Trip for Tat (1960) User Reviews (3)

Has very little original and a little pointless, but still engages and entertains at least

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 21 March 2015]

While Trip for Tat is one of the weaker Sylvester and Tweety cartoons, it's not bad either, far from it.

It's biggest flaw is that there is very little original about it, most of Trip for Tat is made up of borrowed material- both in the animation and gags- from Tweety's S.O.S, Tree Cornered Tweety, Tweet Tweet Tweety and A Pizza Tweetie Pie with only about 4 bits being original(with the finger painting sequence being the most inspired) revolved around a nicely paced if formulaic story. Consequently, the cartoon felt a little pointless. Tweety doesn't have an awful lot to do and his material is a mixed bag(even his best material is nowhere near as effective as Sylvester's). And the Japanese fisherman in the Tree Cornered Tweety bridge scene is a very stereotypical character who's not very funny and may not bode well with some, while the animation in the original moments is not as colourful or as fluid as the borrowed and the cartoon lacks energy in places.

The good news though is that the borrowed animation still looks very nice, it's beautifully and colourfully drawn with simple but still attentively detailed backgrounds and the characters look good still. The Parisian, Italian, Japanese and Swiss Alps locations and landscapes look absolutely lovely and are delightful to see. Milt Franklyn's music provides the cartoon's energy and matches the action and the way the characters move brilliantly, loved the vibrant orchestration and characterful rhythms as well. The humour is predictable but still amusing, though the ending lifted out of Tree Cornered Tweety is much funnier in Tree Cornered Tweety because the American stereotype in that cartoon is more tasteful, faring best is the balcony gag borrowed from Tweet Tweet Tweety. Granny doesn't have an awful lot to do but she is a nice sassy but dotty character but Sylvester is the star here, he is very, very funny but it is easy to feel sympathy for him as well. Mel Blanc does a characteristically wonderful job and June Foray acquits herself well as well.

All in all, unoriginal and a little pointless, making it one of Sylvester and Tweety's weakest, but engaging and amusing, meaning it's still watchable. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Fat Cat "Sylvester" gets . . .

[oscaralbert · 7/10 · 8 August 2018]

. . . totally defaced during the course of TRIP FOR TAT. The always eponymous Warner Bros., through their crack Animated Shorts Seers division (aka, The Looney Tuners) cram warning after warning for We Americans of (The Then) Far Future about the predicaments we'd be facing in the 21st Century, especially after 2016. For instance, TRIP FOR TAT includes a Paris scene in which Fat Cat Sylvester has commissioned "Tweety" to paint his portrait, foretelling how the Pachyderm Party White House Occupant (aka, "Mad Vlad's" Puppet) would violate a plethora of U.S. tax laws in order to siphon off an exorbitant amount of funds from his "charity" to have HIS OWN gross mug immortalized. Later on a Guillotine-like device takes one of Fat Cat Sylvester's nine lives adjacent to Italy's "Leaning Tower," which portends "K. Griffin's" upcoming Real Life reprise of being able to wave around the ACTUAL noggin of Putin's Pawn. Fat Cat Sylvester begins this fatal journey as a stowaway on Lifeboat #13 atop the U.S. ship of state. He meets his demise after a series of misadventures around the globe. Who do YOU think Warner's prognosticators are drilling down upon with TRIP FOR TAT?

Don't miss thus one!

[JohnHowardReid · 9/10 · 14 March 2018]

Characters: Tweety, Sylvester, Granny.

Director: I. FRELENG. Story: Michael Maltese. Animators: Gerry Chiniquy, Virgil Ross, Tom Ray. Lay-outs: Hawley Pratt. Backgrounds: Tom O'Loughlin. Film editor: Treg Brown. Voice characterizations: Mel Blanc. Granny voiced by June Foray. Music director: Milt Franklyn. Color by Technicolor. Producer: John Burton.

Copyright 1960 by The Vitaphone Corp. A Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies cartoon. U.S. release: 29 October 1960. 1 reel. 6 minutes.

COMMENT: Sylvester tries to collar Tweety on a trip around the world. Despite the fact that this cartoon runs only six minutes, there are some really glorious moments (Tweety inducing sea-sickness in our feline by rocking a picture of the boat in front of his eyes, and Sylvester swinging towards the Leaning Tower on a pile-driver) and wonderfully amusing touches (Sylvester waving bye-bye from his stowaway vantage in a lifeboat) that make this Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies Cartoon entry a real classic.

In short: An absolute must-see!