A Bird in a Guilty Cage is a 1952 Looney Tunes short directed by Friz Freleng.
Title[]
The title is a play on the 1900 song "A Bird in a Gilded Cage".
Plot[]
Sylvester is at a store called Stacy's (a spoof of Macy's), where he notices Tweety in the window stand. Going through the package slot, he closes the curtains and climbs up to Tweety's cage, who asks him what he's going to do. After asiding, "How naive can ya get?", Sylvester replies that they're going to play a game called Sandwich, involving Tweety getting sandwiched in two pieces of bread and nearly eaten. "I don't like dat game!"
Tweety flees, with Sylvester in hot pursuit. Frustrated, the cat is forced to stack mannequins on top of each other to reach the canary, who is hiding in the lighting. Tweety climbs down and puts skates on the mannequin statue, causing Sylvester to crash down some stairs. He returns, however, and the chase resumes, leading him to a hat sale, where he begins trying on hats. He finds the one with Tweety on top, and tries to smash him, instead hitting himself. Tweety hides in a dollhouse, which eventually ends with Sylvester shooting his own finger.
As Sylvester shoves his gun in a hole in the wall, another is aimed at his rear. Predictably, this ends in Sylvester getting his buttocks shot. Tweety then goes through the piping system, with Sylvester going to the other end to catch him. However, Tweety comes out a different hole, and puts a stick of dynamite in. Sylvester swallows it, thinking he has gotten Tweety, but as he strolls out, it explodes, leaving him blackened. He decides to cross birds off his diet. "That one sort of upset my stomach!"
Availability[]
Streaming[]
Censorship[]
- On ABC, the gun-in-one-end-and-out-the-other gag also used in "A Star Is Bored" and "Tease for Two" was edited to remove Sylvester shooting himself in the butt. The sound was left intact, but the actual scene was replaced with a shot of Tweety getting out of the hole in the wall. Also cut was the entire sequence where Sylvester uses his hand to chase Tweety through a dollhouse and mistakenly shoots his finger after Tweety splatters yellow paint on it.[2]
- The CBS version left the gun-in-one-end-and-out-the-other gag uncut and showed most of the dollhouse sequence, but the dollhouse sequence was still edited to remove the part where Sylvester shoots his own finger, thinking it's Tweety.[2]
Notes[]
- The gun in a hole gag is reused in the opening titles of "Revenge of the Pink Panther". There, the animated version of Inspector Clouseau points his gun into the gap in the 'A' while another comes out of the 'P'. Predictably, it ends with Clouseau being shot in the face. Prior to that, the same gag would be reused in "A Star Is Bored" and "Tease for Two". It was also used in a Cartoon Network station ID bumper in the early 2000s (see "Censorship" for details).
- The famous lots-of-doors in-and-out routine (a routine associated with the 1960s animated TV series Scooby Doo, Where Are You? and its myriad spin-offs and remakes) in the dollhouse was previously used in "Little Red Riding Rabbit" and "Buccaneer Bunny"; both of those cartoons were also directed by Freleng.
- This is one of the three Tweety & Sylvester cartoons where Sylvester crosses birds out from his diet list, while the other two are "Tweet Zoo" and "Trip for Tat".
- Unlike the latter two cartoons where Sylvester crosses birds out from his diet list, in this one he did so because the "bird" he ate (which actually was a stick of dynamite) had "upset his stomach".
- In this cartoon, Sylvester is aware about Tweety's naivety that he could use to his advantage, evidenced when he asides the audience "How naive can ya get?"
- Starting with this cartoon, the "MPPDA" bug in the credits was updated to get new lettering that said "MPAA"; the cartoon following this, "Mouse-Warming", would be the last one to use the "MPPDA" version of the bug.
- This was also one of many cartoons that did not have a production number listed below "Present" in their Blue Ribbon reissues. The other cartoons that did not have this were "Ain't She Tweet", "Homeless Hare", "A Peck o' Trouble", "The Grey Hounded Hare", "Sock a Doodle Do" and "Leghorn Swoggled".
- This cartoon was shown in theatres with Big Jim McLain during its original release alongside the reissue of "Fresh Airedale".
Gallery[]
References[]
← Hoppy Go Lucky | Sylvester Cartoons | Tree for Two → |
← Ain't She Tweet | Tweety Cartoons | Snow Business → |
Tweety Cartoons | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
1942 | A Tale of Two Kitties | |||
1944 | Birdy and the Beast | |||
1945 | A Gruesome Twosome | |||
1947 | Tweetie Pie | |||
1948 | I Taw a Putty Tat | |||
1949 | Bad Ol' Putty Tat | |||
1950 | Home, Tweet Home • All a Bir-r-r-d • Canary Row | |||
1951 | Putty Tat Trouble • Room and Bird • Tweety's S.O.S. • Tweet Tweet Tweety | |||
1952 | Gift Wrapped • Ain't She Tweet • A Bird in a Guilty Cage | |||
1953 | Snow Business • Fowl Weather • Tom Tom Tomcat • A Street Cat Named Sylvester • Catty Cornered | |||
1954 | Dog Pounded • Muzzle Tough • Satan's Waitin' | |||
1955 | Sandy Claws • Tweety's Circus • Red Riding Hoodwinked • Heir-Conditioned | |||
1956 | Tweet and Sour • Tree Cornered Tweety • Tugboat Granny | |||
1957 | Tweet Zoo • Tweety and the Beanstalk • Birds Anonymous • Greedy for Tweety | |||
1958 | A Pizza Tweety-Pie • A Bird in a Bonnet | |||
1959 | Trick or Tweet • Tweet and Lovely • Tweet Dreams | |||
1960 | Hyde and Go Tweet • Trip for Tat | |||
1961 | The Rebel Without Claws • The Last Hungry Cat | |||
1962 | The Jet Cage | |||
1964 | Hawaiian Aye Aye | |||
2011 | I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat |