Cool Cat

Cool Cat
Species:	Tiger
Gender:	Male
Debut appearance:	Cool Cat (1967)
Created by:	Alex Lovy
Portrayed by:	Larry Storch (1967-1969) Joe Alaskey (1995-2000) Jim Cummings (2000)

Cool Cat is a "hep" tiger character who appeared in a series of cartoons in the late 1960s. He was from the Warner Bros.-Seven Arts (or W-7 Arts) era of classic Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts, which arrived in the latter half of that decade. Alex Lovy was his creator and Cool Cat debuted in his eponymous cartoon in 1967, which saw the divergence in the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio's original animation style, replaced with the Hanna-Barbera style (although that may have already occurred at some point earlier in the '60s). F Troop's Larry Storch was Cool Cat's original voice actor.

Cool Cat resembles somewhat both the Pink Panther (whose own cartoons by Depatie-Freleng Enterprises began in the same decade) and Snagglepuss from the Hanna-Barbera studio. In contrast to most of the other Looney Tunes characters, what separated Cool Cat from them was that he was a product of his time. As seen in his shorts, he wore a green neck tie and usually a matching beret as well (although in the last two cartoons starring him, he was without his beret), spoke '60s-style beatnik slang, and acted like the typically mellow, '60s adolescent. In the first four shorts, he was initially pitted against a fussy, English-accented game hunter named Colonel Rimfire, who always carried a blunderbuss. The pairing has been considered the new Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. In the last classic-era Looney Tunes short, "Bugged by a Bee", he is a student attending Disco Tech and partaking in sports against the rival college, Hippie University.

The new opening title card used in the sequence preceding his debut was the first to be done for the W-7 Arts series. This last intro title card sequence of the classic era featured a black background, a re-working of the Merry-Go-Round Broke Down theme and stylized lettering, such as the W and 7 being conjoined within a stylized shield (the change may have been done to reflect the change in the animation style of the cartoons as well). He had the distinction of starring in the last Looney Tune (the aforementioned Bugged by a Bee from 1969) and the last Merrie Melody (that same year's Injun Trouble); the studio shut down not long after the latter's release.

In his first appearance since the classic/W-7 Arts epoch, Cool Cat also had various cameos and/or walk-on roles in the '90s Warner production, The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries, in one form or another. For example, in the form of a poster, as a passer-by in street scenes, etc. However, these never went noticed by the main cast, with Tweety even commenting once "We just had to get him into this show". His last appearance was at the end of Tweety's High-Flying Adventure (in which Rimfire too is seen early on), removing a disguise. In these, Cool Cat was voiced by Joe Alaskey and Jim Cummings.

One reason why Cool Cat isn't remembered as well or even as fondly as many of the other Looney Tunes characters is because he was designed to be contemporary. Although they also used antiquated expressions, they still always had much more diversity and depth, while Cool Cat's style of dress, speech and mannerisms became dated.

To date, Cool Cat, Colonel Rimfire, and Spooky are the only W-7 Arts characters to make any other prominent appearances, aside from the classic era shorts, while other characters only got non-speaking cameos.

Filmography

• Cool Cat (1967)
• Big Game Haunt (1968)
• Hippydrome Tiger (1968)
• 3 Ring Wing-Ding (1968)
• Bugged by a Bee (1969)
• Injun Trouble (1969)

Comic Appearances

Bugs Bunny (Gold Key)

• Cool Cat - The Birthday Hunting Party - 6 pages - Bugs Bunny #121 Gold Key Jan 1969
• Cool Cat - The Lost Falls - 6 pages - Bugs Bunny #122 Gold Key Mar 1969
• Cool Cat - The Curiosity Box - 6 pages - Bugs Bunny #123 Gold Key May 1969
• Cool Cat - The Elephant-napper - 5 pages - Bugs Bunny #125 Gold Key Sep 1969

 Daffy Duck (Gold Key)

• Cool Cat - Instant-Game-Getter - 6 pages - Daffy Duck #57 Gold Key May 1969

Beep Beep the Road Runner (Gold Key)

• Cool Cat - Painless Hunting - 5 pages - Road Runner #15 Gold Key Dec 1969
• Cool Cat - Vine Villain - 4 pages - Road Runner #16 Gold Key Feb 1970
• Cool Cat - The Great Hut Plot - 4 pages - Road Runner #17 Gold Key Apr 1970
• Cool Cat - Stripe Strategy - 4 pages - Road Runner #19 Gold Key Aug 1970
• Cool Cat - The Big Bus Fuss - 4 pages - Road Runner #20 Gold Key Oct 1970
• Cool Cat - Alive and Kicking - 4 pages - Road Runner #21 Gold Key Dec 1970
• Cool Cat - Slippery Target - 4 pages - Road Runner #22 Gold Key Feb 1971
• Cool Cat - Alive and Kicking - 4 pages - Road Runner #97 Gold Key Sep 1981
• Cool Cat - The Big Bus Fuss - 4 pages - Road Runner #99 Gold Key Jan 1982
• Cool Cat - Vine Villain - 4 pages - Road Runner #100 Gold Key Mar 1982

Porky Pig (Gold Key)

• Cool Cat - Tricky Trophy - 6 pages - Porky Pig #36 Gold Key June 1971
• Cool Cat - The Pollution Plot - 5 pages - Porky Pig #38 Gold Key Oct 1971

Looney Tunes (Gold Key)

• Cool Cat - Wardrobe War - 4 pages - Looney Tunes #13 Gold Key Apr 1977
• Cool Cat - Feline Foolery - 4 pages - Looney Tunes #15 Gold Key Aug 1977
• Cool Cat - The Venus Cat-Trap - 4 pages - Looney Tunes #16 Gold Key Oct 1977
• Cool Cat - Trophy Trickery - 5 pages - Looney Tunes #17 Gold Key Dec 1977
• Cool Cat - The Sleep Slip-Up - 4 pages - Looney Tunes #20 Gold Key June 1978
• Cool Cat - A Herd of Hunters - 4 pages - Looney Tunes #21 Gold Key Aug 1978
• Cool Cat - Mirror Image - 3 pages - Looney Tunes #22 Gold Key Oct 1978
• Cool Cat - Mechanized Menace - 3 pages - Looney Tunes #28 Gold Key Oct 1979

Golden Comics Digest (Gold Key)

• Cool Cat - The Hunter's Habitat - 8 pages - Golden Comics Digest #1 Gold Key May 1969
• Cool Cat - Tree Trap - 6 pages - Golden Comics Digest #3 Gold Key July 1969
• Cool Cat - The Rain Game - 9 pages - Golden Comics Digest #5 Gold Key Sep 1969
• Cool Cat - Cat Without a Cause - 9 pages - Golden Comics Digest #6 Gold Key Oct 1969
• Cool Cat - Tripped-Up Tiger - 10 pages - Golden Comics Digest #6 Gold Key Oct 1969

• Cool Cat - Yikes! The Hunter! - 7 pages - Golden Comics Digest #8 Gold Key Jan 1970
• Cool Cat - The Jungle Genie - 10 pages - Golden Comics Digest #10 Gold Key May 1970
• Bugs Bunny and Cool Cat - Once Upon a Boom Boom - 12 pages - Golden Comics Digest #10 Gold Key May 1970
• Cool Cat - Hi-Ho, Steed! - 8 pages - Golden Comics Digest #12 Gold Key Aug 1970
• Cool Cat - The Big Impostor - 10 pages - Golden Comics Digest #14 Gold Key Oct 1970
• Cool Cat - The Heavy Hunter - 10 pages - Golden Comics Digest #17 Gold Key May 1971
• Cool Cat - The Painting Plot - 10 pages - Golden Comics Digest #21 Gold Key Jan 1972
• Cool Cat - The Tenderfoot - 8 pages - Golden Comics Digest #26 Gold Key Nov 1972
• Cool Cat - Instant-Game-Getter - 6 pages - Golden Comics Digest #30 Gold Key July 1973
• Cool Cat - The Lost Falls - 6 pages - Golden Comics Digest #39 Gold Key Sep 1974

Gallery

1967 Version of Cool Cat

1968 Version of Cool Cat

1969 Version of Cool Cat

Cool Cat heads in El Dia de los Pussygatos

Cool Cat and Colonel Rimfire

Cool Cat and his Dune Buggy

Cool Cat as a race car driver

Cool Cat as a race car driver driving a race car

Spooky scares Cool Cat

Cool Cat was running with Spooky

Cool Cat is being chased by Colonel Rimfire

Cool Cat playing a guitar

Cool Cat running