Birdy and the Beast (1944)

You won't be disappointed!

Sadly Over-hyped

Fresh and Exciting

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

. . . prominent American of Today the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes Extreme Early Warning System wished to warn We People of the Future against in this rare "naked" Tweety cartoon, BIRDY AND THE BEAST. You will learn the answer to that riddle if you pause and zoom your DVD remote at the 7:20 mark of BEAST. As Tweety is saying "I get rid of more" (the five-letter P-word containing two S's, with a Y at the end) "that way," you can count that Tweety is about to notch an 86th hash mark on the trunk of Tweety's nesting tree (which seems to be the same height as Rump Tower in Manhattan). "That way," of course, is via the dispatched-by-hand-grenade route. "Throwing a hand grenade" was 1900s American political slang for a President-Elect Rump Tweet. That Rump's Naked Ambition has used an entire symphony worth of Racist, Misogynistic, Xenophobic, and Slanderous Tweets to scare White People into voting for him while making People of Color AFRAID to exercise their Constitutional Voting Rights (that is, VOTER SUPPRESSION) makes a nude Tweety Bird the perfect Warner's warning against the Advent of Rump. The significance of the number of Tweety's hash marks--86--of course denotes the number of women testifying by Rump's Inauguration (or is it Regurgitation?) Day that the White House Resident-Elect grabbed their Private Part "Down There" before being reward with his Molester-in-Chief title (with many if not most of these abused females being liquidated by the Rump Plumbers Squad BEFORE Jan. 20, 2017).

Tweety's second cartoon (and the first to actually name him) is a funny effort from Bob Clampett. In this one an unnamed black cat tries repeatedly to catch Tweety so he can eat him, but the little wisecracking canary manages to outsmart him. It's basically setting the template for what would come with the Sylvester & Tweety series. It's not quite on the level of those shorts, though, since the cat here doesn't bring as much to the table as Sylvester and they were still figuring out Tweety's persona. He is really cute here ("Yoooo hoooo! Did you wose somethin' puddy tat?") and has a bit of a mean streak often missing in later shorts. But he's just not quite "there" yet, ya know? I gotta say, though, there is something especially nice about Mel Blanc's Tweety voice here. It's a got a slight crack to it that gives Tweety's dialogue an undertone of feigned innocence. The animation is excellent with lush colors and well-drawn characters and backgrounds. Carl Stalling's music is exceptional as always. It's a funny cartoon that played to many of Clampett's strengths.

One of Robert Clampett's masterpieces marked everywhere by his unique touch in animation! Odd perspectives! Extremely visual humor! Intentionally distorted animation! I was thunderstruck when I first saw this cartoon. Perhaps the year it was released(1944)explains the savagery of this one. With World War II on everyone's mind cartoons were a release valve for home front anger. It's full of wonderful scenes and a distinctly, on one hand, overly cute, on the other hand overly sadistic Tweety as opposed to his later gentler character. I first saw this one one on a local channel's Looney Tunes Show. I would be very surprised if it ever appeared on the Bugs Bunny Show because it's definitely not one for the preschoolers. As mentioned above, Tweety 'tries' to put out the cat's fire with gasoline. There are several other good quotes in this one. "Gee, Puddytat! I didn't know you could fly!" After a switcheroo with a hand grenade the cat says, "I got it! I got it! I got it!" Then comes Tweety's reply, "He's got it and he can have it!" Kaboom! Even the final quote where he is adding this (presumably dead)cat to his tally: "I get wid of more puddytats that way!" Funny it is! Not one for the kiddies, however! When is it coming out on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVDs?

I remember when I first saw this cartoon at about 5 or 6 years of age, and at first, I was a little creeped out by the early Tweety's crude appearance, but I was soon laughing my head off. Being directed by Bob Clampett rather than the future director of the Tweety cartoons, Friz Freeling, you can expect this cartoon to be a bit sillier. Not to mention that this is Tweety's second cartoon appearance so he's (yes, he is a boy) still in his developmental stages. Note that he's pink rather than yellow, he's a bit meaner than in his later cartoons, and he hasn't even been paired up with his arch rival, Sylvester, yet. Nonetheless, this is a very enjoyable cartoon, with a very memorable line, "Aw, the poor puddy tat! He fall down and go... BOOM!"