Flirty Birdy (1945) User Reviews

A mouse in the hand.

[CuriosityKilledShawn · 6/10 · 23 December 2006]

Tom has caught Jerry and is about to make a sandwich out of him when a buzzard swoops down out of the sky and snatches the sandwich from his hands, just as he is about to take a bite. Not taking kindly to such acts of heinous theft, Tom goes after his sandwich, but the buzzard isn't going to give it up so easily.

Cue many gags and schemes in which Tom tries to get Jerry back. Not to rescue him of course. Tom finds that the best scheme is to dress up as a weird-looking female buzzard. Of course the bird falls in love at first sight and makes it harder for Tom to escape than he ever imagined.

Not the best T&J cartoon but loads of funny visual gags.

Not their best, but not their worst either

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 30 June 2010]

I will admit I have seen better Tom and Jerry cartoons, especially The Cat Concerto and The Two Mouseketeers but I have also seen much worse as well, Switchin' Kitten and Carmen Get It! spring to mind. Flirty Birdy doesn't deserve a place among the best, nor does it belong the worst. Instead it sits comfortably in the entertaining but could have been better category.

So what didn't work so well? Well the story is rather predictable and takes a while to get going, and when it does get going, it is pretty much the same thing, Tom and the hawk calling for desperate measures to devour Jerry in some way or other. Also while some of the gags are very amusing, seeing Tom as a lady hawk is funny if somewhat bizarre too, others are hit and miss, either being predictable like the story or not very well timed. Then the pacing is an issue, I just found it too slow.

However, there are a lot of good things. The animation is very nice, with colourful backgrounds and well drawn characters. And the music is energetic and quirky, not to mention memorable. The characters are fine too, Tom is devious and cunning and actually doesn't look too bad as a lady hawk, Jerry is sweet and equally cunning and the hawk is a good enough foil. The cartoon does begin and end well, and does have a fair amount of amusing, if not hilarious, moments. Overall, it is a good Tom and Jerry cartoon if not fantastic. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Tom gets the bird!

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 7 September 2012]

This short opens, like so many 'Tom and Jerry' stories do, with Tom trying to lure Jerry into a trap; this time he succeeds in catching him in a sandwich and is just about to bite into him when an eagle swoops down and snatches the sandwich away. Jerry is no safer than he was though as the eagle is equally keen to devour him. Tom wants his snack back though and while he and the eagle are fighting Jerry escapes. After a while Tom comes up with a cunning plan; he disguises himself as a female bird! This plan works far to well though; the eagle is so enamoured of Tom that he forgets about eating Jerry and the now free Jerry does all he can to unite the eagle and Tom.

This was a fairly entertaining short; the eagle made a welcome addition to the cast; seeing him fight with Tom made a welcome change from seeing Tom and Jerry fighting with each other. The idea of having one character fall in love with another the moment they don a vaguely feminine disguise isn't exactly new but it provided some decent laughs and it was nice that the joke ran for most of the cartoon rather than being a brief gag that only lasted a few seconds; the fact that his disguise was rather poor only served to make the joke funnier. I was left wondering one thing at the end though... where did the eggs that Tom was sitting on at the end come from?!

Wings of desire.

[Pjtaylor-96-138044 · 7/10 · 1 April 2020]

'Flirty Birdy (1945)' is a 'Tom & Jerry' short film that sees the famous feline fight a rambunctious bird for the right to bite down on a homemade mouse-and-mustard sandwich. Most of the piece is dedicated to Tom dressing up as a hen to tempt his feathered friend into vulnerable position so he can smash his head in and steal his lunch. The bird takes one heck of a beating but still relentlessly pursues his would-be lover, which provides many funny sight-gags. Some of the piece's best moments come from Jerry playing the two predators off one another, which is always fun to see. Overall, the short is entertaining and well-animated. It's a solid entry in its series. 7/10

Both Jerry & Tom Provide A Lot Of Comedic Bits In This One

[ccthemovieman-1 · 9/10 · 10 July 2007]

Foiled by a falcon? Well, it's some kind of bird, anyway. Tom is a half-second away from having a Jerry-sandwich, his jaws ready to clamp down on his mouse-burger when suddenly a big bird swoops down and takes the sandwich away. He, too, wants to eat Jerry. Both Tom and the big bird have bibs on and like Jerry with a little salt!

The two then fight over the sandwich, going through and inside tree stumps and limbs, around houses and just the neighborhood in general. Jerry, a confident mouse apparently, isn't fazed. Even when the bird adds mustard to him, Jerry takes the spreader and scratches himself gleefully with it! However cocky he appears, however, he always seems to disappear at the right moment.

This was another solid Tom and Jerry cartoon with Jerry evoking more laughs than normal. Tom is pretty funny when he dons his female disguise and starts flirting with the birdie to distract his attention. The eyelash sight gag was very clever.

Also in here is the standard eyeball-popping out of head scenes. I wonder how many times that was done in cartoons? It's always effective, despite the gag being used thousands of times. Here, the big bird's eyes pop out so far, they land on his beak like old granny glasses.

Tom Flirts With A Hawk

[StrictlyConfidential · 6/10 · 29 June 2021]

"Flrty Birdy" was originally released back in 1945.

Anyway - As the story goes - Tom disguises himself as a feathered female to lure his new rival, a hawk, away from a mouse meal named Jerry.

Tinsel Town's so-called "House of the Groaning Fat Cat" . . .

[pixrox1 · 8/10 · 30 August 2022]

. . . always has been infamous for belittling not binary people, from "sanitizing" the affair between Scarlet and Melanie in GASHED WITH THE WHIP to deleting Dorothy Gale's sensual awakening with lions and tigers and bears. FLIRTY BIRD-DEE is just one more of Leo's pictures carefully crafted to denigrate anyone brazen enough to check the third box on a driver's license gender line. However, the FLIRTY filmmakers seem to be a day late and a overshoe short when it comes to truly understanding the Biology 101 lesson regarding the Birds and the Bees. Which raises the--doubtless unintentionally--hilarious question: Where did the eggs come from upon which Tom is sitting at the conclusion of this film?!

Oh dear!

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 10 May 2008]

Tom is about to tuck into a delicious Jerry sandwich when a huge bird of prey swoops down and flies off with his snack. Not at all happy with having his sarnie stolen right from under his nose, Tom takes off in hot pursuit, determined to retrieve his mousy morsel.

As much as I love Tom and Jerry, I have got to say that this one is a bit of a stinker: the story is rather mundane; it introduces a badly conceived peripheral character that lacks charm; and it flogs the old 'dress the cartoon character up as a woman' gag to death.

In my opinion, 'Flirty Birdy' rivals 'Fraidy Cat' and 'Mouse in Manhattan' for the title of weakest Tom and Jerry caper thus far.

Fast and loud, but never really funny

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 15 November 2017]

"Flirty Birdy" is a Hanna Barbera cartoon from 1945, the last year of WWII, so this one is already over 70 years old and of course it stars the world's most famous cat and mouse duo. And even if it is not one of the Oscar-nominated ones, it is still among the more known Tom and Jerry cartoons today. Like in so many others, they add one major character to the story for a breeze of fresh wind and this time it is no dog, no stray cat and also none of Jerry's friends or relatives. It is a bird, a hungry hawk willing to devour Jerry at least as much as Tom does. And Tom learns quickly that his lack in physical attributes renders him clearly inferior here, not just because he cannot fly. So he needs to find a way to trick Jerry out of the hawk's dinner plans. And he goes for the most simple bird costume out there, probably intended for comedy reasons. And believe it or not, the bird really falls for that "female bird" (Tom in costume) while Jerry sees through it right away. Oh well. I personally think this is one of the weaker T&J cartoons sadly. I found it underwhelming and while it was full with action and events, it was never remotely funny sadly. Bird may be the word, but he clearly doesn't cut the cake here. And how com Tom always catches Jerry so easily when he is about to lose him afterward (frequently to a competitor), but then again on other occasions has no chance to get him at all. Other than the animation which is as good as always, there is nothing recommendable to this cartoon. My suggestion is to skip it.

no buzzing over the buzzard

[movieman_kev · 5/10 · 30 May 2005]

Tom the cat has to contend with a buzzard for the right to eat Jerry the mouse at first, then the vulture falls in love with him for some reason. Whenever a third character is in a Tom and Jerry short it can be hit or miss with me. Spike the dog is good, The black maid is good, the duckling is good sometimes. But this one, co-starring a love-stricken vulture as Tom's main foil is not one of the lesser Tom and Jerry shorts. While there are some laughs to be had, it just didn't seem to have that special something to make it one of the keepers. This cartoon can be found on disc one of the Spotlight collection DVD of "Tom & Jerry"

My Grade: C