Una historia de dos gatos

At 17, I still enjoy Looney Tunes, and a Tale of Two Kitties is no exception. It is not a favourite by all means, but it is fun to watch and a funny takeoff of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. With the exception of an odd-looking Tweety (as if he had just hatched), the animation is fine. The backgrounds are nice in particular and the camera angles are clever. The music is very good, and the humour is all intact and well timed. I particularly loved the "this little piggy went to market" bit, reminded me of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

The voice acting is commendable. While Mel Blanc slightly overdoes it as Catstello, he does a stellar job as Tweety, who is just as sweet, funny and likable as he is now. Strictly speaking, he is quite bad ass as well. Plus Ted Pierce does well as Babbit in a good grouchy straight talking impression. All in all, it is a lot of fun, not the best Looney Tunes cartoon, but recommended. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This is the cartoon where Clampett first introduced Tweety. He is a funnier and much more aggressive character here. His design is slightly different from the later Tweety everyone remembers. He looks more like a bird that has just been hatched; tiny, featherless and colored a pinkish hue. The actually stars of the cartoon, though, are a couple of cat caricatures of Abbot and Costello. "Babbit" tries to use "Catstello" to catch Tweety for himself. The cats are very appealing as characters, the timing of the gags is crisp and the dialogue is very clever. This cartoon also marks the beginning of Clampett's breaking away from a more literal style of animation to a more expressive, cartoonier one.

In this day and age, we have seemingly come to interpret Tweety Bird as "cute". In his first appearance, he was nothing like that; quite the opposite, he was a bad-ass. In "A Tale of Two Kitties", wandering felines Babbit and Catstello (spoofing Abbott and Costello) find a bird's nest. Grouchy, straight-talking Babbit sends the nervous Catstello up to get the bird, only the tiny avian - whose name isn't actually identified - proves to be the nastiest mother ever. There's naturally an anvil gag.

It's just great to see how the guys behind the Looney Tunes weren't afraid to show anything that they wanted. Definitely one to see.

Soon after Tweety is hatched he is attacked by two dumb but HILARIOUS cats that are made to resemble Abbot and Costallo.

This short directed by Bob Clampett is an HILARIOUS short packed with the debut of Tweety! The short is filled with great gimmicks and outstanding voice work by Mel Blanc.

4(****)out of 4(****)stars

TURN OFF THOSE LIGHTS!!!!

A Tale of Two Kitties (1942)

*** (out of 4)

Babbit and Catstello are two cats who are hungry and find their chance at food in the small bird Tweety. What they don't know is that Tweety is a rather smart fellow who has enough fight in him to defend himself.

I must admit that I was a little shocked to see how much of a wink to Abbott and Costello this Warner short was. The fact that it was a homage wasn't too uncommon but it's rather strange that Warner would pay so much respect to a comedy group that wasn't with them. With that said, the introduction to Tweety was certainly a winner and it's easy to see why he'd eventually have his own series. The Catstello cat was actually a great copy of Costello and I especially loved that child-like nature that they gave him. I thought the studio did a terrific job at making this cat just like the real Lou Costello and it certainly added a lot of fun. There's even a very fun joke aimed at the Hayes Office.