Tugboat Granny is a "Merrie Melodies

Merrie Melodies

Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animated cartoons distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969.Originally produced by Harman-Ising Pictures, Merrie Melodies were produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions from 1933 to 1944. Schlesinger sold his studio to Warner Bros. in 1944,...

" cartoon animated short starring Tweety and Sylvester

Sylvester (Looney Tunes)

Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr., Sylvester the Cat or simply Sylvester, is a fictional character, a three-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic Tuxedo cat in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies repertory, often chasing Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper...

. Released June 23, 1956, the cartoon is directed by Friz Freleng

Friz Freleng

Isadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros....

. The voices were performed by Mel Blanc

Mel Blanc

Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...

 and June Foray

June Foray

June Foray is an American voice actress, best known as the voice of many animated characters...

.

The cartoon's title is a play on Tugboat Annie

Tugboat Annie

For the 1957 syndicated television series, see The Adventures of Tugboat Annie.Tugboat Annie is a 1933 movie starring Marie Dressler and Wallace Beery as a comically quarrelsome middle-aged couple who operate a tugboat...

, and is the only cartoon in the Warner Bros. series to bear Granny

Granny (Looney Tunes)

Granny is a co-star of many Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird animated shorts throughout the 1950s and 1960s, is a Looney Tunes character that was created by Tex Avery. She is the owner of Tweety . Granny's voice was first provided by Bea Benaderet from 1937 through 1953...

's name.

Plot

In the opening scene, Granny and Tweety are happily piloting a rented tugboat in a harbor, singing a kiddie-song duet about the carefree joys of their activity. It is the only scene in which Granny appears, as the rest of the cartoon is devoted to Sylvester's latest attempts to catch and eat Tweety, which begins when, after failing to grab a fish by hiding in a fisherman's basket, (where he gets attacked by a crab the fisherman caught) he sees the boat carrying the canary chug past.

Sylvester's attempts, all unsuccessful, include the following:

• Using a rowboat to get to the tug. Tweety drops anchor in the boat's hull, sinking Sylvester (though he comes out onto the beach still rowing with the oars).
• Using an inflatable raft, which is deflated by a dart thrown be Tweety ("Hey, puddy tat! Wook what I found! Here, you can have it!").
• Two attempts at jumping off the bridge. The first jump is mistimed, as Sylvester lands in the smokestack, leaving him with his rear end on fire. A follow-up attempt from another bridge to parachute onto the boat's deck ("Oh, that bad ol' puddy tat! He never give up!") results in a jammed pack, which only opens after Sylvester sinks to the bottom of the canal ("Aww, the poor puddy tat. Got himself all soaking wet.").
• Using a snorkel to swim to the boat. A seagull finds Sylvester's pipe the perfect resting place (blocking the airway); the cat is left holding the egg.
• Driving a motorboat, but Sylvester drives instead into the rapids and over a waterfall. All the time, the motor fails to start, and when it does, Sylvester pounds it to submission.
• A lasso ("That puddy tat thinks he a cowboy!"), which instead grabs the antenna of a speedboat. Sylvester decides to show off several waterskiing tricks ... until the inattentive puddy smashes into a pole. As he floats upside-down , a fish gurgles Tweety's signature line: "I tawt I taw a puddy tat."

External links

• Nuance and Suggestion in the Tweety and Sylvester Series - Written by Kevin McCorry