Tweety Bird
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Tweety '
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| Tweety in Tweety's SOS | |
| First appearance | A Tale of Two Kitties (1942) |
| Created by | Bob Clampett |
| Voiced by | Mel Blanc, |
| Background Information | |
| Aliases | Orson |
| Friends | Granny, Hector, Sweetie Pie (student) |
| Rivals | Sylvester |
| Catch phrases | I tawt I taw a puddy tat! I did! I did taw a puddy tat! Bad old puddy tat! Poor Old Puddy Tat! |
- For other meanings of words and phrases starting with tweet, see tweet.
Tweety Bird (also known as Tweety Pie or simply Tweety) is a fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated cartoons. Tweety's popularity, like that of The Tasmanian Devil, actually grew in the years following the dissolution of the Looney Tunes cartoons. Today Tweety is considered, along with Taz and Bugs Bunny, among the most popular of the Looney Tunes characters, especially (because of his "cute" appearance and personality) among girls and young women. Despite widespread speculation that he was female, Tweety is and has always been a male character. On the other hand, his species is ambiguous; although originally and often portrayed as a young canary, he is also frequently called a rare and valuable "Tweetybird" as a plot device.
Tweety is, for the most part, a good-natured character happily spending life in his cage or a nest. However, when a cat or other adversary threatens him, he can become downright malicious and devious, even kicking his enemy when he's down.
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[edit] Freleng takes over
Clampett began work on a short that would pit Tweety against a then-unnamed, lisping black and white cat created by Friz Freleng in 1945. However, Clampett left the studio before going into full production on the short, and Freleng took on the project. Freleng toned Tweety down and cutsied him up, giving him large blue eyes and yellow feathers. Clampett mentions in Bugs Bunny Superstar that the feathers were added to satisfy censors who objected to the naked bird. The first short to team Tweety and the cat, later named Sylvester, was 1947's Tweetie Pie, which won Warner Bros. its first Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons).
The pairing of Sylvester and Tweety was one of the most notable pairings in animation history. Most of their cartoons followed a standard formula:
- The hungry "puddy tat" wanting to eat the bird, some major obstacle stands in his way – usually Granny or her bulldog Hector (or occasionally, numerous bulldogs, or another cat who wants to eat tweety).
- Tweety says his signature lines ("I tawt I taw a puddy tat!" and "I did, I did taw a puddy tat!").
- Sylvester spending the entire film using progressively more elaborate schemes or devices to capture his meal. Of course, each of his tricks fail, either due to their flaws or, more often than not, because Tweety steers the enemy cat towards Hector the Bulldog, an indignant Granny (voiced by Bea Benaderet and later June Foray), or other device (such as off the ledge of a tall building or steering him into an oncoming train).
In 1951, Mel Blanc (with Billy May's orchestra) had a hit single with "I Taut I Taw A Puddy Tat," a song performed in character by Tweety Bird and featuring Sylvester.
[edit] Later appearances
Tweety has a small part in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, by "accidentally" causing Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) to fall from a pole.
During the 1990s, Tweety also starred in an animated TV series called The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, in which Granny ran a detective agency with the assistance of Tweety, Sylvester and Hector. In 2003, a younger version of him premiered on Baby Looney Tunes.
Tweety appeared in an early 1980s public service announcement, warning parents of the dangers of boiling temperature bath water.
In the TV series Tiny Toon Adventures, Tweety appeared in several episodes as the mentor of Sweetie Pie.
In the 1995 cartoon short Carrotblanca, a parody/homage to Casablanca, Tweety appeared as "Usmarte", a parody of the character Ugarte played by Peter Lorre in the original film. In several sequences, Tweety was speaking and laughing in character like Peter Lorre.
In the game Taz Wanted, he helps Taz through different levels of the game and ends up being the true villain of the game in the end.
[edit] Comic Books
Western Publications produced a comic book about Tweety and Sylvester entitled Tweety and Sylvester first in Dell Comics Four Color series #406, 489, and 524, then in their own title from Dell Comics (#4-37, 1954-62), then later from Gold Key Comics (#1-102, 1963-72).
[edit] Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies filmography
- A Tale of Two Kitties
- Birdy and the Beast
- A Gruesome Twosome
- Tweetie Pie
- I Taw A Putty Tat
- Bad Ol' Putty Tat
- Home Tweet Home
- All A Bir-r-r-d
- Canary Row
- Puddy Tat Twouble
- Room and Bird
- Tweety's SOS
- Tweet, Tweet Tweety
- Gift Wrapped
- Ain't She Tweet
- Bird in Guilty Cage
- Snow Business
- Fowl Weather
- Tom Tom Tomcat
- A Street Cat Named Sylvester
- Catty Cornered
- Dog Pounded
- No Barking
- Muzzle Tough
- Satan's Waitin
- Sandy Claws
- Tweety's Circus
- Red Riding Hoodwinked
- Tweet And Sour
- Tree Cornered Tweety
- Tugboat Granny
- Tweet Zoo
- Tweety And The Beanstalk
- Birds Anonymous
- Greedy For Tweety
- A Pizza Tweety Pie
- A Bird In A Bonnet
- Trick Or Tweet
- Tweet And Lovely
- Tweet Dreams
- Hyde And Go Tweet
- Trip For Tat
- Rebel Without Claws
- The Last Hungry Cat
- The Jet Cage
- Hawaiian Aye Aye
- Carrotblanca
