Two alley cats, Babbitt and Catsello, decide to make a meal out of Orson as he sleeps in his nest atop a telephone pole. The gullible (and loud) Catsello is repeatedly gulled into trying to "get the bird," earning a variety of thrashings from the casually murderous little canary. Catsello finally resorts to an air strike (with a pair of wooden boards for wings), but it's wartime, and Orson has the cat blasted out of the sky by anti-aircraft guns.
Una historia de dos gatos, Histoire de chatons, ネコたちの大作戦, История двух кошечек, Պատմություն երկու կատուների մասին, Due gatti contro Titti, Vogelfang mit Hindernissen, Рассказ о двух котятах, Macskaszáj, Opowieść o dwóch kotach
USANR
USA
Long after my memories of hard-fought career successes and cherished loved ones retreat from my elderly mind, the memory of Mel Blanc shouting “BABBITT!” will stay with me; holding my hand and comforting me like a dear friend as I go to my reward
Thank goodness my very expensive liberal arts education prepped me to find "If the Hayes office would only let me, I'd give him the bird alright" as hilarious as it's meant to be. Tweety looks kind of hairless in these early days, I have to say, though it's not the weirdest unmotivated visual. That'd probably be the diver's mask. Pretty standard situations but it runs at a great clip. Bonus OWI points for the victory garden and air-raid protocol.
I’ve got to hit it with a five because it’s almost definitely the hardest I’ve ever laughed at a Looney Tunes cartoon, just unbelievable work from Mel Blanc and Clampett, Catstello had me fucking losing it.
It's slow to get started: the opening really just doesn't have any ideas beyond "what if Abbott and Costello were cats?", and it can't even quite execute that right: they don't look so much like their models that I'm sure I'd have figured it out without prompting. The vocals are pretty good, at least: Tedd Pierce's Bud Abbott is excellent and Mel Blanc's Lou Costello is altogether uncanny. And there's some fun character animation in all of this, though Catstello is just not stretched nearly far enough beyond the basic "drooping eyelids and sullen mouth" expression he starts with.
All of this changes, and hard, about 3 minutes in, when the story actively brings in the small naked bird who…
A very funny mish mash of Abbott and Costello pastiche, war-time gags, Hays Code bashing and the debut of a (very different looking) Tweety Pie, or Orson as he apparently was set to be called.
The slapstick is predictable but quite bloodthirsty and visually amusing, one of the better Warner cartoons from the period.
Babbit: Aren’t you ashamed?
Catstello: I don’t know.
This early 40s Merrie Melody is still one of the funniest. More than just a spoof on the comedy routines of Abbott and Costello, this short has a lot of signature Looney humor in it, from the quick dialogue to the absurd slapstick to even a fourth wall break. Not to mention this being Tweety’s debut—he’s already got all his catchphrases!
"I'm a baaaaaaaaaad pussycat!"
I wonder how many other kids besides me first discovered Abbot & Costello even existed from this cartoon.
Two cats, who are caricatures of Abbott & Costello, are trying to catch Tweety Bird, who keeps outsmarting them and defying the laws of physics as he does. Watching this short many times as a kid, I never realized this was actually Tweety's debut, and the character is already fully formed; aside from the color, he already has all the trademark catchphrases and mannerisms. Mel Blanc has already perfected the voice (and come to think of it, his imitation of Costello sounds a lot like Daffy Duck).
While not as great as any of Chuck Jones's work, this is still top-tier Looney Tunes humor.
