A Tale of Two Kitties (1942)
Article 5611 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 12-27-2018
Directed by Robert Clampett
Featuring the voices of Mel Blanc and Tedd Pierce
Country: USA
What it is: Tweety cartoon

Tweety must contend with two conniving cats known as Babbitt and Catstello.

Babbitt and Catstello are obvious parodies of Abbott and Costello, and though I’m fans of the original duo, I do find their cartoon counterparts here a bit annoying; they may have appeared in another cartoon, but they didn’t last. Tweety is making his first appearance here, and he would have a long career, mostly paired with Sylvester the cat; some of the best gags in this early cartoon would be recycled when Sylvester came on the scene. The best scene here has Catstello bouncing up to Tweety’s nest on springs, only to suffer a series of painful retributions. The best moment that wasn’t repeated in a later Tweety cartoon shows what happens to the landscape when an anvil falls off of a barn and hits the ground. It’s not a bad starting cartoon for Tweety, but later ones would be better. As for the fantastic content, we’re stuck with only the talking animals and comic exaggeration.