Release Date:

October 28, 1950

Main Character(s):

Sylvester, Hippety Hopper, Sylvester Jr.

Summary:

At the circus, Hippety Hopper is the son of “Gracie, the Fighting Kangaroo”. After Gracie is about to perform her act, Hippety leaves the circus and heads into the yard of Sylvester, who is telling a tall tale about how he beat a giant mouse to his son, Sylvester Jr. Both mistake Hippety for a giant mouse, with Sylvester having to prove himself the great mouser he allegedly is.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1125 and was released as a Looney Tune.

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.

This is the first appearance of Sylvester Jr., who looks exactly like his father apart from being a lot smaller than him, and is also easily embarrassed at his failures. Jr. would appear regularly in future Hippety cartoons, and would also appear with Sylvester in five cartoons without Hippety with those being “Cat’s Paw” (1959), “Goldimouse and the Three Cats” (1960; which is also Jr.’s only appearance outside of a McKimson cartoon as it was directed by Freleng), “Birds of a Father” (1961), “Fish and Slips” (1962), and “Claws in the Lease” (1963).

Jr.’s voice is also different than how it is in later cartoons.

The cover art for the aforementioned Looney Tunes Super Stars Sylvester and Hippety Hopper Marsupial Mayhem DVD set is a recreation of this cartoon’s title card (which makes sense as not only does it contain every Hippety cartoon but all of the five non-Hippety cartoons with Jr. are also available on that set, which basically has it act as both a “Complete Hippety Hopper” and “Complete Sylvester Jr.”).

The cartoon was originally titled “Is Everybody Hoppy”, which is a pun for Ted Lewis’ line, “Is everybody happy?”

The animator draft for the cartoon can be viewed here.

Sylvester’s line, “I’ll do the thinnin’ around here!” would later become a catchphrase of Hanna-Barbera’s “Quick Draw McGraw”. Incidentally, Warren Foster, who wrote this cartoon also contributed to that series as well as several other Hanna-Barbera works (Michael Maltese was also at Hanna-Barbera for a while before he reunited with Jones in the mid-1960’s when Jones’ unit was making new Tom and Jerry cartoons for MGM).

This cartoon was released exactly 25 years before my dad was born on October 28, 1975.

What I Like About This One:

The circus’ carnival barker announces various acts such as the “trained pachyderms”- a “Pyramid of Pachyderms”, the “death-defying leap for life”- a “Death Defying 1000 Ft. Dive”, the “Human Cannonball”, and “Gracie, the Fighting Kangaroo”. Inside her tent, Gracie is practicing her boxing moves before she unzips her pouch as Hippety, dazed from her practicing her punches, comes out. Hearing what is presumably the carnival barker in his normal voice call to her, “Get ready, Gracie. You’re on next”, she leaves the tent to perform as Hippety puts on a pair of extra boxing gloves for himself (animated by Bill Melendez).

Hippety hops out of the tent down the street (animated by Rod Scribner) before hopping over wet cement that a worker has finished smoothing out. A dog then walks over the wet cement getting paw prints all over it and licks the irritated worker’s face (animated by Manuel Perez). Hippety then hops into a dress on display in front of a clothing store and now wearing said dress, hops over the wet cement again, and past a traffic light changing to stop, causing a massive wreck for the people who’s turn it is to proceed (animated by Phil DeLara).

Meanwhile, Sylvester is telling Jr. a tall tale of how he beat a giant mouse: “Your father knew that a cat could always lick a mouse! And this one was as big as me! Suddenly, he- he snaps at me! So, I grabs him by his leathery ears and throws him to the ground! Then I clamps my famous headlock on him! And that did it! No more giant mouse!” (brilliantly animated by Melendez)

Jr. looks in surprise as Sylvester asks, “Why are you looking at me like that, son? (animated by Melendez) Don’t you believe there WAS a giant mouse?” Jr. answers, “Yes, I do, Pop. Because there’s one in back of you now” (animated by Charles McKimson). Hippety is shown to be behind Sylvester, who initially laughs this off, “Oh, come now, kid. I’ll do the thinnin’ around here. I wish there WAS a giant mouse in back of me! I-I” but then feels Hippety’s presence before breathing into a small mirror to see behind him (animated by Scribner). Upon seeing Hippety jumping up and down in the mirror (animated by Charles), Sylvester does a wild take and collapses chin-first onto the box Jr. was on (animated by Scribner).

Jr. cheers him on, “Come on, Pop. Go get the mouse like you said you could!” before lamenting, “Unless you want to destroy a child’s faith in his father”. Irritated, Sylvester ponders, “Beats me where they pick up all this guff. So I now I gotta do it” (animated by Charles). Jr. encourages him in excitement before Sylvester shouts, “Stop rushing me!” (animated by Melendez) Upon hearing Jr. telling him to “give him your famous headlock, Pop!”, Sylvester pretends to act nonchalant before attempting to headlock Hippety, “I got ya! I’ll tear your head off!”, but Hippety keeps pulling his head out of Sylvester’s grasp (animated by Perez).

Sylvester attempts to throw Hippety out of the yard, but Hippety immediately bounces back into the yard. “I’ll get ya this time!”, Sylvester declares as he picks Hippety up (animated by Melendez) and attempts to push him through the entrance to a brick wall in the fence that has a gate on it. After failing to do so, due to Hippety having his feet up against the walls, Sylvester decides, “Okay, then. I’ll give ya the ‘Bum’s Rush’!”, which is attempting to run him through the entrance with force but Hippety still holding on to the walls with his feet causes Sylvester to fling backward into the clothesline which slingshots him back towards the wall. He ends up hitting the gate that Hippety has pushed in front of the entrance (animated by Scribner).

Sylvester grabs Hippety by his toes (animated by Scribner) as Jr. encourages, “Now you’ve got him, Pop! Give him the old toehold!” (animated by Charles) Hippety simply slams Sylvester to the ground several times with his foot while Sylvester is still holding on to it and kicks him away, resulting in Sylvester hitting a trash can headfirst offscreen. Jr. goes up to him and says, “That’s the old pepper! Oh boy! That’s my pop! He wouldn’t let his son down!” Dazed, Sylvester remarks as he’s throwing punches, “Yeah. Sundown” before accidentally slamming into the wall, which causes him to regain his senses (animated by DeLara).

Declaring, “Okay, mouse! Now you’ll get it!”, Sylvester again tries to swing at Hippety who dodges each before the latter jumps up causing Sylvester to spin around and fall to the ground. “Stand up and fight fair!”, Sylvester snarls (animated by Perez). Jr. again cheers him on, “That’s it, pop! Give him the old one-two!” Sylvester answers that “I’ll give him the old one-two! And a three-four-five! And six!” (animated by Charles) Hippety punches his head several times before hopping off. After Jr. points out, “There he is, Pop!”, Sylvester attempts to run towards Hippety but Hippety kicks him, sending him tumbling backward. After the same thing happens a second time, Hippety moves out of the way, causing Sylvester to hit the wall (animated by Scribner).

Sylvester puts a trash can over Hippety who jumps around with it on him with Sylvester riding him like a bucking bronco before crashing offscreen. Sylvester chases him with an ax (animated by DeLara) out of the yard and down the street (animated by Scribner).

Seeing that his work is presumably about to get ruined again, the worker smoothing out the wet cement stomps around all over it so damage is already done before standing next to it with a smirking expression. However, the chase between Hippety and Sylvester goes AROUND the wet cement, which shocks the worker so much that he pulls out a trumpet and stands on the wet cement, sinking down into it while playing “Taps” (animated by Perez).

Chasing Hippety all the way to the circus tent (animated by Perez), Sylvester peeks into the tent and gets socked by Hippety. Upon seeing Jr. running up to him, Sylvester states a threat into the tent to make it seem like he defeated Hippety, “And if I ever catch ya again, I’ll give ya the same thing! Only this time, I’ll break BOTH your legs! You giant mouse you!” “Oh, boy, Pop! Ya beat the big mouse?”, Jr. asks in excitement (animated by Charles). “Certainly”, Sylvester remarks, “Why, I wish he was TWICE as big with two heads and four arms!” At that moment, Gracie with Hippety in her pouch, jumps out of the tent as Sylvester continues, “Why, I’d turn to him and say, ‘This town’s not big enough for both of us!’ One of us has got to go!” Seeing both Gracie and Hippety upon turning around, Sylvester sheepishly waves, “Uh, goodbye, now!” and runs off. Jr. too gives a sheepish wave before running off with Hippety waving back to him (animated by Melendez).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕 ½