Release Date:

April 17, 1948

Main Character(s):

Sylvester, Hippety Hopper

Summary:

Hippety Hopper escapes from the zoo and upon hopping up to Sylvester’s house, finds Sylvester dressed as a fisherman and fishing for mice in the mouse hole. When Hippety wanders into the cellar and into the walls, Sylvester ends up pulling him in and mistaking him for a giant mouse. A bulldog who also lives on the property is very disgusted that Sylvester is apparently afraid of a mouse and keeps sending him back in to catch Hippety.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1042 and was released as a Looney Tune.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue. In 1995, the original titles were found. They were later restored for the Looney Tunes Super Stars Sylvester and Hippety Hopper Marsupial Mayhem DVD set in 2013 (that DVD also collects every Hippety cartoon as well as every cartoon with Sylvester’s son, Sylvester Jr., as he would feature regularly with Hippety, as well as all of the non-Hippety cartoons with both Sylvester and Junior).

This is the first appearance of Hippety Hopper, a young kangaroo who never talks but has a very powerful kick and succeeds in spoiling Sylvester’s reputation as a great mouser as well as scaring him at times as Sylvester always mistakes him for a giant mouse. Hippety would appear in 12 more cartoons after this, all of which were directed by McKimson.

The title is a pun for “stop look and listen”. This is also one of three Warner cartoons to use this pun, with the other two being “Shop Look and Listen”, and the Roadrunner cartoon, “Stop Look and Hasten” (1954).

You can find out who animated what scene here.

The premise of the Hippety cartoons was parodied in the Tom and Jerry cartoon “Jerry and Jumbo” (1953) where a baby elephant falls off a circus train and ends up in the home of Tom and Jerry. Jerry befriends him and has him painted to look like a giant mouse to thwart Tom.

Like with “Gorilla My Dreams”, this is another instance where Mel Blanc voices a female character, in this case Hippety’s mother. Incidentally, both are McKimson cartoons.

Treg Brown’s sound effect of Hippety bouncing is slightly different than how it’s heard in all subsequent cartoons.

The cartoon was submitted to the Academy Awards, but it wasn’t nominated (in several later cases, the Academy Awards inexplicably shunned several true classics).

What I Like About This One:

The rendition of “You Never Know Where You’re Goin’ Till You Get There” under the opening credits.

At the zoo, there is an elephant and its “trunk” (the box), as well as a hyena who does a goofy laugh in his sleep (animated by Fred Abranz).

As his mother is rocking back and forth in her sleep, Hippety jumps out of her pouch (animated by Charles McKimson) and into town where he jumps down a manhole before coming back up through another (animated by Abranz), and past someone’s apartment where he jumps back to the window and looks inside while hopping. Someone inside hits him with a frying pan for being nosy. Hippety continues his bouncing through town by tearing his head three times through an awning of a grocery store (animated by Izzy Ellis).

Hippety bounces into Sylvester’s yard and stops by a window where he stops to take a look inside (animated by Anatolle Kirsanoff). Dressed in a fisherman outfit, Sylvester puts a piece of cheese on his fishing pole as bait and reels it into a mouse hole (animated by Manny Gould). He reels in a mouse biting on the cheese (animated by Abranz) but is dissatisfied with it upon measuring it with a ruler (animated by Gould). “Sufferin’ succotash! Too small! (animated by Charles) Waste of time when they’re too small! Takes a mess of ‘em to fill a skillet! Just fries down to a gob of grease!” After throwing the mouse back in, he continues, “This hole’s about fished out! For goodness sake, isn’t there a decent one left? I’m starvin’! Gotta get somethin’ in my stomach!” (animated by Gould)

At this moment, Hippety jumps down (animated by Charles) into the cellar and Sylvester realizes something is bouncing in the walls. Inside the mouse hole, Hippety tugs on Sylvester’s line, resulting in him getting pulled in and hitting the wall (animated by Kirsanoff). Sylvester decides to pull whatever’s in there out, which creates a large Hippety-shaped hole in the wall and causes Hippety to roll into Sylvester (animated by Ellis). While imitating Hippety’s bobbing up and down, Sylvester measures him with the ruler (animated by Kirsanoff) and believes this is “a king-sized mouse! A muscle-bound mastodon!” (animated by Charles)

Slowly backing away at first, Sylvester runs out of the house screaming and bumps into the bulldog, attempting to explain about the “muscle-bound mouse”, but he only comes out incoherent (animated by Ellis). Appalled at what he’s hearing, the bulldog openly expresses his disgust: “That’s the most sickening thing that I ever heard! A cat scared over a mouse! (animated by Charles) Ain’t you got no professional pride!? Now, get back in there and get that mouse or I’ll beat ya to a pulp!” He throws Sylvester back in (animated by Gould), causing the latter to skid in to Hippety. Sylvester fails to throw punches at Hippety, so he catches him in a bag instead. Hippety responds by bouncing up so high (animated by Abranz) that Sylvester keeps hitting the ceiling, and then bounces in the same spot rapidly several times that Sylvester rides him like a bucking bronco before being tossed out the window (animated by Kirsanoff).

The bulldog sees Sylvester on the ground and is angry: “Sneaking out, eh? I thought I told you to get that mouse!” (animated by Charles) He then hits him with an ax and orders him to “Now, get in there and pitch!” before throwing him back in (animated by Gould). Back inside, Sylvester confides, “I never thought just being a pussycat could get so complicated!” (animated by Charles)

Hippety hops past (animated by Charles) and bounces into another room. He punches Sylvester when he peeks in so Sylvester gets a ladder and climbs that to look in without getting punched, but Hippety punches him from up there too (animated by Abranz). Sylvester then chases Hippety around the living room with the ax (animated by Kirsanoff) and chases him back into the Hippety-shaped hole from earlier. Offscreen, Hippety hits Sylvester with the ax and Sylvester falls front-first out of the wall, now creating a Sylvester-shaped hole (animated by Abranz).

Sylvester tries to make sense of the situation as he thinks to himself: “Now just a minute. Let’s get organized. That’s a mouse; I’m a cat. Cats BEAT mice. Something’s wrong. I must be slippin’! Out of condition! Sloppy! I gotta exercise. Strengthen my s-s-sinews!” (animated by Charles). To the tune of “Frat”, Sylvester does various exercises one at a time: jumping rope, lifting dumbbells, running on a treadmill, using a rowing machine, punching a punching bag, and then punching a heavy punching bag (animated by Ellis).

Feeling ready, Sylvester walks up to Hippety but is kicked out the window before he is thrown back in by the bulldog from offscreen (animated by Gould). Hippety kicks him around and around so hard that Sylvester spins around fast like a wheel before he is given one final kick out the window. Suddenly hearing a feminine voice scolding, “Junior!”, Hippety turns to see his mother (animated by Ellis), who looks down at him and moves her head in a hilarious way while scolding, “I’ve looked all over for you. Now, wipe off your feet (animated by Charles) and come in the house.” He promptly jumps in and they affectionately look at each other, reunited (animated by Kirsanoff).

Back outside, the bulldog is fed up: “Okay, coward! So you’re scared of a teeny, little mouse? I’ll show ya how to deal with mice!” Marching in with a tough demeanor (animated by Gould), the bulldog is shocked at what he sees and exclaims in terrified and incoherent bewilderment at it (animated by Kirsanoff): the mother kangaroo staring at him with a mad expression and folding her arms while Hippety just smiles at him. Scared, the bulldog runs out and packs his bags before folding his doghouse into a large suitcase: “Come on, cat. Let’s get out of here.” (animated by Abranz) As they both sit down on the water wagon about to leave town, the bulldog gives some advice: “When you sees mice THAT big, with TWO heads, it’s time to get on the water wagon!” (animated by Charles)

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½