Trick or Tweet

Funny Sylvester & Tweety short, directed by Friz Freleng. The story has Sylvester and an orange alley cat named Sam both trying to get at Tweety, who's safely in his nest atop a very high pole. There's some funny bits here with both cats, as well as the often underrated Tweety, whose little asides to the audience are some of the funniest moments in the short. One of my favorites is Tweety telling the audience "I've been sick" when Sylvester and Sam refer to him as puny. Typically great voice work from Mel Blanc as Sylvester and Tweety and a very enjoyable job by Daws Butler as Sam, using one of his familiar voices that he used for mentally-slow characters. A very nice score from Milt Franklyn here. There's a wonderful bit where Sylvester and Sam are standing underneath Tweety's nest, each waiting for the other one to leave. It's a sustained but smart bit that is helped greatly by Franklyn. It's a funny cartoon, simple but effective, with three characters each providing laughs in different ways. Oh and this is one in which Sylvester puts on a Bat Man costume, similar to the one Wile E. Coyote made famous (and just as successful).

There are a good number of people who are not fans of the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons or of Tweety, and Trick or Tweet is not going to change their minds. As someone who does get enjoyment out of them and has never minded Tweety, while there are better Sylvester and Tweety cartoons Trick or Tweet is entertaining.

It is one of those cartoons that's decent but as an overall whole despite having some great things about it it's never great. The story is very predictable and sometimes repetitive and a couple of the gags are tired(i.e. Sylvester walking on the wire with the umbrella, the trampoline gag is amusing but brief and with an outcome that you can smell miles off). Tweety is almost completely sidelined and little more than a plot device, he only appears like three times in the whole cartoon and apart from his final line- one of his better ones- none of his material is funny.

On the other hand, Trick or Tweet is very well-animated and Fritz Freleng's style is unmistakable, everything's nicely drawn, the backgrounds are smooth enough if very simple and the colours look beautiful and characteristic of those used in the later Freleng cartoons if not as vibrant as some of the earlier Sylvester and Tweety cartoons. Milt Franklyn's music score is lively and characterful from beginning to end and it's beautifully orchestrated, like the compositions of Carl Stalling(though not quite as good) it synchronises very well with the action with the ability of enhancing even facial expressions and gestures. The cartoon's wittily scripted though lacking in freshness and most of the gags are funny, the ending and the batman gags fare the best, they are hilarious. Sylvester is a funny and interesting character who you feel sympathy for, and Sam is a good foil, their double-crossing chemistry is most enjoyable. Finally, the voice acting from Daws Butler and especially Mel Blanc is spot on.

All in all, a one-joke cartoon with a few things that don't come off as well as they should but the whole point of a cartoon is to entertain and Trick or Tweet does that more than adequately. 7/10 Bethany Cox

We all know that Sylvester spends most of his life trying to trap Tweety. And we all know that he never succeeds. Well, in this case, there's another cat - named Sam - trying to get Tweety. So, most of the cartoon consists of Sylvester and Sam trying to get Tweety, but each cat's plans interfere with the other's. If it's basically a one-joke premise, then at least they come up with a new manifestation every couple of seconds. And the end is truly the highlight. So, maybe it's not the best Looney Tunes cartoon ever produced, but you could always count on Friz Freleng (or Chuck Jones) to direct something worth seeing; this one certainly is. A good time, if nothing else.

Yeah, it is complicated being a bird.