Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "A Tale of Two Kitties" is another Warner Bros cartoon from the days of World War II. It runs for 6.5 minutes and features the usual suspects who worked on this film (Clampett, Foster, Blanc, Pierce). The most interesting thing is that we have cat versions of Abbott and Costello here and I really wish the focus could have been more on them. Instead, it is all about the gadgets and of course about Tweety (not yet yellow) prevailing. Shame. This was definitely a missed opportunity. There are a couple solid moments, but in the end it is just another fairly mediocre cartoon that could have been a lot more interesting. a missed opportunity. Thumbs down.

MisterWhiplash Somehow Bob Clampett cartoons were among the first I can remember seeing as a kid - they were the ones from the early days of the Warner brothers animation - and often they were on VHS tapes that even in the late 80's you could buy relatively cheaply as compilations. This involves a very anxious climb up a telephone pole for Catstello as Babbit is down below rooting him on (I think even as a kid it's evident who Mel Blanc is voicing, hint, it's the one who sounds like Daffy when he's exasperated).This is fully of fantastic visual comedy and plenty of character-driven humor; it's "safe" for kids, don't get nervous parents about early Looney Tunes cartoons being too "edgy" (and even if it was who cares) - but it's more than simply a spoof of Abbott and Costello. It's its own brand of wild humor all about tensions and suspense and if the mission to go up that damn pole will work. I love it and think about it often, the kind of characterizations you see as a child and stays with you for the rest of your life. In that sense it's as essential as learning scripture for a Christian as a tot!

Neil Doyle This is one of the better Warner Bros. cartoons of the era ('42), with two cats patterned after Abbott and Costello (Babbitt and Catstello), with Abbott trying to get Costello to pry a teeny bird (who turns out to be Tweety Bird), out of his nest.The gimmicks Abbott uses to get Costello launched into space are hilarious, each one more clever than the one before. This leaves little time to devote to Tweety Bird, but this is Tweety's first film and he doesn't look quite like the finished product that he became several cartoons later.The usual high standard of animation is present, along with the character voices supplied by Mel Blanc (Catstello and Tweety) and Tedd Pierce (Babbit).

Markc65 This is the cartoon where Clampett first introduced Tweety. He is a funnier and much more aggressive character here. His design is slightly different from the later Tweety everyone remembers. He looks more like a bird that has just been hatched; tiny, featherless and colored a pinkish hue. The actually stars of the cartoon, though, are a couple of cat caricatures of Abbot and Costello. "Babbit" tries to use "Catstello" to catch Tweety for himself. The cats are very appealing as characters, the timing of the gags is crisp and the dialogue is very clever. This cartoon also marks the beginning of Clampett's breaking away from a more literal style of animation to a more expressive, cartoonier one.