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kidswb.com |
First off, let's get some history out of the way. When the WB network launched in 1995, "Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries" was one of the first shows to air on the "Kids' WB!" Saturday Morning block, where it remained until 2000, outlasting nearly all of the other programs that premiered alongside it. 52 episodes were produced, as well as one direct-to-video movie, "Tweety's High Flying Adventure".
The basic idea of the show is that Granny is now a detective, and when the big-name crime-solvers are preoccupied, or the case is too ridiculous for them to bother with, Granny gets a call, and brings Tweety, Sylvester and Hector the bulldog along for the ride. If you think that sounds like a cross between "Murder, She Wrote" and "Scooby Doo", you're not too far off the mark. The setting for each episode is a different location around the world, each with a mystery to be solved. The characters snoop around and look for clues, Sylvester tries to eat Tweety, Hector beats Sylvester up again and again, then Sylvester gets the tar whipped out of him some more by whoever or whatever, and eventually the mystery gets solved. The "mystery" is usually about as exciting as Ben Stein reading the phone book, and it's clear that the writers knew it. Thus, nearly every episode includes at least one cameo by a minor Looney Tunes character, and enough Sylvester-whalloping violence to, I guess, add some energy to the proceedings.
The voice acting, at least, is superb, with Joe Alaskey doing a perfect Sylvester and a passable Tweety, June Foray reprising her classic role as Granny, and Frank Welker handling the barks and grunts of Hector. Some of the minor characters who appear (Yosemite Sam in particular) aren't as well-voiced, but with Mel Blanc gone, an off-sounding voice or two in a cast of thousands is to be expected.
The animation, handled in these early episodes by Tokyo Movie Shinsha, is on-par with the other shows Warner was making at the time ("Animaniacs", "Pinky and the Brain") and the music, by Richard Stone and J. Eric Schmidt, is fully orchestrated and well-scored. It's clear that director Tom Minton really wanted this show to be special, and it's a shame that the premise turned out to be such a restraint to the fun. The mystery idea really grows dull after a while, despite some clever puns, tongue-in-cheek jokes and cultural references and classic Looney Tunes homages galore. It's a fun show to look at and listen to, but the writing fails to draw the viewer fully into it. That is probably why it did so well on TV for so long...easily-distracted kids on a Saturday morning could turn it on while doing other things, and it was entertaining enough that they didn't turn the channel to something else.
Another problem with the show is its over-reliance on cameos from old Looney Tunes favorites. Twelve years ago, it was almost a given that people would pick up on these, since the classic shorts were airing on multiple channels, including the WB itself, and just about every one of them that was fit to air on television was being aired somewhere. The running gag of fitting Cool Cat somewhere into the majority of the episodes was funny because people knew who Cool Cat was. A plot revolving around Scottish golfer Angus McCrorry was entertaining because "My Bunny Lies over the Sea", the Bugs Bunny classic where he originated, was well-known to most kids. These days, with the classics available only on DVD (and online, if you look hard enough) a lot of people wouldn't get the references.
I'll mention this again: Sylvester. Sylvester turns out to be the most sympathetic and interesting character on the show (no surprise there), but his repeated injuries become more annoying than funny after a while. What made Sylvester getting hurt in Friz Freleng's classics so funny is that he either brings it on himself, or genuinely deserves it. Here, the poor puddy tat just can't seem to catch a break, he's always being beaten up by Hector or experiencing random, painful pratfalls that he neither instigates nor deserves. Joe Alaskey must have gotten tired of voicing so many lines like "Ouch!" "Ooch!" "Oof!" "Yeeow!" "Ugh!" "Aughhh!" and "Yikes!" In fact, Sylvester takes so many conks on the head, punches in the face, high falls and shots to the crotch per episode that a crowd of young guys with a DVD player and a bottle of cheap liquor could easily devise a drinking game (whenever Sylvester gets walloped, take a shot!) and be under the table by the fourth episode!
As for the DVD itself, it includes the first thirteen episodes of the series (in no particular order) and no extras other than a few trailers for other Warner DVDs. The packaging and menus look nice, and the picture quality of the shows themselves is mixed, but an improvement over TV and VHS. The audio sounds ok, and there are no major glitches that I noticed.
My recommendation would be to skip this DVD and wait for the next installment, as the show DID improve as it went along, eventually changing the format from the glacially-paced half-hours to two 11-minute stories per show, with the background designers going crazy and the animation pace picking up a little. Watching these 13 episodes in a row, it's obvious why they changed the format! If you have trouble sleeping at night, though, this is a great alternative to drugs like Lunesta, and doesn't require counting dozens of sheep.
