Tom Tom Tomcat

Plot synopsis:
Granny and Tweety are riding through the desert in their wagon, to the tune of Oh! Susanna, when they are ambushed by Indians (who bear remarkable resemblance to Sylvester). They are forced to hole up in a fort, where Granny begins to shoot them down while Tweety counts (Ten Little Indians). On the tenth, one nearly takes Tweety, but is shot down just in time.
More attempts include an archer and a battering ram, both foiled. One archer almost drags Tweety out again ("Granny! Help! A Mohican got me!") but Granny surprises him with a bomb instead. The cats' attempts continue like this, all of them backfiring or being foiled; usually the cats are blown up or shot. In one instance, the chief orders the actual Sylvester to sneak into the fort; Sylvester emerges later with the top of his head having been scalped off by Granny.
Finally, Granny and Tweety disguise themselves as a fellow Indian, and lead the cats into the powder house. When one asks for a match, they kindly oblige, and the powder house explodes, causing all the cats to erupt into the sky and then fall. "Oh my goodness!" Tweety comments, "It's raining putty tats!"

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
A funny Western starring Tweety. Here is another cartoon favorite starring Tweety, one of my favorite Looney Tunes characters too. I kind of like the idea of the Native American cats riding on bigger cats with mustang patterns like their human/horse counterparts. Mind you that this cartoon has a stereotypical depiction of Native American indians, but this cartoon is still a funny western to me.I thought the other cats look like relatives of Sylvester because of their colors and since he's one of the "tribe" of cats trying to get Tweety. I don't have one particular scene that I like because I love this cartoon from beginning to end.. Decent enough if unexceptional. The Sylvester and Tweety cartoons while formulaic and occasionally repetitive are enjoyable watches, a good amount of them great. Tom Tom Tomcat is on the other hand one of the weaker cartoons of the series, it's still a decent one but the series has seen far better. The animation is colourful and fluid with the backgrounds having a good amount of details and the characters drawn well, although the Sylvester Indian variants don't really differ from one another. Carl Stalling's music is lushly orchestrated and very lively rhythmically with a real ability to enhance every action or character movement or noise, especially enjoyable was the music for the opening titles sequence. The gags are amusing if not hilarious, especially when the actual Sylvester(seen 4 minutes of a 6 and a half minute duration when ordered to sneak into the fort) gets scalped, the cat trying to drag Tweety out getting surprised with a bomb and the ending faring best(they're not really new material but they are funny nonetheless). Tweety is cute and doesn't feel like a plot device(here he does actually do a fair bit), Granny has rarely been craftier or more resourceful and the Sylvester Indians are fun. Mel Blanc- a remarkably consistent voice actor who does something that few other voice actors manage to do so well in that he voices multiple characters and gives them a different and always interesting personality- does a stellar job with the vocal characterisations, Bea Benaderet is good but has been better. You can kind of understand why it hasn't been showed on US TV for so long though. Largely due to the Native Indian stereotyping(particularly in the pursuit of the waggon and when the chief orders Sylvester to sneak into the fort using distinctively Native Indian terminology), which is not very subtle(then again when has stereotyping been subtle) and may not bode well with some but not really to the point of racism. Not much of the dialogue is particularly memorable, some of it raises a chuckle but a few other parts are lame especially Tweety's final line. The story starts off great but the middle is particularly formulaic and some of the methods of trying to catch Tweety border on repetitive(the Ten Little Indians gag falls flat humour-wise and is slightly drawn out), with material that have been seen before and much better. And there should have been more of the actual Sylvester, he's such a great character who's crafty, funny and his facial expressions are often a joy, but- while he is amusing and has one of the better gags- he is underused in a cartoon that is dominated by the variants rather than him and he has had much stronger material. All in all, a decent Sylvester and Tweety cartoon but unexceptional. 6/10 Bethany Cox. Today employment at the U.S. State Department is at its lowest level since the 1800s . . .. . . . echoing Warner Bros.' warning depicted here in TOM TOM TOMCAT when Granny and Tweety seek refuge in a totally deserted fort. Warner's Animated Shorts Seers division (aka, The Looney Tuners) use this abandoned fortress to warn America about how beleaguered our last refuge will be if we ever allow Red Commie KGB Chief Vlad "The Mad Russian" Putin (symbolized during TOM TOM TOMCAT by a Pinko Herd of Red-Nosed Sylvester Cats) to install a bankrupt draft-dodging self-confessed serial finger rapist thrice-married geriatric clown as the USA's Game-Show-Host-in-Chief. TOM TOM TOMCAT at least gives we True Blue Loyal Patriotic Normal Average 99 Per Center Silent Majority Progressive Union Label Americans such as Granny and Tweety a few glimmers of Hope, showing that if we stick to our guns (and kegs of gun powder), we can eliminate, rub out, liquidate, squelch, and stymie dozens of these Sylvester-like Red Commie Oligarchs and their Quisling Fellow-Traveling Traitor Enablers, since there are more of us then there are of them!