Release Date:

November 19, 1949

Main Character(s):

Sylvester, Hippety Hopper

Summary:

A mouse, depressed over Sylvester’s tormenting of him, is about to commit suicide by jumping off the pier into the water, but is saved by Hippety Hopper. Thinking Hippety is a giant mouse, the mouse enlists Hippety’s help to get even with Sylvester.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1097 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue. When it was restored for the Looney Tunes Super Stars Sylvester and Hippety Hopper Marsupial Mayhem DVD set in 2013, the original opening rings were put back in.

With this cartoon, Hippety was given his name.

This is one of two times where a character’s second appearance has their name as the title of the cartoon. It would also occur with Speedy in his second appearance, “Speedy Gonzales” (1955). For later instances, characters’ first appearances would have the same title as their name such as “The Honey-Mousers” (1956), “Cool Cat” (1967), “Merlin the Magic Mouse” (1967), and “Bunny and Claude” (1968).

While uncredited, this is the final Warner cartoon to have animation by Manny Gould. Interestingly, he would become a mainstay at DePatie-Freleng right AFTER they stopped producing cartoons for Warner Bros up until his death in 1975.

The bulldog in this cartoon shares the same design as the bulldogs in three other McKimson cartoons: “It’s Hummer Time” (1950), “A Fox in a Fix” (1951), and “Early to Bet” (1951). The latter two even have the same voice as this bulldog!

Unseen University is parodied when Hippety and the mouse bounce through the building of the Eta Beta Pi sorority, scaring the women inside (just a reminder that if you are in a frat or sorority to keep your building closed at night unless you WANT them bouncing through in the middle of the night).

The animator draft for the cartoon can be viewed here.

The scenes of the mouse boldly plucking out Sylvester’s whiskers would be reworked as the plot of the Tom and Jerry cartoon “Pecos Pest” (1955; which was also the last cartoon where the four principal animators on that series were all present) where Jerry’s Uncle Pecos is a singing television star and stays with him for the night before he is to perform on TV. His guitar strings keep breaking, however, and every time they do, he decides that Tom’s whiskers are a perfect replacement.

What I Like About This One:

The cartoon opens with the waterfront on a foggy night as the mouse narrates through inner monologue: “The waterfront, with its evil spell, drew me relentlessly toward the river. I then that this was to be my last night on Earth. I had the feeling that no one would care whether there was one less mouse in the world or not”. Just as he’s about to jump off the pier, Hippety grabs him: “Saved! Snatched from the watery grave! Why? Who? Someone DID care and I had to find out who it was” (animated by Pete Burness).

The mouse removes the peg locking Hippety’s cage (animated by Charles McKimson) and is startled upon opening it, mistaking Hippety for a giant mouse: “Lo and behold! Before me stood a king-size mouse. He was as big and as strong as the cause of my misery, Sylvester the Cat”. Hippety picks the mouse up and takes him over to a dock pole as the mouse continues his narration: “Sylvester the Cat? (animated by Burness) That gave me an idear. I explained my problems and he agreed to help me (animated by Charles). So we started back to my house of terror” (animated by Burness).

Hippety and the mouse leave the dock and enter the city park, jumping on two homeless men sleeping on park benches. One of the men thinks the other touched him inappropriately and slugs him (animated by Burness). They then hop through the building of the Eta Beta Pi sorority scaring the members of the sorority as they pass through (animated by John Carey).

They arrive at Sylvester’s house by next morning as the mouse enters through the window and wakes Sylvester up by pulling out one of his whiskers, causing Sylvester to yell in pain (animated by Burness). The mouse tells him, “I’m through bein’ scared of you! I’m gonna take vitamins and grow as big as you are!” and then eats a round vitamin that looks more like a pea (animated by Charles). “Those pills will make you grow as big as me!?”, Sylvester asks before laughing over how ridiculous this is. As Sylvester is in the midst of his laughing fit, the mouse walks away and has Hippety hop over to Sylvester in his place. Sylvester absentmindedly laughs to Hippety, “Did you hear that, mouse? As big as me!?”, and continues laughing for a few seconds before realizing who’s in front of him. Thinking it IS the mouse, Sylvester turns away and falls front-first (animated by Manny Gould). The real mouse comes up to him, “I told you I’d grow as big as you are”, he says and plucks out another whisker (animated by Charles).

Angry, Sylvester attempts to go after the mouse and chases him into the closet. “Okay, mouse. I don’t care HOW big ya are! Come out fightin’!” Of course, it’s Hippety who comes out instead. Sylvester tells him to “Stop hoppin’ around and put up your dukes!” (animated by Burness) When Hippety comes up to him and moves his fists around like he’s going to, Sylvester attempts to put up his own dukes: “That’s it! Now watch the birdie!” As he attempts to punch him, Hippety only slaps his hands on his knees patty-cake style. Hippety then kicks Sylvester in the chin a few times before kicking him so hard (animated by Carey) that Sylvester ends up hitting the wall. He believes this is “A lucky punch! That can’t happen again!” The same thing happens with Sylvester calling it “another lucky punch!” The third time this happens, Sylvester is bewildered: “How lucky can a guy get!?” (animated by Phil DeLara)

Sylvester attempts to run up towards Hippety once more but Hippety only kicks him around as fast as a wheel before kicking him (animated by DeLara) out the door (animated by Charles). Sylvester is shown to have landed near the confused bulldog’s house, with the latter looking up to see (animated by DeLara) the mouse threatening, “And if you come back, I’ll throw ya out again!” (animated by Charles)

The bulldog tsks in disgust and picks Sylvester up to talk some sense into him: “Come on, cat. Snap out of it” as he slaps him around (animated by DeLara). “Look, cat. We all gotta job. I keep burglars outta here, you gotta keep mouses out. And it don’t look good for no cat to be thrown out of the house by no mouse (animated by Charles). So get in there and thrown out the mouse”, as the bulldog picks Sylvester up and throws him back in (animated by DeLara).

“Back for more, eh!?”, the mouse asks as Sylvester lands on the kitchen floor before pulling out another whisker and running off (animated by Charles). The mouse runs into the stove and Hippety comes out through it once Sylvester removes the stovelid. Sylvester attempts to hit Hippety with the stovelid, but Hippety strikes first with his tail. He then grabs Hippety via a headlock but Hippety just bounces around with Sylvester atop him and hops under the table, causing Sylvester to hit his head against it several times (animated by Carey).

Dazed from the repeated table hits, Sylvester walks out dazed before collapsing upon getting off the porch. The mouse comes out to warn, “And STAY out!” (animated by Burness) Irritated, the bulldog berates Sylvester, “Get up, goldbrick! This is for your own good, cat. Get. That. Mouse” and throws him back into the house. This time, Sylvester is thrown out immediately, causing him to fly into the bulldog behind-first and for the bulldog to fall down. Sylvester stops the bulldog from beating him up by trying to explain what’s going on: “Wait! Let me explain! (animated by DeLara) I can’t get that mouse! He’s THIS big (animated by Charles) and hops around like this” He proceeds to hop around like a kangaroo but the bulldog sees (animated by DeLara) the mouse also hopping around like a kangaroo on the porch (animated by Burness).

The bulldog stops Sylvester from hopping and tells him, “Cat, your eyes are shot. You’re seein’ things big (animated by DeLara). You need glasses. Here, put these on”. The glasses the bulldog gives Sylvester turn out to be VERY bad as they cause Sylvester’s pupils to shrink (animated by Charles) and for him to see a severely distorted view of the bulldog. Unaware of the glasses’ flaw, the bulldog walks Sylvester back to the house to try once more: “Now when ya sees that the mouse is teeny, yous will get your self-respect back. Now, walk right in and take over, cat” (animated by DeLara).

Thanks to the glasses, Sylvester fails to step onto the porch and then falls onto the porch chin-first when trying to step onto it. Thinking Sylvester is deliberately screwing around, the bulldog angrily puts him up onto the porch and shoves him back in (animated by Carey). “He’s safe”, the bulldog figures. “Nobody hits a guy with glasses on”. An offscreen crash is immediately heard. “Of course, I could be wrong”, the bulldog admits. Sylvester is thrown out once more, so the bulldog decides to deal with the mouse himself. “Well, no use sendin’ a boy on a man’s job” (animated by Charles).

The mouse warns the bulldog, “Now don’t YOU start anything, or I’ll grow big and kick YOU out!” “Oh yeah? Grow big then”, the bulldog replies (animated by Charles). The mouse goes into the closet and once the bulldog opens the door, Hippety is again in the mouse’s place. “That’s a good trick, mouse, but it won’t save ya”, the bulldog tells Hippety. “Well, go ahead, KICK me out. I dares ya”. The bulldog moves his muscular chest up towards Hippety, which makes him more difficult to kick, much to Hippety’s frustration (animated by Burness). The mouse then bites the bulldog’s toe (animated by Charles), allowing Hippety to kick the bulldog out when the bulldog yells in pain from the mouse’s bite (animated by DeLara).

“And if you come in again, I’ll pin your ears back!”, the mouse threatens the bulldog. The bulldog decides, “Anytime a mouse can pin MY ears back, I’ll take up ballet dancin’”. Predictably, the bulldog is kicked out with his ears literally held together with clothespins (animated by DeLara). “Well, I see you got your ears pinned back”, Sylvester comments (animated by Charles). Complying to his exact words, the bulldog has him and Sylvester dress up as ballerinas as they dance into the distance to Strauss’ “Voices of Spring” (animated by Burness).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕