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Peck Up Your Troubles is a 1945 Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng.

Title[]

The title is a pun on the 1915 World War I marching song "Pack Up Your Troubles".

Plot[]

It's that time again, Sylvester is on the lookout and see what's going on, he looks through a telescope and spotted around every corner, and he was determined to get a woodpecker who just moved in.

Sylvester's first plan is to put hair nets on his head as he disguising himself as a tree. he creeps through high up the tree, as he climbs up, the Woodpecker sees Sylvester is getting the bird. then the woodpecker uses the grease to spread around the tree, as Sylvester sees the woodpecker putting grease all over, he slides down but he tries to climb back up, but it was too late. He landed on the ground.

After Sylvester's attempted plan he uses an axe to chop down the tree, But a bulldog named Rover stops him from chopping down the tree. So Sylvester uses wood cement to put back on where what it was. and he smiles the dog.

His next plan, He uses stilts to get the woodpecker, as Sylvester walks towards the woodpecker, the woodpecker pecks on the stilts one by one until none of them are left. And that makes Sylvester fall, but luckly he holds on the limb of the tree. As he sees the woodpecker make a "Cut on dotted line" and pecks it and makes him fall, the limbs comes down steady now and getting closer and closer to the ground, and Sylvester waves goodbye and he falls.

Next, Sylvester does a pole vaulting plan to get the woodpecker. As he walks toward to the bird. As the woodpecker sees him walking closer, he rushed to the power source he's about to turn it on. But Sylvester tells him not to, he begs for him. But, the woodpecker is willing to turn it on anyway. Then Sylvester thankfully the woodpecker, then walks back as he can, but unfortunately, he did turned it on. As Sylvester painfully shocked he turns into funny poses, even a scanned dressed woman in a red bathing suit, and Sylvester falls to the ground again.

An angry Sylvester really hates that woodpecker and he grabs the axe again then starts chopping down the tree again. As Sylvester watches the tree fall, Rover angrily glares at him. He tries to catch the tree, but it's too late. Now, Sylvester is using wood material put at back together.

His next plan he uses the kite as a glider, then he flies to the woodpecker. Then Sylvester got his target, the woodpecker ran off. Then Sylvester tries to catch him, and the poor woodpecker was cornered. he hatched an idea, he placed a tomato and Sylvester caught him. But he realized he caught the wrong thing. He was blamed for a reason.

That night, Sylvester tries to swear off that woodpecker, then the woodpecker had a funny idea and make Sylvester ruin his life, He dressed as an angel. While Sylvester is still swearing off, he realized that he killed him. And poor Sylvester is cornered he didn't know he killed him. But the woodpecker had one last request. Someone had to finish him off. he gave the pistol to Sylvester. As he grabs it he tries to aim him. He was noticing he was killing himself. He shoots the woodpecker.

Now Sylvester uses teeter-totter to grab the woodpecker, but it didn't work. Now he slings shot to the woodpecker. then he uses the bowing arrow gag.

Sylvester have tried so hard to get that woodpecker. But he noticed he sees invisible stairs. As Sylvester holds the sign says "Why didn't I think of this before?", as climbs up to the woodpecker he holds up another sign which it says "Anything is possible in a cartoon!" then he's made it. now he's using a branch to break the door, as he streaks toward him, he was trapped. Then woodpecker sees Sylvester was trapped, he was using needle point to stab him.

And finally he uses dynamite to blow up the tree, he lights up one at a time. And he hides in the hideout. As Sylvester laughed so hard that it will be the end of the woodpecker and his home. But Rover spotted him, He watches Sylvester stops the dynamite from blowing up, as he blows out the fuse, the woodpecker re-lights up one at a time. As Sylvester finished blows the fuse, he was noticed that it was back on. The most of the dynamite blows up. but at least the last one was still standing, It blows up violently. now the landscape was crashed 'cause of the dynamite and Sylvester was killed, The woodpecker noticed that Sylvester is now an angel and the cartoon ends.

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Censorship[]

  • On Cartoon Network and Boomerang in the United States, the part where Sylvester holds the gun to his head and attempts to shoot himself after the "angel" woodpecker gives him the gun (only for Sylvester to realize he's been duped and blast the woodpecker in the rear end) was cut to remove the short scene where the gun goes off and Sylvester ducks before he blasts the woodpecker in the rear end.[3] This scene however airs uncensored on overseas Cartoon Network and Boomerang channels, as evident in the video on the page here. MeTV also aired this short uncut as well.

Notes[]

  • This short marks Sylvester's second appearance.
  • This is the first appearance of Hector the Bulldog.
  • This is the first short where Sylvester chases birds for food. This is also the first cartoon where Sylvester does not speak.
  • The woodpecker in this short was originally set to be a recurring character, who would be paired with Sylvester by Friz Freleng. After taking over Bob Clampett's unproduced fourth Tweety short project "Tweetie Pie" (which pairs Tweety with Sylvester for the first time), Freleng decided that the woodpecker would be replaced by Tweety as Sylvester's most prominent co-star. Although the idea was initially rejected by producer Eddie Selzer, Selzer then allowed Freleng to use Tweety in place of the woodpecker, which ultimately earned the WB animation studio its first Academy Award.
  • The original ending music was replaced with the ending cue from "The Wacky Wabbit" when the cartoon was reissued, akin to several cartoons reissued in the early 1950s.
  • The woodpecker in this short would eventually reappear in "A Peck o' Trouble" in 1953, which was directed by Robert McKimson. It was paired with the cat Dodsworth, who previously appeared in "Kiddin' the Kitten".
  • There appears to be a framed, red four-cent postage stamp hanging in The Woodpeckerā€™s dwelling, appropriately featuring ornithologist John James Audubon. However, the only stamp issued commemorating Audubon prior to this cartoon was a 1940 green penny stamp.
  • This short marks Sylvester's first death.
  • The American Turner print has red borders, and the European Turner print has blue borders. Because the short has no dialogue, both dubbed versions keep the original ending card (no disclaimer and no borders on the ending card), unlike most dubbed version shorts, although some non-dialogue shorts "Rhapsody in Rivets" (1941) and "Double Chaser" (1942) got dubbed ending cards. In addition, the original reissue ending music is also kept.
  • Cels of the original title card and credits were revealed in 2021, preserved at the University of Wyoming.
  • MeTV was originally going to air this short on 8 January 2022; however, it was replaced with the HBO Max print of "Hawaiian Aye Aye".
    • The short finally aired 6 February 2022 on MeTV+'s Sunday Night Cartoons block; however, this airing appears unrestored.
    • An unrestored image of Hector the Bulldog is present on a quiz on MeTV's website, which originated from this short.[4]
  • This cartoon was shown in theatres with Mildred Pierce during its original release.
  • According to the production number, this cartoon was produced in the Looney Tunes series but released in the Merrie Melodies series.
  • Vitaphone release number: 1359[5]

Gallery[]

References[]

ā† Life With Feathers Sylvester Cartoons Kitty Kornered ā†’
Sylvester Cartoons
1945 Life with Feathers ā€¢ Peck Up Your Troubles
1946 Kitty Kornered
1947 Tweetie Pie ā€¢ Crowing Pains ā€¢ Doggone Cats ā€¢ Catch as Cats Can
1948 Back Alley Oproar ā€¢ I Taw a Putty Tat ā€¢ Hop, Look and Listen ā€¢ Kit for Cat ā€¢ Scaredy Cat
1949 Mouse Mazurka ā€¢ Bad Ol' Putty Tat ā€¢ Hippety Hopper
1950 Home, Tweet Home ā€¢ The Scarlet Pumpernickel ā€¢ All a Bir-r-r-d ā€¢ Canary Row ā€¢ Stooge for a Mouse ā€¢ Pop 'Im Pop!
1951 Canned Feud ā€¢ Putty Tat Trouble ā€¢ Room and Bird ā€¢ Tweety's S.O.S. ā€¢ Tweet Tweet Tweety
1952 Who's Kitten Who? ā€¢ Gift Wrapped ā€¢ Little Red Rodent Hood ā€¢ Ain't She Tweet ā€¢ Hoppy Go Lucky ā€¢ A Bird in a Guilty Cage ā€¢ Tree for Two
1953 Snow Business ā€¢ A Mouse Divided ā€¢ Fowl Weather ā€¢ Tom Tom Tomcat ā€¢ A Street Cat Named Sylvester ā€¢ Catty Cornered ā€¢ Cats A-weigh!
1954 Dog Pounded ā€¢ Bell Hoppy ā€¢ Dr. Jerkyl's Hide ā€¢ Claws for Alarm ā€¢ Muzzle Tough ā€¢ Satan's Waitin' ā€¢ By Word of Mouse
1955 Lighthouse Mouse ā€¢ Sandy Claws ā€¢ Tweety's Circus ā€¢ Jumpin' Jupiter ā€¢ A Kiddies Kitty ā€¢ Speedy Gonzales ā€¢ Red Riding Hoodwinked ā€¢ Heir-Conditioned ā€¢ Pappy's Puppy
1956 Too Hop to Handle ā€¢ Tweet and Sour ā€¢ Tree Cornered Tweety ā€¢ The Unexpected Pest ā€¢ Tugboat Granny ā€¢ The Slap-Hoppy Mouse ā€¢ Yankee Dood It
1957 Tweet Zoo ā€¢ Tweety and the Beanstalk ā€¢ Birds Anonymous ā€¢ Greedy for Tweety ā€¢ Mouse-Taken Identity ā€¢ Gonzales' Tamales
1958 A Pizza Tweety-Pie ā€¢ A Bird in a Bonnet
1959 Trick or Tweet ā€¢ Tweet and Lovely ā€¢ Cat's Paw ā€¢ Here Today, Gone Tamale ā€¢ Tweet Dreams
1960 West of the Pesos ā€¢ Goldimouse and the Three Cats ā€¢ Hyde and Go Tweet ā€¢ Mouse and Garden ā€¢ Trip for Tat
1961 Cannery Woe ā€¢ Hoppy Daze ā€¢ Birds of a Father ā€¢ D' Fightin' Ones ā€¢ The Rebel Without Claws ā€¢ The Pied Piper of Guadalupe ā€¢ The Last Hungry Cat
1962 Fish and Slips ā€¢ Mexican Boarders ā€¢ The Jet Cage
1963 Mexican Cat Dance ā€¢ Chili Weather ā€¢ Claws in the Lease
1964 A Message to Gracias ā€¢ Freudy Cat ā€¢ Nuts and Volts ā€¢ Hawaiian Aye Aye ā€¢ Road to Andalay
1965 It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House ā€¢ Cats and Bruises ā€¢ The 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
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