VLVL2(3): A Romance over the Years

[Dave Monroe]

   "It was a romance over the years at least as
persistent as Sylvester's and Tweety's.  Although
Hector may from time to time have wished some cartoon
annihilation for Zoyd, he'd understood from early in
their acquaintance that Zoyd was the chasee he'd be
least likely to ever bag." (VL, Ch. 3, p. 22)


Main Entry: ro·mance 
Pronunciation: rO-'man(t)s, r&-; 'rO-"
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English romauns, from Old French
romans French, something written in French, from Latin
romanice in the Roman manner, from romanicus Roman,
from Romanus
Date: 14th century
1 a (1) : a medieval tale based on legend, chivalric
love and adventure, or the supernatural (2) : a prose
narrative treating imaginary characters involved in
events remote in time or place and usually heroic,
adventurous, or mysterious (3) : a love story b : a
class of such literature
2 : something (as an extravagant story or account)
that lacks basis in fact
3 : an emotional attraction or aura belonging to an
especially heroic era, adventure, or activity
4 : LOVE AFFAIR ....

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary


Sylvester and Tweety

p. 22 "Sylvester and Tweety"    The famous animated
cartoon characters (a cat and a canary, natch) are
used to described the comic/violent relationship
between Zoyd and Zuniga. This also works as effective
shorthand to encourage the reader to read the book as
a cartoon. At least for now.

http://www.mindspring.com/~shadow88/chapter3.htm

>From Kevin McCorry, "Nuance and Suggestion in the
Tweety and Sylvester Series" ...

An experimental pairing of two established cartoon
characters in 1947 was so instantly successful that
the first film featuring the duo won an Academy Award.


Tweety and Sylvester are as enduring a cartoon twosome
as any other that Warner Brothers' animation studios
have created. Like Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd or the
Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, the Sylvester and
Tweety team has become an icon....

[...]

... "Tweetie Pie", featured Tweety as an orphaned bird
adopted on a cold winter's day by Sylvester's
mistress. The personalities of the two cartoon stars
"played off" one another with charm. Audiences loved
their hijinks, and so did the Motion Picture Academy
judges. "Tweetie Pie" won an Oscar. After that came
two more energetic cartoons with the feisty canary and
the scheming but not very brilliant cat. By 1950,
their career was in its prime, and an average of 3
Sylvester and Tweety cartoons per year were produced
for the next decade and a half. 

[...]

A total of 42 cartoon shorts were made featuring this
pair of characters ....

Despite the seeming limitation in the notion of
cat-pursuing-bird, the Tweety and Sylvester series was
possibly the most versatile and varied of all of those
done at Warner Brothers studios....

[...]

Over time, the Sylvester-Tweety conflict becomes less
overtly physical and more psychological, especially
for Sylvester, as more and more human adaptation
requires him to quell his instincts. He must deny
himself for his own sake .... must restrain himself.
Like man, Sylvester has become "domesticated",
expected to live by thou-shall-not-kill. And he
sometimes has to defend the canary that he craves. 

He is indoctrinated to the virtues of the human world
yet cannot transcend his catly instinct to eat birds.
With this comes guilt surrounding his Tweety-hunt.
Whereas earlier, he was not able to snatch Tweety due
to his overeager ineptitude, in later cases he is
impeded because he has become increasingly civilized
and forced either by Granny or by his own conscience
to adhere to the killing-is-wrong code of conduct.
Sylvester has become "human", resulting in complexes,
contradictions between instinct and decency. His
relationship to Tweety has become a combat between old
ways, the ones that tie Sylvester to others of his
feline "clan" ... and the civil, sociable mores of the
human world to which he has become adapted....

http://looney.toonzone.net/articles/tasarticle2.html

And see as well ...

http://looneytunes.warnerbros.com/stars_of_the_show/tweety/tweety_story.html

http://looneytunes.warnerbros.com/stars_of_the_show/sylvester/sylvester_story.html

And see as well ...

The Cat and the Canary (1927)

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0017739

La Voluntad del muerto (1930)

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0211736

The Cat and the Canary (1939)

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0031143

The Cat and the Canary (1979)

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0077304

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