More Tweety: Bad Ol' Putty Tat storyboards!

[mmtper]

Hey Thad and everyone else!: Thru Cartoon Brew, we've been notified that the Van Eaton galleries is posting the entire Tedd Pierce storyboard of Bad Ol' Putty Tat! Check it out:
www.vegalleries.com/wbspecial2.html (http://www.vegalleries.com/wbspecial2.html)

Thad had recently discussed this cartoon on his blog, specifically the gag where Sylvester trampolines up to Tweety's nest and is repeatedly clobbered, and compared it to a similar gag in Clampett's Tale of Two Kitties. It's fascinating to see Pierce's original gag, which was a shade more brutal, involving stove lids (stove lids?!?) Fascinating, to see Pierce's handywork, his talents often seem to be disparaged in favor of Maltese or Warren Foster, but he seems really on the ball here.

[Thad]

I was going to mention it on my blog tonight (where I have an analysis of Porky Pig's Feat) but decided not to. I was surprised at how gross some of the original gags were (Sylvester using plyers to rip out the wrong tooth tied to the rocket), and Tweety's first aid kit to fix Sylvester's bitten finger consisting of a hammer being derived from Shamus Culhane's FISH FRY at Lantz.

[David Gerstein]

Interesting that aside from the title cards, the boards spell the bird's name Tweetie and call the cat Sylvester only once.
Interesting, too, to see the deleted gag of Tweety pounding Sylvester's finger with a hammer. I don't mean to fuel the ongoing fire of Clampett vs Freleng on Tweety when it seems an inescapable conclusion that director Freleng made the decision to remove his writers' most Clampett-like gag from the picture...

[J Lee]

Interesting that aside from the title cards, the boards spell the bird's name Tweetie and call the cat Sylvester only once.
Interesting, too, to see the deleted gag of Tweety pounding Sylvester's finger with a hammer. I don't mean to fuel the ongoing fire of Clampett vs Freleng on Tweety when it seems an inescapable conclusion that director Freleng made the decision to remove his writers' most Clampett-like gag from the picture...

By 1948, Friz and the studio may have had business reasons for doing that, since Tweety had been reworked to better appeal to women by then -- whacking Sylvester's hand with a hammer wouldn't have fit with the new design (and to be honest, Friz's more straightforward animation wasn't as condusive to the ultra-violent gags that Clampett's wilder takes and stretched characters could handle. Bob could mangle a character and get away with it far better, because he was mangling characters' bodies even in less violent situations. Smashing Sylvester with a hammer or even having the cat yank out his own tooth in a Freleng cartoon would hurt,in the same way some of the gags in the Tom & Jerry series are painful because the animation isn't exaggerated enough).

[Thad]

I have to agree with John here. The aborted gags in the storyboards would have been ill-suited to Freleng's unit's animation, which I am guessing was also a factor in the toning down of Tweety (who by Snow Business completely lost his edge).

The storyboards are also further proof of Tedd Pierce having major involvement with Tweetie Pie, since the song from that short, "I wuv wittle putty, his 'toat is so warm, and if I don't hurt him, he'll do me no harm," only shows up about five times here.

[Larry T]

That was interesting viewing. The cartoon would have been funny even with the original jokes, but still maintains its humour with the version we all are familiar with. I don't know how crazy I am about Tweety wearing clothes, though- a hat is even a bit much. In addition, either version of the tooth-pulling gag is painful- I think the one that survived with Sylvester's jowls getting yanked out is the worst of the two.

I noticed Tweetie's reaction to the 'girl' was also minimized.... I guess yelping like a seal was a little too far out of character for him.

Look at the other galleries, namely the Walter Lantz one- there's some drawings from Grim Natwick in there, namely from "Ski For Two" and "Well Oiled". There's another original drawing of Hook from "Take Heed Mr. Tojo" by BOB CANNON.... Now's your chance to own an original Cannon cel for $200!!!

Plus nice Preston Blair drawings of Screwy Squirrel....

[J. B. Warner]

Look at the other galleries, namely the Walter Lantz one- there's some drawings from Grim Natwick in there, namely from "Ski For Two" and "Well Oiled". There's another original drawing of Hook from "Take Heed Mr. Tojo" by BOB CANNON.... Now's your chance to own an original Cannon cel for $200!!!

Plus nice Preston Blair drawings of Screwy Squirrel....

Did you see the rest of the Warner Bros. gallery? I can't help but doubt the authenticity of those signed Virgil Ross drawings...

[rodney]

Well.....it doesn't exactly say that Ross did the drawing, just that he signed it!

[CueBallCat79]

Smashing Sylvester with a hammer or even having the cat yank out his own tooth in a Freleng cartoon would hurt,in the same way some of the gags in the Tom & Jerry series are painful because the animation isn't exaggerated enough).

But that's why I love those cartoons so much, man. :D

Anyway, more on this topic...I think I'd sell my soul for a GOOD piece of vintage Tom and Jerry artwork. Anyone have any leads?