Sandy Claws (1955)

A Masterpiece!

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

. . . in which Sylvester Cat chows down upon a Tweety or Two (there always seem to be plenty more available), this yellow feathered McNugget-sized character was more an example of product placement by McDonald's R & D team than of an animated individual on par with Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, Henery Hawk, or even Michigan J. Frog. Since it took decades for McDonalds and Warner Bros. to agree on the latter's slice of the McNugget\Tweety Profit Pie, some of the Tweety Bird episodes--such as SANDY CLAWS--feature minimal interaction between Sylvester and Tweety. In fact, the bite-sized bird remains so out-of-reach here that he and Sylvester might as well be oceans apart. This, no doubt, reflected the state of negotiations between the two corporate giants as SANDY CLAWS was being drawn. Warner's animators might have been holding out for a couple of Big Macs per artist every lunch break in perpetuity, while the Golden Arches folks perhaps were offering only half-priced small fries. At any rate, Sylvester serves as so much collateral damage in SANDY CLAWS.

Granny takes Tweety to the beach where Sylvester is trying (unsuccessfully) to catch a fish. When he spots Tweety, he naturally tries to grab him. But to get to the bird he'll have to battle the tide that keeps coming in and washing him away. Hilarious short with lots of funny gags and lines. Sylvester's failures are so much fun to watch. Love the diving suit bit. Tweety is adorable as ever. Granny steals the show once she shows up in her bathing suit. The music is lively and upbeat. Great voice work from Mel Blanc and Bea Benaderet. It's a very funny cartoon with some really great animation. The colors are beautiful and the characters, backgrounds, and action are all nicely drawn.

OK, so we should know by now that in cartoons, predators expend every last bit of energy in their efforts to get their prey but always fail miserably (think Wile E. Coyote going after Road Runner). In "Sandy Claws", Granny and Tweety go to the beach where Sylvester is having an unlucky time fishing. Sure enough, he sees Tweety and decides to eat him, but every effort results in the sorts of things that befall Wile E. Coyote when the latter goes after Road Runner.There was, however, one thing that really didn't make sense here. Throughout the cartoon, tsunamis keep swamping the beach. Now, these tsunamis easily dwarf the one that struck the Indian Ocean in 2004. But while Sylvester always gets soaked no matter how high he climbs, Tweety never gets a drop of water on himself. WTF?! Of course, this is a cartoon, so nothing has to make sense. As long as they entertain us, they're doing their job, and this one certainly made me laugh. They keep the focus on Sylvester so that we can see his plans fail miserably (Tweety, in my opinion, was best in his early days: despite his "cute" appearance, he was the cruelest bird whom I've ever seen). Really funny. You can watch it in another language or turn the sound off altogether and still find it hilarious.

Nominated for an Oscar, this short makes wonderful use of Granny. Check out her "new bikini bathing-suit"! You almost feel sorry for Sylvester through much of this. He really gets ill-treated here. Given that he's a cat, it should hardly be surprising that his interest in Tweety is culinary in nature, after all. If I were him, I think I'd search for safer and easier sustenance than Tweety, though. Great fun. Highly recommended.