SYLVESTER (LOONEY TUNES)

(Redirected from Sylvester the cat)
{{WBToonChar
| name = Sylvester
| image =
| first appearance = ''Life With Feathers'' ( March 24th 1945)
| created by =
| voiced by = Mel Blanc
Bill Farmer (Space Jam)
Joe Alaskey (current),
| known aliases = Thomas
| known relatives = Sylvester Junior, son;
{Mrs. Sylvester J Pussycat} at least once
| known pets =
| known friends = Porky Pig, Benny the dumb cat, Furrball (student)
| known rivals = Tweety Bird, Sniffles, Speedy Gonzales, Hippety Hopper
| catchphrases = "Sufferin’ succotash!", "AHHHHHH Shut Up!", "I'm a cat - I think....MEOW!....Yep! I'm a cat!"
}}
'Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr.' is a fictional character, a three-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). Freleng's 1947 cartoon ''Tweetie Pie'' was the first pairing of Tweety with Sylvester, and the Chuck Jones-directed ''Scaredy Cat'' (1948) was Sylvester's first pairing with Porky Pig.
Sylvester's trademark was his sloppy, stridulating lisp. In his autobiography, ''That's Not All Folks!'', voice actor Mel Blanc stated that Sylvester's voice was based on that of Daffy Duck, plus the even-more-slobbery lisp, and minus the post-production speed-up that was done with Daffy's. Conventional wisdom is that Daffy's lisp, and hence also Sylvester's, were based on producer Leon Schlesinger's. However, Blanc made no such claim. He said that Daffy's lisp was based on him having a long beak, and that he borrowed the voice for Sylvester. He also pointed out that, minus the lisp, Sylvester's voice was fairly close to his own.
To emphasize the lisp, as with Daffy's catchphrase "You're des''th''picable", Sylvester's trademark exclamation is "''Sufferin’ succotash!''", which is said to be a minced oath/euphemism of "''Suffering Savior''".
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, yellow-eyed 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 (and even a sweet lullaby to temporarily ease Elmer back to the dream world... if only temporarily).

★ ''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 Loonatics Unleashed Sylvester's descendent is Sylth Vester, a hitman hired by Granicus to kill Royal Tweetums so she won't have to lose her throne. Despite his best efforts he's beaten by the Loonatics.
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, "Daffy Duck 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).

Contents

Other Media

Trivia

External links

Other Media

In the movie ''Kitten with a whip'', there was a scene where a Sylvester cartoon "Canned Feud" was played on the television.
Sylvester appears in the ''Robot Chicken'' episode "Werewolf VS Unicorn" voiced by Frank Welker. During Arnold Schwarzenegger announcement of illegal aliens from Mexico, Sylvester demonstrates a wired fence that will keep the aliens out only for it to be penetrated by Speedy Gonzales.

Trivia

★ "Sylvester" cat is on the badge of the 45th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron{Reference only}

★ "Sylvester" 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 "Tweetie Pie". He was most likely called Thomas as a reference to Tom & Jerry, where Tom's unseen (from the head-up) owner Mammy Two-Shoes would always call him Thomas as well; thus, the name had to be changed. Like Mammy Two-Shoes, the woman who owned Thomas could not be seen from the head-up.

★ In France, Sylvester is more known as "Grominet" as Tweety calls him, which roughly means "big kitty".

★ Sylvester's name stems from the Latin scientific classification for domestic house cats: Felis Silvestris.

★ Sylvester also appears in Baby Looney Tunes, a cartoon in which all the Looney Tunes characters are shown as babies

★ When Olympia & York went into receivership (bankruptcy), their Canary Wharf project in the UK was taken over by the lending banks which then created "Sylvester Holdings" to "own" the project, as Sylvester tried to grab Tweety.

External links

★ Sylvester's history at Warner Bros' official website (requires flash).

★ Sylvester the Cat Fanclub

★ Pictures and wallpapers of Sylvester on the Cartoon Spot web site.

★ Amazing pink color car - Sylvester car

★ Free On-line Sylvester The Cat Cartoon - this and other Looney Tunes cartoons are free on this site.