Tweety's High-Flying Adventure marked the first Looney Tunes feature film to be released direct to video. It also marks the first time that Tweety headlined a feature length movie.
In this update of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days, Cornel Rimfire is frustrated after again failing to capture Cool Cat. He claims that a cat must be the smartest creature in the world and that no one can outsmart them. Granny claims that her canary Tweety can outsmart any cat. This leads to a bet between Granny and the Cornel that Tweety can fly around the world in eighty days getting the paw print of a putty tat in each of those days. However, as Tweety goes on this adventure, he is followed by Sylvester who plans to eat him.
Like most direct to video movies based off classic cartoons, this film is more charming than actually funny. Despite this though the movie always puts a smile on my face. The storyline is charmingly simple and silly in the best way possible. This feels like a feature length cartoon but at the same time at 70 minutes moves by quickly and never overstays its welcome. While none of the gags are really laugh out loud funny, none of them are bad either. Quite a few of them even made me smile. Our favorite Looney Tunes characters (even the ones who receive just little cameos) are just as likable and fun here as in their classic shorts. Even the new character, a female canary named Aoogah (who would later appear in another Looney Tunes direct to video movie, King Tweety (2022)) is quite likable and charming.
This film's background art has a crayon-based look reminiscent of a child's artwork. While there is nothing wrong with this type of artwork and it often looks very nice, it doesn't always mesh well with the more traditional look of the characters. This movie also has a few song numbers in it. Unfortunately, the songs are rather bland and instantly forgettable.
This movie had three credited directors and three credited writers. The credited directors are Karl Toerge, Charles Visser and James T. Walker. Karl Toerge would later direct the Tom and Jerry TV short, The Mansion Cat (2001) as well as all the episodes of the children's TV show, Dinosaur Train. He is much more prolific as storyboard artist working on such TV shows as BraveStar, The Smurfs, Sonic the Hedgehog and Baby Looney Tunes. Charles Visser was a director on such TV shows as Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Scooby and Shaggy Get a Clue and The 7D. He also directed another Looney Tunes direct to video movie, Bah Humduck: A Looney Tunes Christmas (2006). James T. Walker has had a long career as an animation timing director having worked on many TV shows for Hanna-Barbera, Disney and Warner Brothers Animation (including The Looney Tunes Show and New Looney Tunes) as well as many direct to video movies starring the likes of Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo and many of the DC superheroes. All three of these directors had worked with Sylvester and Tweety previously in the excellent TV series, The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries.
The credited writers are Tom Minton, Tim Cahill and Julie McNally Cahill. Tom Minton has worked as a writer and storyboard artist on such TV shows as Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures, Tiny Tunes Adventures, Animaniacs, Baby Looney Tunes, Duck Dodgers, Tom and Jerry Tales, Littlest Pet Shop and New Looney Tunes. The husband-and-wife team of Tim Cahill and Julie McNally Cahill have worked on such shows as Animaniacs, Histeria, Baby Looney Tunes and The Tom and Jerry Show. They are credited as developing the TV series Littlest Pet Shop as well and they also worked on the direct to video movies Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring (2001) and Baby Looney Tunes: Eggs-traordinary Adventure (2003). Again all of these writers worked on the TV series The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries, making this movie a spiritual successor to that wonderful TV show.
Like most Looney Tunes movies, this film benefits from a very strong voice cast. The majority of the major Looney Tunes characters were voiced by Joe Alaskey. He provided the voices for Tweety, Sylvester, Bugs, Daffy, Marvin, Colonel Rimfire, Henry Hawk and Pepe Lew Pew among others. Alaskey is best known for his work with the Looney Tunes characters, however his voice acting career is more varied than that. He voiced Plucky Duck in Tiny Toons Adventures, Grandpa Lou in Rugrats, Droopy in the direct to video Tom and Jerry movies, Stinkie in Casper (1995) and even Richard Nixion in Forest Gump (1994). He did not voice Yosemite Sam, despite having voiced that character previously in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Tiny Tune Adventures. Sam was instead voiced by Jim Cummings, who also voiced Taz, Rocky, Hubie and Cool Cat. Cummings is probably best known for his work at Disney, where he has voiced Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Pete in a wide variety of films and TV shows. Cartoons fans might also know him for voicing Cat in CatDog and the Powerpuff Girls villain Fuzzy Lumpkins. Jeff Bennett voiced Foghorn Leghorn and Bertie. Bennett is probably best known as the voice of Johnny Bravo. He also voiced The Joker in Batman: Brave and the Bold. The voice of the abominable snowman and Mugsy as well as various animal sounds were provided by Frank Welker. Welker has been the voice of Fred in the Scooby-Doo franchise since 1969 and in 2002 became the voice of Scooby as well. He is also known as the voice of Megatron in many entries in the Transformers franchise. He is also an expert at making animal sounds and his animal sounds can be heard in such shows as The Simpsons, Dexter's Laboratory, Rugrats, Futurama and Superman: The Animated Series. June Foray voices Granny and Stan Freberg voice Pete Puma. They had both voiced these characters in classic theatrical cartoon shorts (or short in the case of Pete Puma). Kath Soucie returns as the voice of Lola after voicing her in Space Jam (1996). T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh (better known for her live action roles in the TV shows, That's So Raven, Cosby and In Living Color) voices the new character Aoogah. Other voice artists in this film are provided by Rob Paulsen, Tress MacNeille, Pat Musick, Julie Bernstein, Steven Bernstein and Elizabeth Lamers.
This movie was released on VHS on September 12, 2000, and later to DVD on September 11, 2007. Even though I like this film, it has not exactly been a fan favorite. It has a 55% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes (there are no critic reviews) and a 5.7/10 score on IMDB.
The same year this movie was released there was a video game adaption for the Game Boy Color. This video game was a simple platformer, where players can play as Tweety and travel ten different locations looking for putty tat pawprints. The game received lukewarm reviews with many reviewers considering it visually appealing but formulaic. It is too bad I didn't have this game as a kid (which I was a kid at the time of its release) because I could picture kid me playing this game a lot, when I see videos of it online.
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