Canary Row

Canary Row is a 1950 Merrie Melodies short directed by I. Freleng.
== Title ==
The title is a play on the 1945 John Steinbeck novel Cannery Row.
== Plot ==
From his room in a building belonging to the "Bird-Watchers' Society", Sylvester uses binoculars to focus on the window opposite him, containing Tweety's cage. Tweety does the same (we see Sylvester's dark green eyes magnified enough to see the blood vessels in them, then Tweety's blue eyes—but lacking blood vessels). Tweety puts his binoculars down and says his catch phrase, “I tawt I taw a puddy tat!” Then he replaces his binoculars to confirm and, indeed, “I DID! I DID taw a puddy tat!” Sylvester jumps for joy and runs to the building Tweety is in (the Broken Arms Apartments), but fails to notice the sign banning cats and dogs from the building. This results in a confrontation with the guard just inside the door, who kicks Sylvester out shouts, "AND STAY OUT!!"
Next, Sylvester climbs up the drainpipe of the Broken Arms Apartments while Tweety sings the song "When Irish Eyes are Smiling". Behind Tweety and off-camera, Sylvester swings a paw in metronome rhythm to his "snack's" song. Only then does Tweety realize that Sylvester is watching him. He calls for help and jumps out of his cage; Sylvester chases him through the room. However, Tweety's owner, Granny is ready for him. She throws him out the window and, looking down on him, snarls, "Yeah! That'll teach you! Next time I'll give you what fer!" Tweety joins in the scolding: “Bad ol' puddy tat!”
Sylvester paces around the door, then gets an idea: to climb up in the drainpipe. Instead of getting scared again, Tweety now drops a bowling ball into the drainpipe. The heavy ball collides with Sylvester – and he swallows it! He frantically attempts to stop himself from rolling into "Champin's Bowling Alley" (a reference to animator Ken Champin), but to no avail. Sounds of bowling pins dropping emanate from said building.
Now Sylvester attempts to come up with a new plan for consumption of Tweety. He then notices a street busker with a monkey across the street. He slips across the street and then, after luring the monkey away from his master with a banana, hits him (off-screen) in the head and manages to pass himself off as said monkey to the busker. Tweety isn't fooled, though, realizing that "Uh-oh! Dat puddy tat's after me adain!" Sylvester enters Granny's room chasing Tweety, but has to stop running after him outright when Granny notices him. He now tries (without much success) to surreptitiously look for and eat Tweety. His attempt to pass himself off as a monkey is ruined when Granny gives him a penny and he can't resist tipping his hat politely to her. However, she smacks him in the head with an umbrella and then exposes that she was actually fully aware that he was a deliberately intruding cat who wanted to eat her canary rather than a legitimately in-business monkey whose busker master was trying to make a living. Sylvester, who now has a lump on his head, staggers out of the room, tipping his hat at the angry Granny in the process.
Next, Sylvester manages to gain access to the desk clerk's office undetected (how he did so is unknown) and hears the telephone ring. The desk clerk hurriedly rushes to pick it up, but is professionally calm and polite when talking to Granny. Eavesdropping on them, Sylvester hears that Granny is checking out of Room 158, and that she wants someone to pick up Tweety and her luggage.
This gives Sylvester the idea he wants: cut to a shot of Sylvester knocking on Granny's door. Granny opens it a crack and asks Sylvester what he's doing, to which Sylvester replies in his lisping voice, "Your bagth, Madame?" Granny answers, "Okay, they're behind the door. I'll see you in the lobby." Sylvester enters Room 158 and picks up Granny's suitcases and Tweety's cage. He carries them all out into the hall, then discards the suitcase and carries the cage down the stairs to the rear of the apartment building. There, he walks into the alley and opens the cage, expecting to enjoy Tweety – but Granny is in the cage! She hits Sylvester with her umbrella several times in rapid succession while chasing after him.
Next, Sylvester drags a box, a plank and a 500-pound weight to the point at the base of the apartment building that is in a direct vertical line with Tweety's window. He supports the plank with the box in the middle, stands on one end of the plank and heaves the weight onto the other end. This propels him up to Tweety's level and enables him to snatch the tiny bird. However, as he runs off, the weight lands hard on his head.
Sylvester next tries to swing over to Tweety's window, and uses all manner of scientific methods to ensure that he doesn't let Tweety slip by him again. However, he misjudges something that forces him to crash into the wall next to the drainpipe. Tweety remarks that Sylvester will hurt himself more badly unless he's more careful.
Finally, Sylvester's pacing stops quite abruptly when he notices the electric air cable wires over his head. He crosses the street, climbs the supporting pole and walks the wires across to the Broken Arms Apartment Building. However, he has to get out of the way when he hears the bell ringing to signal the approach of a trolley. His feet aren't quick enough to evade the trolley, and he is shocked several times as the trolley pursues him! The driver is shown to be: Tweety, who once again says, "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!" and Granny, who is sitting next to him, agrees with him, "You did, you DID! You DID taw a putty tat!". The trolley shocks Sylvester three times.
== Caricatures ==
* Frank Nelson
== Availability ==
W UK10554 LooneyTunesVideoShowNo19The.jpg|(1984) VHS The Looney Tunes Video Show Volume 19
StarsOfSpaceJam SylvesterAndTweety.jpg|(1996) VHS Stars of Space Jam Sylvester and Tweety
Bumper05.jpg|(1996) VHS Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 5)
Spacetweety.jpg|(1997) LaserDisc Japanese Looney Tunes LaserDiscs Sylvester and Tweety
I Love Tweety - Volume 3.jpg|(2001) DVD I Love Tweety: Volume 3 (restored with DVNR)
LT Golden Collection 1.jpg|(2003) DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 1, Disc Four (restored with DVNR)
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection 1.jpg|(2003) DVD Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 1, Disc One, (restored with DVNR)
Lt cas2.jpg|(2004) DVD Looney Tunes Collection All Stars Volume 2
Lt cas12.jpg|(2004) DVD Looney Tunes Collection All Stars Volumes 1 & 2, Disc 2
SuperStars SylvesterAndTweety.jpg|(2010) DVD Looney Tunes Super Stars' Tweety & Sylvester: Feline Fwenzy (restored with DVNR)
Lt bbot s.jpg|(2011) DVD Sylvester
LTPC Volume 3 Cover.png|(2014) Blu-ray Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc 2, (original opening titles restored, restored without DVNR)
LT Platinum Collection VOL 3 DVD Cover.png|(2014) DVD Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc 2, (original opening titles restored, restored without DVNR)
LooneyTunes CenterStageV2.jpg|(2014) DVD Looney Tunes Center Stage Volume 2
Lt ssfm2.jpg|(2017) DVD Looney Tunes Super Stars Family Multi-Feature Vol. 2, Disc 2
Lt sosj st dvd.jpg|(2018) DVD Stars of Space Jam: Sylvester and Tweety
Lt sosj cv1.jpg|(2018) DVD Stars of Space Jam Collection Volume 1
Lt spotlight v1-3.jpg|(2018) DVD Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 1-3 Repack
=== Streaming ===
lt hbo max.jpg|HBO Max (2020 - 2023) (original opening titles restored, restored without DVNR)
lt max.jpg|Max (2023 - ) (original opening titles restored, restored without DVNR)
Lt itunes.jpg|iTunes ( - ) (original opening titles restored, restored without DVNR)
== Censorship ==
The ABC version of this cartoon edited two scenes of Sylvester being surprise-attacked:http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-c.aspx
* When Sylvester takes the cage down to the back exit, only to find Granny in it, and Granny beats him with her umbrella, the original short had Granny beating Sylvester six times, including chasing Sylvester. On ABC, the beatings were cut down to one to remove the part where she chases him.
* At the end of the cartoon, Sylvester is trying to outrun a streetcar that Granny is operating. On ABC, the first two electrocutions are looped over after a final shot of Tweety and Granny in the streetcar, concluding the cartoon this way instead of having Sylvester run off into the background. As such, there is no iris-out, but instead a sudden cut to black. The end soundtrack remains intact.
== Notes ==
* This is the first appearance of Granny. She had prototypes dating back to 1937, starting with "Little Red Walking Hood", and most of her prototypes were voiced by Bea Benaderet, the same voice actor who played Granny from 1950 to 1955.
* The original closing was kept, due to it being reissued in the 1958–59 season.
* On the opening titles, the cartoon's copyright year mentioned in Roman numerals is MCMXLIX, hence it reveals that this cartoon was made and copyrighted in 1949 and released in 1950.
* A billboard advertising "Friz" appears near the building where Tweety lives. Also visible is a storefront reading "Champin & Sons".
* Mel Blanc's voice for Tweety, except when singing, was edited to an extra higher pitch than usual for this cartoon, but would go back to its regular edited pitch in Tweety's next short, "Putty Tat Trouble". It would happen again in the 1952 short "A Bird in a Guilty Cage", and stayed that way from 1953 to early 1954, but would return to the original edited pitch again in "No Barking".
* In 1949, this cartoon was announced as a nominee for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoon), along with "For Scent-imental Reasons". However, producer Eddie Selzer withdrew the film's nomination as only one cartoon could be voted on in each category, causing it to not appear on the final ballot.https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/warner-club-news-1950/
* Sylvester going up the drainpipe is sort of a reference to the children's song "The Itsy Bitsy Spider".
== Gallery ==
Cr1.jpg|Lobby card
Crt.jpg|Lobby card
18 20180208091539565.jpg|Lobby card
Canary Row Lobby Plate.png|Lobby plate
Canary Row credits.png|Credits
Canary Row Director Credit.png|Directors' credit
Canary Row (1950) - Bird Watchers.jpg
Canary Row (1950) - Your Bags, Madam?.jpg
== References ==
Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng
Category:Tweety Cartoons
Category:Sylvester Cartoons
Category:Granny Cartoons
Category:Shorts
Category:1950
Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts
Category:Blue Ribbon reissues
Category:Cartoons animated by Emery Hawkins
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with layouts by Hawley Pratt
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Paul Julian
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Bea Benaderet
Category:Cartoons written by Tedd Pierce
Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Academy Award nominees
Category:Re-released cartoons whose original titles are known to exist