Tweety bird was always one of the elders of the Looney Tunes lot that I've never seen the big deal with. He and Porky were around in the early days and they always made me yawn and beg for a merciful end to their antics. But when Looney Tunes introduced feline nemeses to Tweety, we were able to find some laughs with the character. Though not as famous as Tom and Jerry, the rivalry between Sylvester and Tweety is probably one of the more entertaining gimmicks of the Looney Tunes lore. And unlike Tom and Jerry there are a lot of variations on their battle of wits. Sometimes Sylvester talks. Sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes he is a self-contained villain. Sometimes he's misunderstood. Sometimes his name is Thomas, sometimes he is forced to endure the torture of a dog to get to Tweety, and sometimes he is just conniving. Sometimes he has a partner, sometimes he is foiled by granny, and sometimes he just meets with Tweety out of circumstance and the battle begins. Nevertheless the dynamic is always the same. Sylvester wants to eat Tweety. And he may never get to.

The cage goes up. We hear a massive explosion, and Sylvester's charred paws slide down a mangled wrecked cage back in its proper place. It's very unique and low key comedy like that that makes these Looney Tunes episodes so utterly ingenious and timeless, even in this day of cynicism with an audience that has to have everything over explained to them. Robert McKimson's animation style is still fantastic and flawless in its ability to tell a story and convey motion and brilliant facial gestures from the characters on-screen. The one regret of this set is that we never get to see Tweety doing battle with the Abbot and Costello cats since this is primarily limited to the cat and bird matches. Just the same, the single DVD release offers fifteen animated shorts piling up to almost two hours of viewing fun for all audiences. With a wide screen presentation and restoration, this is a DVD that you can pop in to the player for a while and keep yourself entertained with. For a Termite Terrace nut like me, it's just impossible to watch just one animated short. You have to see it all. You just have to.

It's a lot of fun watching the misadventures of Tweety, the bird who doesn't know his age, and Sylvester the bad ol' putty tat, two characters forever locked in mortal combat. While there are sadly no extras, the set serves its purpose with fifteen genuinely entertaining and hilarious animated shorts, and I suggest it for fans anxious for some Cat and Bird chaos. How did Granny fit in that bird cage?