Sylvester (Looney Tunes)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sylvester
| |
|---|---|
| |
| Sylvester in Tweety and the Beanstalk | |
| First appearance | Life With Feathers (1945) |
| Voiced by | Mel Blanc, |
| Background Information | |
| Aliases | Thomas |
| Relatives | Sylvester Junior, son; {Mrs. Sylvester J Pussycat} at least once |
| Friends | Porky Pig, Benny the dumb cat, Furball (student) |
| Rivals | Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales, Hippety Hopper, Foghorn Leghorn, Barnyard Dawg |
| Catchphrases | "Thufferin’ thuccotash!" |
Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr. is a fictional character, a two-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic cat who appears in more than 90 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons made from 1945 to 1965, often chasing Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper. The name "Sylvester" is a play on silvestris, the scientific name for the domestic cat species. The character debuted in Friz Freleng's Life With Feathers (1945). In Freleng's 1947 cartoon Tweetie Pie (which was the first pairing of Tweety with Sylvester as well as the first Warner Bros. cartoon to win an Academy Award), Sylvester was called Thomas; the character acquired his official name in the Chuck Jones-directed Scaredy Cat (1948).
Sylvester's trademark was his sloppy, stridulating lisp (which, like Daffy Duck's, was based on producer Leon Schlesinger's). His sloppy voice was provided by voice acting legend Mel Blanc. Blanc reveals in his autobiography that Sylvester's voice and Daffy's were identical, but Daffy's was sped up in post-production. Sylvester's trademark exclamation is "Sufferin’ succotash!", which is a minced oath/euphemism of "Suffering Savior". As with some of Blanc's other voice characterizions, both the character's name and his favorite expression become more distinctive due to the character's specific speech pattern.
Sylvester is a tuxedo cat who shows much pride in himself, and never gives up. Despite (or perhaps because of) his pride and persistence, Sylvester was, with rare exceptions, placed squarely on the "loser" side of the Looney Tunes winner/loser hierarchy. His character was basically that of Wile E. Coyote while he was chasing mice or birds. {One cartoon episode The Wild Chase paired Sylvester and Wile E. Coyote against the Road Runner and Speedy Gonzales. In the end both Sylvester and Wile E. fail as usual}. He shows a different character when paired with Porky Pig in explorations of spooky places, in which he doesn't speak as a scaredy cat. (In these cartoons, he basically plays the terrified Costello to Porky's oblivious Abbott). Perhaps Sylvester's most developed role is in a series of Robert McKimson-directed shorts, in which the character is a hapless mouse-catching instructor to his dubious son, Sylvester Junior, with the "mouse" being a powerful baby kangaroo. His alternately confident and bewildered episodes bring his son to shame, while Sylvester himself is reduced to nervous breakdowns.
According to his son Noel Blanc, out of the hundreds of characters Mel Blanc had voiced, Sylvester was the closest to his natural voice. Just without the lisp.
Sylvester also had atypical roles in a few cartoons:
- Kitty Kornered (1946), a Bob Clampett cartoon in which a black-nosed Sylvester was teamed with three other cats to oust homeowner Porky Pig.
- Back Alley Op-Roar (1948), a Friz Freleng cartoon (actually a remake of the 1941 short Notes To You) wherein Sylvester pesters the sleep-deprived Elmer Fudd by performing several amazing musical numbers in the alley.
- The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950), a Chuck Jones cartoon in which Sylvester plays the villain to Daffy Duck's hero.
In the television series Tiny Toon Adventures, Sylvester appeared as the mentor of Furrball. The character also starred in The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries.
In 1985, Sylvester could be heard in an episode of the game show Press Your Luck. Host Peter Tomarken had earlier incorrectly credited his catchphrase "Suffering Succotash!" to Daffy Duck. Even though all three contestants had correctly answered "Sylvester," they were ruled incorrect. In a segment produced later and edited into the broadcast, Sylvester phoned Tomarken and told him that "Daffy steals from me all the time!" All three participants returned to compete in future episodes.
Western Publications produced a comic book about Tweety and Sylvester entitled Tweety and Sylvester first in Dell Comics Four Color series #406, 489, and 524, then in their own title from Dell Comics (#4-37, 1954-62), then later from Gold Key Comics (#1-102, 1963-72).
[edit] Trivia
- A "Sylvester" like cat is on the badge of Marine Attack Squadron 311.
- Sylvester appears in the most Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies theatrical shorts after Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck
- Even though he was Sylvester in later cartoon shorts, he was named "Thomas" in his first appearance with Tweety Bird in "Tweety Pie".
- Sylvester's name stems from the Latin scientific classification for domestic house cats: Felis Sylvestris.
Sylvester also appears in Baby Looney Tunes, a cartoon in which all the Looney Tunes characters are shown as babies
[edit] External links
- Sylvester's history at Warner Bros' official website (requires flash).
- Pictures and wallpapers of Sylvester on the * Cartoon Spot' web site.
- Sylvester the Cat Fanclub
- Free On-line Sylvester The Cat Cartoon - this and other Looney Tunes cartoons are free on this site.
fr:Grosminet it:Silvestro (fumetto) he:סילבסטר החתול ja:シルベスター・キャット pt:Frajola fi:Sylvesteri tr:Sylvester
