Sylvester J. Pussycat Senior is an animated fictional cat who appears in
several Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, often chasing Tweety
Bird, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper. The name "Sylvester" is a play on
silvestris, the scientific name for the cat species. The character's
prototype appeared in Bob Clampett's 1941 cartoon The Hep Cat who had no
name, but resembled Sylvester (although without the lisp). The character got
his permanent look in the 1945 short film Life With Feathers. In the 1947
cartoon Tweetie Pie (which was the both the first pairing of Tweety with
Sylvester as well as the first Warner Bros. cartoon to win an Academy
Award), Sylvester was called Thomas.
Sylvester's trademark was his sloppy, stridulating lisp (which, like Daffy
Duck's, was based on producer Leon Schlesinger's). His sloppy voice was
provided by voice acting legend Mel Blanc. Blanc reveals in his
autobiography that Sylvester's voice and Daffy's were identical, but Daffy's
was sped up in post-production. Sylvester's trademark exclamation is
"Suffering succotash!"
Sylvester is an adorable cat who shows much pride in himself, and he never
gives up. Despite (or perhaps because of) his pride and persistence,
Sylvester was definitely 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. 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.) Sylvester's most developed role is as
hapless mouse-catching instructor to his dubious son, Sylvester Junior, in
which the "mouse" is a powerful baby kangaroo. His alternately confident and
bewildered episodes bring his son to shame, while Sylvester himself is
reduced to nervous breakdowns.
Sylvester also had atypical roles in a few cartoons:
- Kitty Kornered (1946), a Bob Clampett
cartoon in which 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
- The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950), a Chuck
Jones cartoon in which Sylvester plays the villain to Daffy Duck's hero.
The name is an obvious pun on The Scarlet Pimpernel.
In the TV series Tiny Toon Adventures,
Sylvester appeared as the mentor of Furrball |
