. . . "too topical." The saving grace in this regard for Warner Bros.' always prophetic Animated Shorts Seers division, of course, is that what might have been merely amusing upon its original release date adds a double whammy to its interest quotient when it suddenly becomes topical (thanks to the Warner prophets' clairvoyance) a few years (or decades) down the timeline. TWEET ZOO is a good example of this. Exactly WHAT are the lions, tigers, and bears meant to represent, 1950s viewers may have asked themselves. Few would have matched the croc-bitten lion with Detroit's NFL world champions of the "Beatnik Decade." However, as the ONLY original league franchise NEVER to have played in the Super Bowl (and the first squad to finish a season 0 - 16), it's an easy connection to appreciate in this Our 21st Century. What about the Bruins and Bengals serially swallowing up Sylvester Cat? Can Warner be accused of mixing its sports metaphors? I think not. It's obvious to any experienced reader of Warner's tea leaves that Sylvester is standing in for the Detroit Tigers during TWEET ZOO. The nine zoo animals he meets here represent the first three series of home games on the Tigers' 2018 MLB slate. The five major injuries he suffers denote the quintet of losses Detroit racks up in the half dozen games actually played, offset by one lonely "W." Sylvester's lingering depression and self-disgust as TWEET ZOO concludes is the uncannily accurate Looney Tuner prognosticators' way of predicting that Detroit will eclipse its 2003 American League record of 119 losses in a single season by suffering a calamitous 135 defeats (against just 27 hollow "victories") this year. What about all of Sylvester's drenching dunks in the alligator lagoon during TWEET ZOO, some viewers are bound to ask. As any veteran Warnologist knows, this is an allusion to the SIX (that's right, count them up: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6!) rainouts declared by the 2018 woeful Detroit baseball kitties to postpone the inevitable set-backs during their initial NINE scheduled no-contests.

Tweety & Sylvester are one of my favorite Looney Tunes characters. This is also the first Tweety & Sylvester cartoon I had ever reviewed, and this cartoon is one of my favorites from the bird-and-cat duo. Another reason I love this cartoon is because I love the zoo, and in this cartoon Tweety is a zoo bird, until Sylvester opened the door to his cage and chases him.I love the design on the zoo animals and Sylvester's fearful jabbering before: "Alligators!" that was really funny. Another line I love is Tweety's: "Ooh! You're a glutton, Mr. Elephant!" after being sucked up by the elephant's trunk, and spitted out. I know I say this a few times, but I'm sorry to said that I have nothing else to say about this cartoon other than the animation is perfect, and I thought it's another favorite.

Another fun Sylvester and Tweety cartoon from Friz Freleng. Sylvester visits the zoo where Tweety is on display. Of course, he tries to catch Tweety leading to funny situations with other zoo animals. Love the little bits of business with the other animals like the rhino's reaction to the zoo tour guide and the tiger conversation. The animation is a little scratchy but still nice. Really love the colors. In many ways this is a standard Sylvester & Tweety cartoon but the backdrop makes it feel more fresh. Smart move to give the animals and zoo people some character. Without that, the cartoon wouldn't work as well as it does.

Although there are a number of people who don't care for the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons, Tweet Zoo is one of the ones in the series that even non-fans of the series may find enjoyment in. Tweety has very little to do other than being a plot device and what he has is not all that funny and actually pretty forgettable.Sylvester however is enormous fun to watch, he has the lion's share of the humour and takes it all exceptionally well(even his facial expressions and gestures are worth a laugh on their own). I've always much preferred him over Tweety, he's always interesting and he is always the funnier character meaning he's also easier to root for. And he is certainly easy to root for in Tweet Zoo. He gets strong support from the animals who provide great amusement and have equally colourful personalities, of note in particular are the lion and the bear. The animation is bouncy and colourful, everything looks smooth and the colours are warm and not limited at all. Milt Franklyn's music has always been consistently good(prefer Carl Stalling just a tad though) and with the vibrant orchestration and lively rhythms Tweet Zoo does not disappoint.The story structurally is not the most exceptional and may seem formulaic in hindsight but the energy of the cartoon and how the gags and material are executed compensate so much that it's not noticeable. The gags range from the very amusing to the hilarious, while the bear and the lion are the most colourful support characters and their scenes are a lot of fun it was the alligator gag was especially clever in this instance. Got a good laugh at the ending as well. The dialogue brings a smile to one's face and Mel Blanc's voice work is stellar as always. Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable cartoon. 9/10 Bethany Cox