Gift Wrapped

Gift Wrapped is a 1952 Looney Tunes short directed by I. Freleng.

Plot[]

Sylvester awakes on Christmas morning to find a present for him. To his disappointment, it is merely a rubber mouse. He hears a canary, namely Tweety, singing "Jingle Bells" in his cage, which has been gift wrapped and addressed to Granny. As Tweety abruptly stops singing, he sees Sylvester peeking into his cage and says his "I tawt I taw a putty tat!" line. Just before she enters the room, he switches the cage's tag so that it's addressed "To Kitty" instead. Granny innocently gives the cage to Sylvester and opens the box with the rubber mouse.

Believing there has been an innocent mix-up, she goes to give Sylvester the mouse and correct the mistake. Upon seeing a satisfied Sylvester hiccup Tweety's feathers, Granny immediately catches on to Sylvester's evil scheme and angrily forces him to regurgitate Tweety. After giving the wayward cat a scolding, Granny insists that Sylvester kiss Tweety under a sprig of mistletoe. Sylvester eats Tweety Bird again instead, and he is once again scolded and forced to spit him out.

Granny places Tweety's cage up high, where Sylvester shouldn't be able to reach him. Undaunted, the ever-resourceful feline retrieves a ladder, climbs up to Tweety's cage, and opens it with the intent to eat him. Tweety Bird manages to convince Sylvester that a huge present waiting under the Christmas tree is for Sylvester. Sylvester abandons Tweety in his greed and opens the present with relish. It turns out to be Hector the Bulldog, who promptly eats Sylvester. Granny arrives and forces the dog to spit out Sylvester, and then throws the dog out of her house.

Sylvester tries to get Tweety by using a toy steam crane. Instead, he accidentally catches an angry Granny, who bashes Sylvester with a broom.

The feline retreats to the second floor of the house and attempts to saw a hole in the floor to be able to descend upon Tweety from above. Tweety replaces himself in the cage with a stick of lit dynamite, which goes off just as Sylvester pulls the cage up to his level. Sylvester then puts the wrecked cage back and stumbles down the stairs, blackened and torn up from the explosion.

His next attempt is a Western-style showdown with Tweety, with himself playing Geronimo and Tweety playing Hopalong Cassidy. Sylvester wins, but before he can consume his prize, Granny shoots a plunger over his mouth and declares, "You didn't count on Pocahontas, did you, Geronimo?"

While Tweety rides on his new train set, Sylvester tries one last time to catch him. He takes some spare train tracks, sets them up to point towards his open mouth, and then puts the train in reverse. The train goes over the new tracks and towards Sylvester, who then devours Tweety, only to be devoured himself by Hector the Bulldog, who has somehow come back into the house. Granny whacks the dog until he coughs up Sylvester, and then whacks Sylvester until he coughs up Tweety. Outraged, Granny announces she's had enough and that she'll show Sylvester and Hector that there will be peace in the house once and for all.

Granny and Tweety sing a variation of the Christmas carol "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". On Tweety's right and left are Sylvester and Hector, with stamps sealing their mouths and muffling their "singing."

Availability[]

(1984) VHS
The Looney Tunes Video Show Volume 18

(1991) VHS
Christmas Looney Tunes

(1994) LaserDisc
Sylvester and Tweety's Bad Ol' Putty Tat Blues

(1996) VHS
Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 3)

(2000) VHS
Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition Volume 9: A Looney Life

(2001) DVD
I Love Tweety: Volume 2 (restored with DVNR)

(2003) VHS
Christmas Collection Looney Tunes

(2004) DVD
Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2, Disc Three (restored with DVNR)

(2004) DVD
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 2 Disc 1 (restored with DVNR)

(2005) DVD
Looney Tunes Collection Best of Tweety and Sylvester Volume 1

(2010) DVD
Looney Tunes Super Stars' Tweety & Sylvester: Feline Fwenzy (restored with DVNR)

(2011) DVD
Tweety Pie

(2011) DVD
Sylvester

(2012) Blu-ray
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2, Disc One (restored without DVNR)

(2012) DVD
Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2, Disc One (restored without DVNR)

(2012) DVD
Looney Tunes 3 Feature Collection Best Of

(2013) DVD
Best of Warner Bros. 50 Cartoon Collection: Looney Tunes, Disc 1 (restored without DVNR)

(2014) DVD
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 2-3 Repack

(2017) DVD
Looney Tunes Super Stars Family Multi-Feature Vol. 2, Disc 2

(2018) DVD
Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 1-3 Repack

Streaming[]

Boomerang (2017 - 2024) (restored without DVNR)

iTunes ( - ) (restored without DVNR)

HBO Max Latin America / Brazil (2021 - 2024)

Max Latin America / Brazil (2024 - )

Censorship[]

• The ABC airing of this cartoon edited three scenes: Granny bashing Sylvester with her broom was shortened, the shot of Sylvester staggering down the stairs after getting blown up by the dynamite stick that Tweety substituted for himself in the cage was cut, and the part during the "Hopalong Cassidy" sequence where Sylvester gets shot by Tweety's toy gun and falls down the Christmas tree (with an abrupt cut from traveling up the tree to Tweety being chased by Sylvester).
• Both The WB and, for a time, Cartoon Network and Boomerang USA left the "dynamite in the cage" sequence intact but edited out the entire Hopalong Cassidy sequence from fade in to fade out (because of both the American Indian stereotyping and gunfire), fading out into the train sequence instead. It should be noted that, despite being cut from the cartoon proper, the clip show cartoon "Tweet Dreams" was shown on Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and The WB with the offending sequence uncensored.
  • As of 2003, both Cartoon Network and Boomerang USA air the short uncensored, although a similar Indian war scene from "Feather Dusted" still remains censored on both networks since then.^[1] MeTV and MeTV Toons also air the short uncensored.
  • The entire Hopalong Cassidy sequence was left unedited on international Cartoon Network and Boomerang feeds.^[2]

Notes[]

• This short is the first Friz Freleng cartoon to have Irv Wyner as a background artist. Wyner's background art style differs slightly from Paul Julian's, appearing slightly less detailed than Julian's but with a richer use of colors.
• This short, along with the Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam cartoon "Ballot Box Bunny" and the Pepé Le Pew cartoon "Little Beau Pepé", were submitted for an Academy Award in 1952 but were not nominated.^[3]
• This cartoon has several similarities to "Tweetie Pie":
  • It is a Tweety/Sylvester short taking place in snowy weather.
  • The "kiss the wittow birdie" scenario of Sylvester asked to kiss Tweety, only to eat the bird and get forced to spit it out from the short is re-used here.
  • The gag of Sylvester getting hit by his owner is majorly occurs in the short. Also, in the sense where Sylvester is running while getting hit with the broom by Granny is actually recycled animation from the short.
  • The same crash sound effect after Tweety cuts down one of the legs of the furniture which brings Sylvester down, is heard after Sylvester pulls the cord of his gun and shoots him sending back down again.
• Sylvester getting a rubber mouse for Christmas would later be referenced in The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries episode "Feather Christmas".
• This is the latest cartoon that was reissued twice in the Blue Ribbon program, and one of the only two that was reissued twice past the 1955–56 season; the other being "Fast and Furry-ous". However, since the second reissue was done after the closure of the Termite Terrace, the second reissue used the titles from the first reissue.
• Some public domain VHS releases included this cartoon, despite the fact that it is under copyright.

Gallery[]

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