Muzzle Tough

Last updated
Muzzle Tough
Directed by I. Freleng
Written by Warren Foster [1]
Produced by Edward Selzer (uncredited)
Starring Mel Blanc
Bea Benaderet (uncredited)
Music by Carl Stalling
Animation byKen Champin
Virgil Ross
Arthur Davis
Manuel Perez
Layouts by Hawley Pratt
Backgrounds by Irv Wyner
Color process Technicolor
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date
June 26, 1954
Running time
7 mins
LanguageEnglish

Muzzle Tough is a 1954 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. [2] The short was released on June 26, 1954, and stars Tweety, Sylvester and Granny. [3]

Contents

The title is a play on the Yiddish expression "mazel tov", which roughly translates to "good luck".

Plot

The story begins with Granny and two moving men in their truck (which reads "Checker Movers, It's Your Move") searching for her new house, which they soon find. The movers walk Granny's belongings past Sylvester as he is napping on top of the wall surrounding the house. Sylvester suddenly wakes up when the movers parade Tweety in his cage past him, and Tweety says: "I tawt I taw a puddytat!" Immediately, Sylvester starts to pursue Tweety atop the wall, but then crashes into a lamp post and falls off the wall.

Sylvester climbs back up as Tweety is carried into the house, while another mover sets Hector's doghouse down on the ground. Sylvester steps down upon the roof of the doghouse as he comes down from the wall, and when Hector sees him, he likewise says: "I tawt I taw a puddytat!" Hector then bites Sylvester's tail and chases him back out to the street.

Plotting to get past Hector and finagle his way into the house, Sylvester disguises himself as a lamp, putting a shade on his head. After a mover carries him in and sets him on the table next to Tweety's cage, Tweety plugs Sylvester's tail into the outlet, giving Sylvester a massive electric jolt. Hector bites Sylvester and also gets zapped, then chases him out of the house and back to the street again.

Sylvester then tries posing as one of the movers...and gets Granny's piano loaded into his arms! Tweety guides Sylvester all the way up the stairs to the top floor and through a doorway, which sends Sylvester plummeting with the piano to the street below, prompting Tweety to remark: "Ooooh, dat wast step was a wuwu!"

Making another attempt, Sylvester hides under a bear rug to sneak up on Tweety and climbs up to his cage. Granny, frightened at the sight, thinks the bear had been "playing 'possum for twenty years" and fires several pistol shots at Sylvester (a partial reference to The Fair-Haired Hare) before Hector chases him out again.

Finally, Sylvester goes to the costume shop and dresses up full-body as a voluptuous female dog to lure Hector away from the front steps. As the instantly lovestruck Hector approaches, Sylvester is preparing to knock him out with a mallet, but before he does, a dog catcher captures Sylvester in his net and locks him in his truck. Outraged, Sylvester furiously pounds on the window, demanding the dog catcher to let him out, but the dog catcher isn't listening to a word. He then removes the rubber dog mask from his costume yelling, "I'm not a dog, I'm a cat! K-A-T!"—a fatal error, as all the dogs in the truck notice immediately and begin to attack him as the truck disappears down the street. Tweety then says: "Dere won't be no more puddytats awound to chase me now.", before he sees two cats in the room with lamp shades on their heads, to which he says: "Of tourse, I tould be wong."

Home media

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tweety</span> Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

Tweety is a yellow canary in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated cartoons. The name "Tweety" is a play on words, as it originally meant "sweetie", along with "tweet" being an English onomatopoeia for the sounds of birds. His characteristics are based on Red Skelton's famous "Junior the Mean Widdle Kid." He appeared in 46 cartoons during the golden age, made between 1942 and 1964.

<i>Canary Row</i> 1950 film by Friz Freleng

Canary Row is a 1949 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng and written by Tedd Pierce. The short was released on October 7, 1950, and stars Tweety and Sylvester.

Dog Pounded is a 1954 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated cartoon short directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on January 2, 1954, and stars Tweety and Sylvester. The voices were performed by Mel Blanc. The title is a play on the phrase dog pound.

Tweety and the Beanstalk is a 1957 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies directed by Friz Freleng. The voices were performed by Mel Blanc and June Foray (uncredited). The short was released on July 1, 1957, and stars Tweety and Sylvester.

<i>I Taw a Putty Tat</i> 1948 short animated cartoon directed by Friz Freleng

I Taw a Putty Tat is a 1948 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on April 1, 1948, and stars Tweety and Sylvester.

<i>Gift Wrapped</i> (film) 1952 American film

Gift Wrapped is a 1952 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on February 16, 1952, and stars Tweety and Sylvester.

The Jet Cage is a 1962 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on September 22, 1962, and stars Tweety and Sylvester.

<i>Tweetys S.O.S.</i> 1951 film

Tweety's S.O.S. is a 1951 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on September 22, 1951, and stars Tweety and Sylvester.

Tweet and Sour is a 1956 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon short directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on March 24, 1956, and stars Tweety, Sylvester, Granny, and Sam Cat. The voices are performed by Mel Blanc and June Foray.

<i>Tree Cornered Tweety</i> 1956 American film

Tree Cornered Tweety is a 1956 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on May 19, 1956, and stars Tweety and Sylvester. The title is a play on "three-cornered hat".

<i>The Last Hungry Cat</i> 1961 film

The Last Hungry Cat is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon animated short directed by Friz Freleng and Hawley Pratt. The short was released on December 2, 1961, and stars Tweety and Sylvester.

A Pizza Tweety-Pie is a 1958 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on February 22, 1958, and stars Tweety, Sylvester and Granny.

<i>All a Bir-r-r-d</i> 1950 American film

All a Bir-r-r-d is a 1950 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. It was written by Tedd Pierce and directed by Isadore "Friz" Freleng. The short was released on June 24, 1950, and stars Tweety, Sylvester and an unnamed bulldog, who would later become known as Hector.

A Bird in a Bonnet is a 1958 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Friz Freleng. The voices were performed by Mel Blanc, Daws Butler and June Foray. The short was released on September 27, 1958, and stars Tweety and Sylvester.

Greedy for Tweety is a 1957 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on September 28, 1957, and stars Tweety and Sylvester.

Peck Up Your Troubles is a 1945 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on October 20, 1945, and stars Sylvester the Cat.

<i>Room and Bird</i> 1951 film

Room and Bird is a 1951 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on June 2, 1951, and stars Tweety and Sylvester.

<i>A Bird in a Guilty Cage</i> 1952 film

A Bird in a Guilty Cage is a 1952 Looney Tunes animated short directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on August 30, 1952, and stars Tweety and Sylvester. The title is a pun on the song "A Bird in a Gilded Cage".

Fowl Weather is a 1953 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on April 4, 1953, and stars Tweety and Sylvester.

A Street Cat Named Sylvester is a 1953 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated short directed by Friz Freleng. The short was released on September 5, 1953, and stars Tweety and Sylvester.

References

  1. Beck, Jerry (1991). I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty Years of Sylvester and Tweety. New York: Henry Holt and Co. p. 123. ISBN   0-8050-1644-9.
  2. Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 262. ISBN   0-8050-0894-2.
  3. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 151–152. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7 . Retrieved 6 June 2020.