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I Taw a Puddy Tat is a 1948 Merrie Melodies short directed by I. Freleng.

Title[]

The bird's inability to enunciate certain letters distorts his catch-phrase, part of which forms the title, as in "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's owner orders a new canary, after the previous house bird has mysteriously disappeared. While she is occupied, Sylvester hiccups some yellow feathers and quickly swallows them again, opens a curtain by his bed, stamps a fifth bird silhouette on the wall, and draws the curtain closed again. Upon the arrival of the bird, Sylvester shoves him in his mouth. Tweety calls down his throat, looking for the cat. An answer comes back, "There's nobody here but us mice!"

Tweety lights a match to see in the dark, but when smoke begins to roll out of Sylvester's mouth, he spits out the bird. Tweety hits him on the foot with a mallet, and when he screams, Tweety flies back in to retrieve his hat. Tweety starts a game of "Tag" as an excuse to slap the cat, then hides in the kitchen cupboard. He places his sailor hat on a yellow can of alum, and Sylvester mistakes it for the bird and eats it, making his lips pucker so much that he cannot shove Tweety in his mouth. He sucks the bird up with a straw, but Tweety uses his uvula as a punching bag. The cat spits him out again, and Tweety returns to retrieve his hat again.

Sylvester disguises himself as a Scandinavian 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 large firecracker, which promptly explodes, covering the cat in "blackface" makeup. Sounding like "Rochester", he says, "Uh-oh, back to the kitchen, ah smell somethin' burnin'!" just before passing out.

Tweety challenges Sylvester to a game of "Hide-and-Seek", but brings in Hector to help him find the cat. Sylvester hides from the dog inside the birdcage, but Tweety think the cat is lonely and stuffs the dog in with him and covers the cage.

The lady of the house calls 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 stenciled on the wall and says, "Her don't know me vewy well, do her?"

Caricatures[]

Music Cues[]

  • MK Jerome and Jack Scholl - "The Wish That I Wish Tonight" - plays during the opening titles, the opening scene, and the ending.[3]
  • Michael Cleary - "Singin' in the Bathtub" - plays while Tweety is bathing.
  • Harry Rub - "She Was an Acrobat's Daughter" - plays when Tweety is swinging back and forth in the bird cage.
  • Richard A. Whiting, Raymond B. Egan, and Gus Kahn - "Ain't We Got Fun" - plays when Sylvester disguises himself as a maid.
  • "Shortnin' Bread" - plays when Sylvester is in blackface.

Availability[]

Censorship[]

  • The scene where Sylvester poses as a Swedish maid so he can get Tweety, only to grab a stick of dynamite and end up in blackface and sounding like Rochester from The Jack Benny Show, was cut when aired on almost all television networks worldwide, including on TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and the former WB network.
  • This scene was not cut when it premiered on MeTV's Saturday Morning Cartoons block, even though the channel has edited out racially-insensitive content in other shorts. However, when the short aired on MeTV's weekday afternoon block Toon In with Me, the blackface scene after the explosion was edited.
  • When Bugs Bunny: Superstar (which contains this cartoon in its entirety) aired on The Disney Channel in 1989, the sequence was surprisingly left unedited, despite the channel's history of heavily editing for content when it aired both the Looney Tunes compilation films Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie and Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales in the 1980s and 1990s. It is unknown whether this was a mistake or intentional. [4]

Notes[]

  • This cartoon is a color remake of "Puss n' Booty" using a cat and canary team called Rudolph and Petey. The plot, and one gag were re-used.
  • Freleng himself said he could not imagine Tweety working with any partners besides Sylvester; in contrast, Sylvester still had his fair share of cartoons without Tweety.
  • The items in the kitchen reference members of the production team:
  • In two scenes, Tweety is inside Sylvester’s mouth. In one scene, he punches the uvula like a punching bag by using his own muscles. This was used again in another short.
  • This was Freleng's second film teaming the characters and was released less than a year after "Tweetie Pie". Tweety is closer to the aggressive little bird directed by Bob Clampett than the more subdued and naïve character he would become as the series progressed. This is also the first cartoon in the Sylvester and Tweety series where Sylvester has a speaking role.
  • This and "Tweetie Pie" were the only two Tweety and Sylvester pairings whose copyrights were sold to Associated Artists Productions, as they were the only such cartoons released before August 1948.
  • The Cartoon Festivals print is a damaged a.a.p. print where the a.a.p. logo plays first, then the 1947-49 Blue Ribbon Color Rings from "Inki and the Lion" open. The print also uses light blue borders, with the 1939-40 version of "Merrily We Roll Along" playing instead of the 1941-45 version before the print changes to "I Taw a Putty Tat". This is an MGM/UA print that was probably hacked off by United Artists in the 1980s.
    • This MGM/UA print airs in Cartoon Network and Boomerang Latin America and Tooncast, alternately with the 1995 Turner dubbed version print of the cartoon. Like the 1995 dubbed version print of the cartoon airing on all three channels, this print airs censored on all three channels to remove a blackface gag. MeTV uses this print, albeit with the aforementioned gag uncut.
    • The Cartoon Moviestars VHS release uses an a.a.p. print (minus the a.a.p. opening) which preserves the original opening and closing titles, and has red borders in the credit sequences.
    • MeTV aired this short 3 April 2021 on Saturday Morning Cartoons; however, this airing appears unrestored, using the Cartoon Festivals a.a.p. print.[5]
  • This is the only Tweety and Sylvester pairing that was released in Cinecolor.
    • The Blue Ribbon titles open with a "PRINT BY TECHNICOLOR", for this reason
  • Three separate prints with the original titles are known to exist.
    • The first one surfaced on the Bugs Bunny Superstar DVD released by Warner Archive. However, the titles are using the Blue Ribbon audio and only the main title is shown until it fades to black and the cartoon starts, the credits are not shown.
    • The second print, courtesy of Thad Komorowski, surfaced shortly after the release of the Bugs Bunny Superstar DVD, however it was taken down in 2012, as of 2024 only screenshots of the upload survive.
    • Thad K's print was given a new transfer by Thunderbean and released on a special blu ray set. Courtesy of Matt Skwarek and Ender, it was finally uploaded to YouTube on 9 Jan, 2024.[6]
  • The original opening titles for this cartoon are similar to the original opening titles for Tweetie Pie, they both feature Tweety in the spotlight.
    • However, in this instance Tweety is smiling at a silhouette of Sylvester.
  • Vitaphone release number: 1685[7]

Gallery[]

References[]

← Back Alley Oproar Sylvester Cartoons Hop, Look and Listen →
← Tweetie Pie Tweety Cartoons Bad Ol' Putty Tat →
Sylvester Cartoons
1945 Life with FeathersPeck Up Your Troubles
1946 Kitty Kornered
1947 Tweetie PieCrowing PainsDoggone CatsCatch as Cats Can
1948 Back Alley OproarI Taw a Putty TatHop, Look and ListenKit for CatScaredy Cat
1949 Mouse MazurkaBad Ol' Putty TatHippety Hopper
1950 Home, Tweet HomeThe Scarlet PumpernickelAll a Bir-r-r-dCanary RowStooge for a MousePop 'Im Pop!
1951 Canned FeudPutty Tat TroubleRoom and BirdTweety's S.O.S.Tweet Tweet Tweety
1952 Who's Kitten Who?Gift WrappedLittle Red Rodent HoodAin't She TweetHoppy Go LuckyA Bird in a Guilty CageTree for Two
1953 Snow BusinessA Mouse DividedFowl WeatherTom Tom TomcatA Street Cat Named SylvesterCatty CorneredCats A-weigh!
1954 Dog PoundedBell HoppyDr. Jerkyl's HideClaws for AlarmMuzzle ToughSatan's Waitin'By Word of Mouse
1955 Lighthouse MouseSandy ClawsTweety's CircusJumpin' JupiterA Kiddies KittySpeedy GonzalesRed Riding HoodwinkedHeir-ConditionedPappy's Puppy
1956 Too Hop to HandleTweet and SourTree Cornered TweetyThe Unexpected PestTugboat GrannyThe Slap-Hoppy MouseYankee Dood It
1957 Tweet ZooTweety and the BeanstalkBirds AnonymousGreedy for TweetyMouse-Taken IdentityGonzales' Tamales
1958 A Pizza Tweety-PieA Bird in a Bonnet
1959 Trick or TweetTweet and LovelyCat's PawHere Today, Gone TamaleTweet Dreams
1960 West of the PesosGoldimouse and the Three CatsHyde and Go TweetMouse and GardenTrip for Tat
1961 Cannery WoeHoppy DazeBirds of a FatherD' Fightin' OnesThe Rebel Without ClawsThe Pied Piper of GuadalupeThe Last Hungry Cat
1962 Fish and SlipsMexican BoardersThe Jet Cage
1963 Mexican Cat DanceChili WeatherClaws in the Lease
1964 A Message to GraciasFreudy CatNuts and VoltsHawaiian Aye AyeRoad to Andalay
1965 It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the HouseCats and BruisesThe Wild Chase
1966 A Taste of Catnip
1980 The Yolks on You
1995 Carrotblanca
1997 Father of the Bird
2011 I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat


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 HomeAll a Bir-r-r-dCanary Row
1951 Putty Tat TroubleRoom and BirdTweety's S.O.S.Tweet Tweet Tweety
1952 Gift WrappedAin't She TweetA Bird in a Guilty Cage
1953 Snow BusinessFowl WeatherTom Tom TomcatA Street Cat Named SylvesterCatty Cornered
1954 Dog PoundedMuzzle ToughSatan's Waitin'
1955 Sandy ClawsTweety's CircusRed Riding HoodwinkedHeir-Conditioned
1956 Tweet and SourTree Cornered TweetyTugboat Granny
1957 Tweet ZooTweety and the BeanstalkBirds AnonymousGreedy for Tweety
1958 A Pizza Tweety-PieA Bird in a Bonnet
1959 Trick or TweetTweet and LovelyTweet Dreams
1960 Hyde and Go TweetTrip for Tat
1961 The Rebel Without ClawsThe Last Hungry Cat
1962 The Jet Cage
1964 Hawaiian Aye Aye
2011 I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat
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