Tugboat Granny

Tugboat Granny is a "Merrie Melodies" cartoon animated short starring Tweety and Sylvester. Released June 23, 1956, the cartoon is directed by Friz Freleng. The voices were performed by Mel Blanc and June Foray.

The cartoon's title is a play on Tugboat Annie, and is the only cartoon in the Warner Bros. series to bear Granny's name.

It joined Guided Muscle and The Grey Hounded Hare as the cartoons featured on the final episode of ABC's The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show on September 2, 2000.

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 (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 section of pipe as a snorkel to swim to the boat. A seagull finds Sylvester's pipe the perfect resting place (blocking the airway); gasping for air, the cat rushes back to shore, where he finds the seagull laid an egg in his mouth. The frightened gull flees as Sylvester angrily throws the egg at it; he misses and the egg hits him in the face.
• 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 think 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." The cartoon ends just after Sylvester fails to grab the fish.

Succession

See also

• List of American films of 1956

References

• Friedwald, Will and Jerry Beck. "The Warner Brothers Cartoons." Scarecrow Press Inc., Metuchen, N.J., 1981. ISBN 0-8108-1396-3.

External links

• Tugboat Granny at the Internet Movie Database
• Nuance and Suggestion in the Tweety and Sylvester Series - Written by Kevin McCorry