Voices of Joe Alasky, Jeff Bennett, June Foray, and Jim Cummings
Directed by Karl Torege, Charles Visser, James T. Walker, and Kyung Won Lim
Music by J. Eric Schmidt; Lyrics by Randy Rogel
First of all, Musical Dreams Reviews will be on hiatus from the 22nd through the 30th while I'm on vacation. Regular reviews resume October 1st.
Second, we end the summer and our road jaunts this week with a trip around the world. By 2000, direct-to-video animated films were so common, Warners even made several with the Looney Tunes. How does this riff on the Jules Verne novel Around the World In 80 Days featuring Tweety and Sylvester look nowadays, with another Looney Tunes animated movie set to release in theaters later this year? Let's start with Granny (Foray), Sylvester (Alasky), and Tweety (Alasky) as they stroll in London and find out...
The Story: Colonel Rimfire (Alasky), incensed because he was defeated by Cool Cat (Cummings) yet again, insists that cats are much smarter than birds. Granny, who's seen Tweety beat the fur off Sylvester hundreds of times, disagrees. She bets that Tweety can go around the world in 80 days and collect the paw prints from 80 cats in the process. If he wins, Granny will give the money to London in order to save a children's park.
Tweety's trip turns into a big deal, with Foghorn Leghorn (Bennett) even setting up bets. Tweety saves a lovely pink canary named Aoogah for the horn sound she makes (T'Keyah Crystal Keymah) from bird-worshiping cats in Nepal and dodges less pleasant kitties, including Sylvester, in every country. When he nearly loses Aooghah in a hurricane, he finally realizes that it's not the contest that's important. It's the friends he's made on the journey.
The Animation: It's obvious this was made overseas for the home video market. The animation looks as cheap as it is. I suspect they're trying to invoke the more stylized Warners cartoons of the 60's featuring Speedy Gonzolez and Cool Cat, but it looks unfinished, especially in Paris and San Francisco. The characters look better and move pretty well, especially the ones from the 40's and 50's like Tweety and Sylvester.
The Song and Dance: This ended up being a surprisingly cute take on an oft-used plot. Kudos to Alasky for voicing half the cast, including Sylvester and Tweety, and making them all sound very unlike one another. My favorite thing about this is probably the cameos. Keep a sharp eye out for many vintage Looney Tunes characters in small roles, including ones like Cool Cat and Colonel Rimfire who aren't that well-remembered today.
Favorite Number: Tweety takes off on his journey as Rimfire, Granny, and the crowd wonder if he can really go "Around the World In 80 Days." Foghorn Leghorn and his chicken friends in Vegas argue with cats around the world that "Tweety Don't Stand a Chance" at winning the race. They reprise the song when Tweety loses his signal in the hurricane and everyone thinks he's gone. When he's caught in the eye of the hurricane and loses Aoogah, he admits that "The Best Thing You Can Win Is a Friend."
Trivia: Aoogah turned up again as the Queen of Canary Island in the 2022 direct-to-home-media Tweety movie King Tweety.
What I Don't Like: First of all, Tweety isn't the first character I'd select to headline even a direct-to-home-video movie. There was never all that much to him in the cartoons besides him dodging Sylvester. Second, the Shropshire Slasher turns up as a thief who stole the Queen's royal passport. He does lose the passport eventually, but he's not seen getting any kind of punishment for it. I really wish they'd done a little more with this subplot.
The Big Finale: Enjoyable time-waster if you're a fan of Looney Tunes in general or Sylvester and Tweety in particular.
Home Media: Easily found on DVD and streaming. Tubi currently has it for free with commercials.
See you all on October 1st!
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