A Tale of Two Kitties

A Tale of Two Kitties is a 1942 American cartoon directed by Bob Clampett, written by Warren Foster, and orchestrated by Carl W. Stalling. The cartoon is notable for marking the debut of a little canary that would later be known as Tweety. It was also the first appearance of the characters Babbit and Catstello, two cats based on the popular comedian duo Abbott and Costello. The English title is a play on words meaning Tale of two kittens, but the word "tale" ("tale" or "history") is a homophone of "tail" ("tail"), so the title sounds the same as "A Tail of Two Kittens", as well as being very similar to that of the Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities (A Tale of Two Cities).

This is one of many cartoons owned by the a.a.p. which fell into the public domain, as United Artists did not renew the copyright in time. It was released on DVD as part of the Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5.

In this cartoon (as in some other early installments), Tweety is not the defenseless canary that he would become in later episodes, as he knows how to defend himself and even takes the initiative to attack.

The canary did not have a name at the time, but was called "Orson" by the production team.

The cartoon

Censorship

• Caricature throws a strong hint at the Hays Code: Catstello is on top of a staircase trying to reach Piolín. Babbit is at the bottom shouting, "Give me the bird! Give me the bird!" (Lit. Give me the bird! Give me the bird!) Catstello, with a sharp accent from Brooklyn, goes to the audience saying: "If da Hays Office would only let me... I'd give him 'da boid' all right" ("If only that Code Hays would allow me... for of course I would give him the bird." In the United States, "The Boid" (the bird) is an euphemism that refers to the "middle finger").