Gift Wrapped (film)

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Gift Wrapped
TweetyGiftWrapped TC.png
Directed by I. Freleng
Story by Warren Foster [1]
Produced by Edward Selzer
John W. Burton [2]
Starring Mel Blanc
Bea Benaderet
Narrated by Daws Butler
Edited by Treg Brown
Music by Carl Stalling
Animation by Arthur Davis
Manuel Perez
Virgil Ross
Ken Champin
Layouts by Hawley Pratt
Backgrounds by Irv Wyner [2]
Color process Technicolor
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date
  • February 16, 1952 (1952-02-16)
Running time
7 minutes 26 seconds
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Gift Wrapped is a 1952 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. [3] The short was released on February 16, 1952, and stars Tweety and Sylvester. [4]

Contents

The film is Christmas-themed. Sylvester receives a rubber mouse as his Christmas gift, but he instead wants Granny's gift for himself.

Plot

Sylvester awakes on Christmas morning to find presents under the Christmas tree, but is disappointed when his gift is just a rubber mouse. When he hears singing coming from what appears to be a gift-wrapped birdcage and sees that it is labeled for Granny, he looks inside and sees Tweety. Deciding he wants Tweety as his present, he switches the tags on the gifts just as Granny comes downstairs.

Granny gives the cage to Sylvester and opens the box with the rubber mouse. Believing it to be a mix-up, she goes to give Sylvester his box and correct the mistake, but once she sees a satisfied Sylvester hiccup Tweety's feathers, she immediately gets wise and makes the cat spit up the bird, by whopping him. After a thorough scolding, Granny insists that Sylvester kiss Tweety under a sprig of mistletoe, but the now-sulking cat eats Tweety again instead, leading to another forced regurgitation.

Granny places Tweety's cage on a pole where she thinks Sylvester won't be able to reach it, but the ever-resourceful feline is determined to get his meal. On his first attempt, Tweety points out a huge present waiting under the Christmas tree. Sylvester immediately abandons the bird in his greed, runs to the package and opens it with relish, only to find it is Hector the Bulldog, who promptly eats Sylvester. Granny immediately forces Hector to spit out Sylvester and drags him out of the room.

Meanwhile, Sylvester resumes his attempts to get to Tweety with the following tricks all ending in failure:

In the final gag, Tweety is playing on his new train set in the living room when Sylvester sneaks in with some spare train tracks and sets them up to point the train toward his open mouth, then sets the train in reverse. After devouring Tweety in one bite, Sylvester, in turn, is eaten whole by Hector. An outraged Granny makes both the dog and cat spit up their respective prey and, having had enough of their carnivorous pursuits, declares in her rage that she will ensure that there will be peace in the house once and for all as she drags both of them out of the room.

The cartoon ends during the evening with Granny (while playing the pipe organ) and Tweety (the only one of the animals who has behaved) singing a variation of the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing". On Tweety's right and left are Sylvester and Hector, both with giant Christmas tree stamps taped all over their mouths to prevent trouble from either of them.

Cast

Home media

Additionally, despite this cartoon being under copyright, some public domain VHS tapes have this cartoon.

Trivia

See also

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References

  1. Beck, Jerry (1991). I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty Years of Sylvester and Tweety. New York: Henry Holt and Co. p. 109. ISBN   0-8050-1644-9.
  2. 1 2 Webb, Graham (2011). The Animated Film Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to American Shorts, Features and Sequences (1900-1999). McFarland & Company, Inc. p. 136. ISBN   978-0-7864-4985-9.
  3. Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 232. ISBN   0-8050-0894-2.
  4. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 151–152. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7 . Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  5. Crump, William D. (2019). Happy Holidays—Animated! A Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year's Cartoons on Television and Film. McFarland & Co. p. 118. ISBN   9781476672939.