The Jet Cage

The Jet Cage is a Looney Tunes cartoon released in 1962 by Warner Bros. The short runs for about 6 minutes and is written and directed by Friz Freleng.

Voice actors are Mel Blanc (doing the voices of Sylvester, Tweety and Blackbird) and June Foray (doing the voice for Granny).

Animations have been created by Gerry Chiniquy, Lee Halpern, Art Leonardi, Bob Matz and Virgill Ross. The layouts have been designed by Hawley Pratt and the backgrounds by Tom O’ Loughlin. The original music is composed by Milt Franklyn. Franklyn died of a heart attack while composing the cartoon's score. William Lava finished the score, starting with the scene when Sylvester tries to catch Tweety with a net. He is not credited in this cartoon, but the difference in music is obvious.

Plot
Tweety sits in his house, a bird cage, looking at the birds through the window. Tweety yearns dearly to fly freely like other birds, but not allowed to do so by Granny. This is considering his safety, as Sylvester is always lurking around waiting for a chance to catch and eat Tweety.

Granny reads a newspaper advertisement by Jet Age Technology who has invented a $12.95 Flying Bird-Cage, which would allow birds fly safely. Granny, who understands Tweety's longing for freedom, decides to buy the cage and presents it to Tweety. This enables Tweety to fly around outdoors without leaving the security of his cage.

Sylvester is at first taken aback at the sight of Tweety flying safely, piloting the jet-powered cage like an airplane. Two crows also watch in awe ("And all this time, I've been doing it the hard way," one crow remarks). Sylvester resolves to ground Tweety's cage and get his round-headed meal; his eyes rolling around to follow his every move. (It is at this point, after a blackout, that the music composition changes from Franklyn to Lava.)

Each of the following attempts are in vain:


 * An attempt to snare the cage with a butterfly catcher’s net. The jet-powered cage is strong enough to drag the butterfly net, along with the cat hanging to it — until he crashes into a light pole.
 * After Tweety coming in for flying instructions ("I forgot what to do in case of fog!"), hiding inside the cage. Tweety eventually senses he's in trouble and releases the "bombs" while in mid-air, just before Sylvester is about to strike.
 * Use of a rocket bomb to intercept the flying object of interest. The bomb simply flies back at the cat.
 * A horseshoe-shaped magnet tied to a fishing rod. While the cage momentarily struggles against the magnet's pull (and the puddy tries to reel in his meal), Tweety manages to get the cage to break free. Sylvester is dragged into downtown traffic and crashes into a bus.
 * Sylvester using large flaps to fly beside Tweety. Sylvester gloats, mocking the bird for thinking he outsmarted him, but Tweety points out that Sylvester has his hands full. The cat tosses the flaps aside and shoots back, "Well now I haven't!" ... just before he realizes he's in for a big fall!

At the end, Sylvester — limping on crutches and wrapped in bandages — decides to joins the U.S. Air Force, vowing to earn his wings and resentfully threatening to get Tweety once and for all.

Censorship

 * The ABC version of this cartoon cuts the sequence where Sylvester builds a Nike rocket to capture Tweety (which predictably backfires).

External Link

 * Dave Mackey's Page for 1962 Looney Tunes Cartoons