Tweety and the Jet-Propelled Birdcage

[rtgmath]

My favorite cartoon character is Bugs Bunny. But for all that, my favorite cartoon is Tweety and the Jet Propelled Birdcage.

It was produced within a few years after World War II. The buildings were brick. It was an era between the rural USA and the urbanization the war had produced. There were trash cans flying from Sylvester's plunge into them. There was the promise of jet aircraft.

So the cartoon starts out with Tweety moping about not being able to fly outside like all the other little birdies. "I'm afraid the puddy-tat will get me!" Granny just happens to see an ad in the paper for a flying bird cage, available at the corner pet shop. Was it $19.99 or $14.99? I forget, but either of those prices was significant in those days. $20.00 in 1950 was like $190.00 today. Would you spend $190 on a birdcage?

The birdcage bought, unwrapped, and ready to go, Tweety puts on the crash helmet and flies the birdcage into the chandalier before Granny gets the door open and Tweety flies out free. Think about it. A chandalier in the house. In those days they were not uncommon, even in modest homes. There may not have been much furniture. The luxuries may have been few. But there was a focal point for light.

Tweety taunts Sylvester with his new birdcage. Sylvester leaps for it, and plunges down into the trash cans.

And Tweety, soaring high sighs, "This is the only way to fly." Two crows on a wire are watching. One turns to the other and remarks, "And all this time I've been doin' it the *hard* way!"

There's more, of course. But that sums up the cartoon, and the times it was created in. "All this time I've been doing it the hard way!" It was the dawn of a new age, from the quaint details of a more gentle and genteel era to a new, fast, and possibly easier life. It was full of hazards to a single-minded individual like Sylvester. The New was crashing into the Old, shattering it in the name of Progress.

Thank you for reading.

[† Emotional Outlet]

I really like old cartoons--you can definitely get a feel for the time they were made in. I don't know if I've seen that particular episode, but your insight on it is interesting.

I was actually watching Tom and Jerry earlier today. One of the older episodes--it started out with Jerry putting out some mail in a bottle. Then he sees a car drive over the nearby bridge and toss over a bag that is visibly moving into the river. So he goes to investigate and fishes out the bag, discovering there's a bunch of puppies inside. It progresses as normal with some shenanigans about annoying Tom before a storm strikes and Tom is suddenly wracked with guilt about kicking Jerry and the puppy out.

It was kind of a surprise to see that kind of thing aired, someone throwing out a bag full of puppies. That kind of put me into the mindset of thinking a little more about what was going on in the cartoons--there was another episode later where Tom was being treated like a baby by a little girl, and she punishes him by making him drink castor oil. Castor oil! Is that even a thing people know about these days? The only time I hear people talk about castor oil is for beauty regiments and facial cleansing.

But yeah, it's interesting to sit down and kind of think about where these cartoons came from, the environment they were created in. I'm pretty young, so the meaning behind a lot of stuff tends to be lost on me, but recognising these aspects like the relative value of $14.99, the little topical quips these cartoons make, things that would normally be lost on younger viewers, is something I can do from time to time, not to mention that I do spend some time reading different analyses on these things. Thanks for sharing this post and your insight!

[quantumcore]

Yeah, I really loved it wheni first saw it