"Snow Business" is a 1953 Looney Tunes short, starting Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird and directed by Friz Freleng.
Because of an ongoing heavy snowstorm, Granny finds herself snowed in inside a log cabin, with Sylvester and Tweety in tow. Deciding to set out to get more food, Granny drives out, but the roads are blocked off due to the snowstorm. In the meantime, Sylvester and Tweety remain within the cabin, but when the radio broadcast forecasts that the snowstorm won't subside for several more days and the only available food sources are boxes of bird seeds, Sylvester decides to eat Tweety out of sheer hunger, right as a mouse is hungry enough to try to take a bite out of Sylvester himself.
"Snow Business" provide examples of:
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Unusually for a Sylvester and Tweety story, in this one they appear to be on good terms with each other, at least until a food shortage causes Sylvester to try to start trying to eat Tweety in desperation.
- Ascended to Carnivorism: The mouse hasn't had food in so long he's forgotten what it looks like. He sees Sylvester and is so hungry that he tries to eat his natural enemy without a second thought.
- Closed Circle: The cabin where they stay is isolated due to the heavy snowfall.
- Minor Major Character: Granny is out of picture for much of the short due to being stuck in traffic while going out to gather more food.
- Pain-Powered Leap:
- The mouse manages to trap Sylvester inside the pot of boiling water for only a second before the pain of being exposed to boiling hot water causes the cat to jump out of the pot.
- Near the end of the short, Tweety asks Sylvester if he enjoys the bird seeds they're eating. Just then, the hungry mouse secretly sinks the teeth into the cat's tail, causing him to jump out of his chair due to sheer pain of the bite.Tweety: Oh, tome now! It tan't be dat bad!
- Pun-Based Title: To "slow business".
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Granny goes out in order to get more food. When she returns, she brings home a large number of boxes of... bird seeds, which there are already plenty of in the cabin in the first place.
- Spanner in the Works: Sylvester's attempt to cook Tweety by tricking the bird into a pot of boiling water gets derailed when the mouse starts chomping on the cat out of sheer hunger, and Tweety is already out of the boiling pot by the time Sylvester returns to the stove.
- Stewed Alive:
- Sylvester tricks Tweety into a paper-made boat, which he places into a pot of boiling hot water with the intention of cooking Tweety alive. The hungry mouse chomping on Sylvester's tail gets the latter distracted long enough for Tweety to leave the pot unnoticed.
- After having the mouse's hole in the wall boarded shut, Sylvester checks the boiling pot, only to find it devoid of Tweety's presence. Just then, the mouse manages to chew through the block of wood meant to keep him in the wall, pushes Sylvester into the pot, and closes the lid to cook him alive. It doesn't stick because Sylvester jumps out of the pot from the sheer pain of being cooked alive in boiling hot water.
- Tempting Fate: Upon realizing that the only available food sources within the cabin are many boxes of bird seeds that Sylvester dislikes, Tweety remarks: "Poor putty tat! We gotta find something for you to eat!" Guess what Sylvester's choice of food source is...
- The Unfavorite: The way that the cabin appears to have a year's supply of birdseed but no cat food, and Granny's run to get pet food results in her bringing more birdseed but still no cat food gives the impression that Sylvester is this.
