Director(s): Friz
Freleng
Summary:
Sylvester celebrates Christmas Day by going after the pet canary (Tweety) that
was meant to be a present for Granny. Things get complicated when Granny also
gets a bulldog named Hector, who goes after Sylvester, and Granny must teach her
housepets how to celebrate peace on Earth and goodwill to men (as in “humanity.”
It’s not meant to exclude women and non-binary/non-gender-conforming people.
When will people learn this? I did, back in seventh grade).
Fun Facts:
- This cartoon was in the
running to be nominated for an Oscar in 1952, joining “Ballot Box Bunny”
(the Bugs Bunny/Yosemite Sam cartoon whose political satire still holds up
today) and “Little Beau Pepe” (as much as I like the Pepe Le Pew cartoons
and admire how Robert Gribbroek and Philip DeGuard capture the beautiful,
but vast isolation of the Sahara desert, I don’t feel this deserves an
Oscar the way “For Scent-imental Reasons” did. If any Pepe cartoon after “For
Scent-imental Reasons” deserves an Oscar nom and possible win, it’s a
toss-up between “The Cat’s Bah” [since Maurice Noble and Philip DeGuard captured
how gorgeous, but claustrophobic and foreign The Casbah is, especially if you’re lost and being pursued by a
stranger with lascivious designs on you. It’s every female traveler’s
nightmare, and I’m amazed they showed it back in the 1950s, because it feels
more like a modern problem] or “Really
Scent” [just to see if Pepe cartoons that end with the titular character
getting what’s coming to him for his unwanted amorous pursuits really do
win over the Academy, though “Little Beau Pepe” also ended on that note, so,
yeah, this kinda belongs there when you take that into account]). Sadly,
none of the three were nominated. I feel that “Gift Wrapped” would have
been picked easily, since, at the time, Sylvester and Tweety shorts were
crowd-pleasers, and Freleng already netted a win with 1947’s “Tweetie Pie”
(the very first Sylvester and Tweety pairing, where Sylvester is strangely
named “Thomas”) and would later net another win with “Birds Anonymous” in
1957 and be previously nominated for “Canary Row” in 1950 and “Sandy Claws”
in 1955.
- Speaking of background
artists, this is the first one to have Irv Wyner as Friz Freleng’s background
artist after Paul Julian left to work for UPA. The differences between a
Paul Julian background and an Irv Wyner background are:
- Paul’s backgrounds are more
realistic, and often include funny background events, such as Yosemite
Sam’s ship being blown up and sinking after Sam fails to catch the match
being tossed in the gunpowder room in “Buccaneer Bunny,” Elmer’s “Wabbit
Twacker” getting mangled after he falls off the cliff in “Hare Do,” and
the many advertisements for products and services that have the names of
Freleng’s staff on them (including Friz himself), such as “Friz: America’s
Favorite Gelatin Dessert!” seen in “Putty Tat Trouble” or the “Hawley and
Pratt Sherry” as seen in “Kit for Kat” (most times, when Hawley Pratt’s
name is used for a product, service, or company, it’s shown as “Hadley
Pert” or “Hadley and Pert”).
- Irv’s backgrounds have
richer color and can be just as realistic as Julian’s work (as seen in
the opening scenes where it’s snowing on Christmas Eve, Granny is asleep,
Sylvester is waiting by a mouse hole, and everything in the house is so cozy
and warm), but Wyner’s backgrounds don’t add to the humor of the short
with funny Easter eggs involving the names of Freleng’s staff or implied
action.
- Despite still being under
copyright (for now, anyway), there were some instances of “Gift Wrapped”
being available on gray-market public domain videos. While there have been
instances of color shorts falling into the public domain for one reason or
another (I mentioned “Jerky Turkey” as an example in the previous post,
but there are others), I don’t know how that could have happened with “Gift
Wrapped”.
The Channel(s): ABC,
The WB, and Cartoon Network/Boomerang (USA feed only)
Part(s) Edited: Get
some milk (regular, plant-based, or lactose-free, doesn’t matter) and cookies (regular,
plant-based, gluten-, or lactose-free, still doesn’t matter), because look what
Santa brought me for belated Christmas (most of this is from my comments on the
Anthony’s Animation Talk video for this short. I often use the comments section
as a springboard for any writing pieces centered on cartoon history or
critique):
From 1990s ABC Saturday mornings (or early afternoon, since The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show did come
on at noon where I live), we have a version of “Gift Wrapped” where:
- Granny whacking Sylvester
with her broom (recycled from 1947’s “Tweety Pie”) was shortened for
violence,
- Sylvester staggering down
the stairs after getting blown up by the dynamite stick in Tweety's cage
was cut (though the actual dynamite switcheroo wasn’t censored. Odd, since
ABC usually does it in other cartoons), and,
- Sylvester getting shot by
Tweety’s “toy” gun during the Hopalong Cassidy scene was cut (I’m amazed
that was all that was cut, because American Indian stereotypes are one of
the many things ABC cut when they had the rights to the Looney Tunes
cartoons).
Our good friends at Cartoon Network and Boomerang (with The
WB piggybacking on the gift last minute) left in the broom-bashing and dynamite
part, but, unlike ABC, actually saw the Hopalong Cassidy part as offensive due
to American Indian stereotypes and cut it...until 2003, where Cartoon Network
and Boomerang freely aired it uncensored. The WB, from what I’ve been told by a
fellow video commenter (name concealed due to not asking permission to use it,
but if you search for the commentary on the video, you should find out who it
is), did what ABC did to that part and just cut Sylvester getting shot by the
toy gun after pulling the cork (which is also what the channel did when they
aired the Foghorn Leghorn short, “Feather Dusted” from 1955) rather than edit
the entire scene because of the American Indian stereotypes.
It should be noted that the Hopalong Cassidy scene was never
edited on Cartoon Network and Boomerang feeds outside of the United States
(which means some kid in the United Kingdom is probably enjoying this short,
despite that the UK’s BBFC also has rules against showing outdated racial and
ethnic stereotypes, but their content reports do note that, in the case of the
Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts, they’re products of their time and not
meant to be hurtful…in this case, anyway. Shorts like “Horse Hare” and most of
The Censored Eleven do beg to differ), nor was the scene cut when Cartoon
Network and Boomerang aired the 1959 clip show cartoon, “Tweet Dreams.” (where
the past cartoon shorts are used as flashbacks during Sylvester’s therapy
session) and when MeTV and MeTV Toons (which are more about editing outdated
racial and ethnic caricatures rather than violence, since that’s the world we
live in now) aired both “Gift Wrapped” and “Tweet Dreams.” The Hopalong Cassidy
scene even played uncut during the holiday season at the former Warner Bros.
store (it’s like The Disney Store, but it sells WB stuff. The anonymous
commenter did tell me this, as that person saw it happen as a child).
What Grinds My Gears
About the Edit(s): The usual hypocrisy of how ABC and the WB just cut this
for violence, but saw nothing wrong with showing American Indian stereotypes
while Cartoon Network and Boomerang had their heads on straight until 2003 and
edited for the latter reason. Then there’s the fact that ABC’s and WB’s version
make it look like Sylvester immediately fell down the Christmas tree as he’s
climbing it. Yes, Looney Tunes villains can be clumsy, and characters like Wile
E. Coyote and Sylvester do fail because of their own short-sightedness, but the
edit makes it look like Sylvester is dumber than usual in that he can’t climb a
tree rather than he can climb, but he fell down because he was checkmated by a
canary packing a loaded gun that he assumed was a toy (this would also be my
ground gear for the infamous “You Beat Your Wife” cut on 1956’s “Wideo Wabbit.”
Stay tuned for that one).
The broom-bashing being shortened on ABC doesn’t bother me,
and neither does the dynamite cage part losing its punchline of a singed
Sylvester staggering down the stairs. Cartoon Network and Boomerang cutting the
entire Hopalong Cassidy part, making the short go from the dynamite cage part
to Tweety riding on a toy train, is your typical seamless cut (and not the kind
that looks painfully obvious and will get a Hollywood editor fired with good
cause, as seen on The Simpsons and
its demented, fan-made YouTube counterpart, Dark Simpsons) that may seem
obvious to those who remember seeing it uncut elsewhere, but, for those who haven’t
seen it, it won’t.
Video Comparison:
And now, for your viewing pleasure, two – count ‘em, two – videos: one showing
how ABC edited this and the other showing how The WB and pre-2003 Cartoon Network
and Boomerang edited it. Normally, I’d load it onto one video, but I feel that
this is more efficient:
ABC version:
WB, Cartoon Network, and Boomerang (US, pre-2003) version
Availability Uncut:
This, like a lot of post-1948 WB shorts, has a good run on home media release,
even though most of the releases are from the United Kingdom and Australia. The
full list is here, as I’m only going to list the American releases:
- Sylvester and Tweety’s Bad Ol’ Putty Tat Blues (1994, laser
disc)
- Looney Tunes: The Collectors Edition: Volume 9: A Looney Life
(2000, VHS)
- Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2 (2004, DVD, disc
three, restored with DVNR [digital video noise reduction. A lot of purist
fans do cite this as a flaw, because it does affect the animation and art.
If you’re not a purist, then this really shouldn’t affect you])
- Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 2 (2004, DVD, disc
one, also restored with DVNR)
- Looney Tunes Super Stars’ Tweety & Sylvester: Feline Fwenzy (2010,
DVD, also restored with DVNR)
- Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2 (2012 and 2025, DVD
and Blu-ray, disc one [for both versions], restored without DVNR)
- Best of Warner Bros. 50 Cartoon Collection: Looney Tunes (2013,
DVD, disc one, restored without DVNR)
- Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 2-3 Repack (2014,
DVD, I assume it’s the “without DVNR” version, but it’s probably the “restored
with DVNR” version, since it is a reissue of the Spotlight Collection from
ten years ago).
- Looney Tunes Super Stars Family Multi-Feature Vol. 2 (2017,
disc two, possibly restored with DVNR, since it’s a reissue)
- Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 1-3 Repack (2018,
DVD, possibly restored with DVNR)
Is/Was It on
Streaming or Digital Download: Yes and no. It wasn’t on HBO Max (f.k.a “Max”)
in the United States, but it did make the Latin American/Brazil feed (it was on
HBO Max LatAM/Brazil from 2021 to 2024, then stayed on when it changed its name
to Max). The Boomerang app had “Gift Wrapped” on from 2017 to 2024, while
iTunes’ actual upload year is unknown, but it’s there and it’s the “restored
without DVNR” version. And yes, this is one of the 700 to 800 Looney
Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts that Tubi uploaded last year (2025).
‘Til
next time, Stay Looney, and Be Merrie.
