ... only to unwittingly lock himself in a cage with even more lions (also the antagonists for Sylvester) and tigers. Tweety immediately takes a hat and cane and becomes a carnival barker ("Huwwy! Huwwy! Huwwy! Step wight up for da gweatest show on Eawth! Fifty wions and one puddy tat!") A loud roar erupts, and with Sylvester presumably having met his fate, Tweety changes his spiel: "Step wight up! Fifty wions, count 'em, fifty wions!"
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Beck, Jerry (1991). I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty Years of Sylvester and Tweety. New York: Henry Holt and Co. p. 127. ISBN 0-8050-1644-9.
- ^ Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 274. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2.
- ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 151–152. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
External links
[edit]- 1955 films
- 1955 comedy-drama films
- 1950s American animated films
- 1950s children's comedy films
- 1950s children's drama films
- 1950s children's animated films
- 1950s English-language films
- 1950s Warner Bros. animated short films
- American children's animated comedy films
- American children's animated drama films
- American animated short films
- American comedy-drama short films
- Animated short films
- Children's comedy-drama films
- Merrie Melodies short films
- Sylvester the Cat films
- Tweety films
- Fiction about rivalry
- Circus films
- Films set in 1955
- Short films directed by Friz Freleng
- Films scored by Milt Franklyn
- Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films
- Films with screenplays by Warren Foster
- Films produced by Edward Selzer
- English-language comedy-drama short films
- 1955 animated short films
- Merrie Melodies stubs