Pocahontas 1, Sylvester 0

Perhaps the best-known gag in Warner Bros. great Christmas cartoon Gift Wrapped (1952) is when Sylvester plays American Indian, complete with headband and feather, and uses a bow and plunger to capture Tweety.

This isn’t a scene where the director cuts to Sylvester standing there and then firing an “arrow.” There’s personality animation you may not even realise. Sylvester does a running slide into the frame, at one time with his back turned to the camera, straightens himself around, and then pulls the headband back up onto his forehead after it falls onto his snout due to the force from the sliding.



For good measure, Sylvester is cross-eyed when he fires the arrow.



Friz loved that sweat-drop effect to register shock or impact.



You know how cats carry a shaker of salt with them.



Added personality. Sylvester looks aside to the audience and remarks “Shishkabob!”



Thwarted again! Dry brush.



Cut to Granny. “Aha!! You didn’t count on Pocahontas, did ya, Geronimo?”



Fade out.

“The Sun Dance,” a 1903 tune by Leo Friedman, is the main theme during this segment, with Carl Stalling blending in his own connecting music (such as when Tweety is being pulled in).

The animation in this cartoon is by Manny Perez, Ken Champin, Virgil Ross and Art Davis, who animated this sequence (Thad Komorowski ID).