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 "Mean Widdle Kid." Tweety appeared in 46
cartoons during the golden age, made between 1942 and 1962.Despite the
perceptions that people may hold, owing to the long eyelashes and
high-pitched voice (which Mel Blanc provided), Tweety is male although
his ambiguity was played with. For example, in the cartoon "Snow
Business", when Granny entered a room containing Tweety and Sylvester
she said: "Here I am, boys!", whereas a 1952 cartoon was entitled
Ain't She Tweet [emphasis added]. Also, his species is ambiguous;
although originally and often portrayed as a young canary, he is also
frequently called a rare and valuable "tweety bird" as a plot device,
and once called "the only living specimen". Nevertheless, the title
song of The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries directly states that the bird
is a canary. His shape more closely suggests that of a baby bird,
which is what he was during his early appearances (although the "baby
bird" aspect has been used in a few later cartoons as a plot device).
The yellow feathers were added but otherwise he retained the baby-bird
shape.In his early appearances in Bob Clampett cartoons, Tweety is a
very aggressive character who tries anything to foil his foe, even
kicking his enemy when he is down. One of his most notable malicious
moments is in the cartoon Birdy and the Beast. A cat chases Tweety by
flying until he remembers that cats cannot fly, causing him to fall.
Tweety says sympathetically, "Awww, the poor kitty cat! He faw down
and go (in a loud, tough, masculine voice) BOOM!!" and then grins
mischievously. A similar use of that voice is in A Tale Of Two Kitties
when Tweety, wearing an air raid warden's helmet, suddenly yells,
"Turn out those lights!" Tweety's aggressive nature was toned down
when Friz Freleng started directing the series, with the character
turning into a more cutesy bird, usually going about his business, and
doing little to thwart Sylvester's ill-conceived plots, allowing them
to simply collapse on their own; he became even less aggressive when
Granny was introduced, but occasionally Tweety still showed a
malicious side.Bob Clampett created the character that would become
Tweety in the 1942 short A Tale of Two Kitties, pitting him against
two hungry cats named Babbit and Catstello (based on the famous
comedians Abbott and Costello). On the original model sheet, Tweety
was named Orson, which was also the name of a bird character from an
earlier Clampett cartoon Wacky Blackout.
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 "Mean Widdle Kid." Tweety appeared in 46
cartoons during the golden age, made between 1942 and 1962.Despite the
perceptions that people may hold, owing to the long eyelashes and
high-pitched voice (which Mel Blanc provided), Tweety is male although
his ambiguity was played with. For example, in the cartoon "Snow
Business", when Granny entered a room containing Tweety and Sylvester
she said: "Here I am, boys!", whereas a 1952 cartoon was entitled
Ain't She Tweet [emphasis added]. Also, his species is ambiguous;
although originally and often portrayed as a young canary, he is also
frequently called a rare and valuable "tweety bird" as a plot device,
and once called "the only living specimen". Nevertheless, the title
song of The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries directly states that the bird
is a canary. His shape more closely suggests that of a baby bird,
which is what he was during his early appearances (although the "baby
bird" aspect has been used in a few later cartoons as a plot device).
The yellow feathers were added but otherwise he retained the baby-bird
shape.In his early appearances in Bob Clampett cartoons, Tweety is a
very aggressive character who tries anything to foil his foe, even
kicking his enemy when he is down. One of his most notable malicious
moments is in the cartoon Birdy and the Beast. A cat chases Tweety by
flying until he remembers that cats cannot fly, causing him to fall.
Tweety says sympathetically, "Awww, the poor kitty cat! He faw down
and go (in a loud, tough, masculine voice) BOOM!!" and then grins
mischievously. A similar use of that voice is in A Tale Of Two Kitties
when Tweety, wearing an air raid warden's helmet, suddenly yells,
"Turn out those lights!" Tweety's aggressive nature was toned down
when Friz Freleng started directing the series, with the character
turning into a more cutesy bird, usually going about his business, and
doing little to thwart Sylvester's ill-conceived plots, allowing them
to simply collapse on their own; he became even less aggressive when
Granny was introduced, but occasionally Tweety still showed a
malicious side.Bob Clampett created the character that would become
Tweety in the 1942 short A Tale of Two Kitties, pitting him against
two hungry cats named Babbit and Catstello (based on the famous
comedians Abbott and Costello). On the original model sheet, Tweety
was named Orson, which was also the name of a bird character from an
earlier Clampett cartoon Wacky Blackout.
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