Birdy and the Beast

Birdy and the Beast is a 1944 Merrie Melodies short directed by Bob Clampett.
== Title ==
The title is a play on the French fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast".
== Plot ==
Tweety is sitting in his nest, while a cat watches him. Tweety flies off, and the cat chases after him. Tweety hides in a cloud, but the cat can't fly, so instead he falls to the ground. Tweety remarks, "The poor titty-tat! He fall down and go, BOOM!" and smiles. By chance, the cat falls on a bulldog called Butch, who helps Tweety.
Furious, the cat chases Tweety, but Tweety scares him off. Tweety fools the cat by hiding in Butch's dish. The cat comes in and starts looking at Butch's dish. Butch comes in and pounds the cat to the ground.
Tweety wanders into the Cat's mouth while he is looking for Tweety. Tweety lights the cats tongue on fire by putting a match on it. Tweety escapes, and acts as if he is helping the cat by placing a firehose in his mouth. When he charges the hose (wearing a fireman hat), it turns out to be connected to a gas can, and gasoline goes into the cat's mouth, causing him to explode.
The cat survives, but he's still out to get Tweety. When he arrives at the bottom of a tree, he becomes a nest. Tweety gets into it, but a hen who is laying eggs causes him to get off. When she's finished, she flies off. The cat's mouth is full of eggs. The cat's attempt to catch Tweety once again fails when he grabs a grenade handed to him by Tweety. He blows up and Tweety says, "You know, I get wid of more putty tats that way!" On the tree trunk, under the heading “Putty Tats”, he makes a mark. Apparently, he has “got wid of” more than 200 putty tats!
== Caricatures ==
* Wally Maher's character Wilbur - "I like him, he's silly!"
== Availability ==
8mm-aap-cartoons.jpg|Super 8 (Associated Artists Productions)
Viddy-Oh! For Kids VHS 8.jpg|(1986) VHS Viddy-Oh! For Kids Cartoon Festivals: Little Tweety and Little Inki Cartoon Festival Featuring "I Taw a Putty Tat"
Cartoon Moviestars 12.jpg|(1989) VHS Cartoon Moviestars: Tweety and Sylvester 
Golden-Age-of-Looney-Tunes-3-F.jpg|(1992) LaserDisc The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Vol. 3, Side 6, Tashlin/Clampett
LTPC VOL 2 Blu Ray.jpg|(2012) Blu-ray Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2, Disc 1
LTPC VOL 2 DVD.jpg|(2012) DVD Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2, Disc 1
=== Streaming ===
lt hbo max.jpg|HBO Max (2020 - 2023)
lt max.jpg|Max (2023 - )
== Notes ==
* Bob Clampett redesigned Tweety slightly in this short, making him look a bit rounder and cuter, with bigger eyes and a larger head in proportion to his body compared to his original debut design from "A Tale of Two Kitties", while still retaining the lack of feathers on his body. This design of Tweety would later be used again in "A Gruesome Twosome".
**Tweety's character designs in both Who Framed Roger Rabbit, New Looney Tunes and Looney Tunes Cartoons is loosely inspired by his design from this short, albeit with yellow feathers added.
*This is the final Merrie Melodies release to credit Leon Schlesinger.
*This is the only Tweety short animated by Tom McKimson.
*This is the first Tweety cartoon to star Tweety, as the previous short, "A Tale of Two Kitties", was more centered around the two cats Babbit and Catstello, than Tweety.
** This is also the only Tweety short to focus on him in particular during the three Bob Clampett shorts, as Clampett's follow-up, "A Gruesome Twosome", only introduces Tweety in the second half after spending the first half of the short on two other cats.
* This is the first time Tweety was given his official name, as with his previous short, "A Tale of Two Kitties", he was originally referred to as Orson in model sheets.
* The cat has been identified elsewherehttp://www.erictb.info/ltmm.html as Schnooks.
* "You know, I get wid of more putty tats that way!" is a line that would be echoed, albeit with slight variations, in "A Gruesome Twosome", "Bad Ol' Putty Tat", and "A Bird in a Bonnet".
*In the dubbed version, the 1938-1941 closing theme plays instead for both EU and US dubbed.
**The restored print on Blu-ray does not have this error.
**The Russian dub of the restored print uses the dubbed version's soundtrack, hence the 1938-41 end cue at the end title.
*The end of the sequence with the bulldog has him grumble "This shouldn't even happen to a dog", repeating a line used as the punchline of the earlier Bob Clampett short "Hare Ribbin'" by the Russian Dog.
==Gallery==
BirdyandtheBeastCredits1.png
BirdyandtheBeastCredits2.png
Screenshot 2021-01-26 at 9.13.13 PM.png|Lobby card
8x10 looney tunes repro lot of 8 HP03552 L (2).jpg|Lobby card
BirdyBoard1.jpg|Storyboard panel
BirdyBoard2.jpg
BirdyBoard3.jpg
BirdyBoard4.jpg
File:Birdy and the Beast (1944) - Gas.jpg
==References==
 
Category:Tweety Cartoons
Category:Cartoons directed by Bob Clampett
Category:1944
Category:Cartoons that contain excerpts from "Powerhouse"
Category:Shorts
Category:Cartoons written by Warren Foster
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts
Category:Cartoons in a.a.p. package
Category:Cartoons produced by Leon Schlesinger
Category:Cartoons animated by Art Babbitt