. . . as he gets to consume THREE yellow canaries (at 2:15, 2:43, and 6:32). Since this is 50% more than the penguin-colored cat's usual "Merrie Melodies" daily minimum protein requirement, it's a merry Yule indeed for Mr. "Suffering Succotash." GIFT WRAPPED extends the origin story begun by Warner Bros. animators in TWEET TWEET TWEETY. The latter episode's feral feline is now domesticated in "Granny's" house. This latter old bat is totally clueless about proper cat care, giving "her" newly-named Sylvester a RUBBER mouse as his holiday gift. "Why couldn't she have given me something practical, like a REAL mouse?" Sylvester laments. Some anonymous benefactor HAS sent "Tweety" to Granny's address, but misdirects this food source Sylvester hatched himself in TWEET TWEET TWEETY to "Granny." When Sylvester tries to rectify this simple mistake, Granny-the-Witch is able to conjure up equally annoying Tweety clones for "her" starving cat to consume with swats of her Magical Broom. Though the animators sketch in an extraneous bulldog for comic relief, GIFT WRAPPED is a generally cheerful tale of festive feline feasting.

OK, since "Gift Wrapped" is set around Christmas, we can safely assume that Granny and Tweety are being good, while Sylvester and the dog - presumably named Hector - are being naughty. The main humor here is seeing how Sylvester uses the presents to go after Tweety...and when the dog appears unexpectedly (come to think of it, I could occasionally guess when he was going to appear). Everyone likes to use Christmas as the setting for something unusual (or would all this count as usual?); "Gremlins" did a really neat job with that.I figure that the cartoon mainly functions as a place holder in between the really great cartoons (1952 also saw "Operation: Rabbit"). So this is an OK, not great addition to the pantheon of Sylvester/Tweety cartoons. Passable.

This animated short can be seen on Disc 3 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, it feature Sylvester cat who I like, Tweety bird who I'm not a fan of, and Granny whom I dislike worse then Tweety bird. Needless to say I really didn't care for this cartoon at all. It's nice that it's unedited for once. But couldn't they unedit the audio for "Bugs Bunny Rides Again" which was actually a good cartoon as well, or at least instead of?. Anyway in this short, it's Christmas time in the household and Granny, Tweety, Sylvester, and the Bulldog (for no reason whatsoever) are up to the usual stuff. Blah.My Grade: D

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Everytime I watch this Warner Brothers short, I laugh @ every scene! There was a scene that was edited when Sylvester sneaks up the Christmas tree (disguised as Geronimo). Out comes Tweety in his cage (as Hopalong Cassidy) with a toy pop gun. Sylvester pulls the pop gun & gets exploded!This Warner Brothers Sylvester & Tweety short is worth getting a Christmas laugh!