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Muzzle Tough is a 1954 Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng.

Title[]

The title is a pun on the Yiddish expression "mazel tov", which roughly translates to "good luck", though the title is used sarcastically in Sylvester's case.

Plot[]

Granny and two moving men in their truck (which reads "Checker Movers, It's Your Move") are searching for her new house, which they soon find. The movers walk Granny's things past Sylvester as he is napping on top of the wall surrounding the house. Sylvester suddenly wakes up when the movers parade Tweety in his cage past him, and Tweety says, "I tawt I taw a puddytat!" Immediately, Sylvester starts to pursue Tweety atop the wall, but then crashes into a lamp post and falls off the wall. Sylvester climbs back up as Tweety is carried into the house, while another mover sets Hector's doghouse down on the ground. Sylvester steps down upon the roof of the doghouse as he comes down from the wall, and when Hector sees him, he likewise says, "I tawt I taw a puddytat!" Hector then bites Sylvester's tail and chases him back out to the street.

Plotting to get past Hector and finagle his way into the house, Sylvester disguises himself as a lamp, putting a shade on his head. After a mover carries him in and sets him on the table next to Tweety’s cage, Tweety plugs Sylvester’s tail into the outlet, giving Sylvester a massive electric jolt. Hector bites Sylvester and also gets zapped, then chases him out of the house and back to the street again.

Sylvester then tries posing as one of the movers...and gets Granny's piano loaded into his arms! Tweety guides Sylvester all the way up the stairs to the top floor and through a doorway, which sends Sylvester plummeting with the piano to the street below, prompting Tweety to remark, "Ooooh, dat wast step was a wuwu!"

Making another attempt, Sylvester hides under a bear rug to sneak up on Tweety and climbs up to his cage. Granny, frightened at the sight, thinks the bear had been portraying possum and fires several pistol shots at Sylvester before Hector chases him out again. Though this time afterwards, Hector barks ferociously when Sylvester looks back at the house, frightening Sylvester in the process.

Finally, Sylvester goes to the costume shop and dresses up in a very convincing and voluptuous female dog suit to lure Hector away from the front steps. As the instantly lovestruck Hector approaches, Sylvester is preparing to knock him out with a mallet, but before he does, a dog catcher captures him in his net and locks him in his truck. Outraged, Sylvester furiously pounds on the window, demanding the dog catcher to let him out. He then removes the head mask from his costume and reveals that he is a cat, not a dog, which turns out to be a fatal error, as all the dogs in the truck notice immediately and begin to attack him as the truck disappears down the street.

Tweety then thinks nothing will ever chase him before he sees two other cats in the room with lamp shades on their heads much to his horror, which he then remarks "Of tourse I tould be wrong!".

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Censorship[]

  • The following violent scenes were cut when this cartoon was shown in ABC's The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show[1]:
    • Granny with a pistol shooting Sylvester, who is hiding underneath a bearskin rug.
    • Sylvester disguising himself as a lamp, and Tweety plugging the cat's tail into an electrical socket.
    • Hector the Bulldog biting the electrically-charged Sylvester and getting electric-shocked as well.

Notes[]

  • Several clips of this cartoon are seen in the beginning of Space Jam, particularly the scene where Sylvester gets electrically-charged by Tweety.
  • The scene where Granny fires several pistol shots at Sylvester is a partial reference to "The Fair Haired Hare".
  • Sylvester would once again disguise as a female dog in The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries episode "Yelp", though the female dog disguise is colored pink instead of yellow. In addition, Sylvester's reaction after unmasking and seeing the real dogs glaring at him is also the same in both: turning white and melting into a puddle.
  • This is the only cartoon where both Sylvester and Tweety lose in the end. A similar cartoon where the two both win in the end would also be made in 1960, titled "Trip for Tat".
    • It is also the only cartoon where Tweety loses in the end.
  • The music that plays when the movers are bringing everything into the house is played again in Daffy Duck's Quackbusters when the IRS confiscates Daffy's belongings.
  • When Granny's piano crashes, it makes the same pressing all keys at once sound from "Canned Feud", just like in that short, Sylvester gets piano key teeth even though the dangling key plays the D note instead of E.
  • The lobby cards of the cartoon (pictured in the gallery below) seem to depict Tweety using Hector the Bulldog as a shield against Sylvester when roaming free outside his cage in the house. This scene, however, does not exist in the actual cartoon short itself.
  • MeTV aired this short 29 January 2021 on Toon In with Me; however, this airing uses the 1998 "THIS VERSION" print without the dubbed notice, as seen on both Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition: Volume 10: Canine Corps VHS release as well as Boomerang Streaming Service.

Gallery[]

TV Title Cards[]

References[]

External Links[]

← Claws for Alarm Sylvester Cartoons Satan's Waitin' →
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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