Cool Cat

This article is about the character. For the 1967 cartoon of the same name, see Cool Cat (short).

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 (1999-2000) Fred Tatasciore (2023)

Cool Cat is a "hep" tiger character who appeared in a series of cartoons in the late 1960s during the Warner Bros.-Seven Arts era of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts.

History

Classic shorts

The character was created by Alex Lovy and debuted in an eponymous cartoon in 1967. This marked a shift from the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio's traditional animation style to one more closely resembling the style used by television animation studios such as Hanna-Barbera and Filmation. 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. He usually wore a green neck tie with a matching beret (although he lacked the beret in the Robert McKimson-directed cartoons). He 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 big-game hunter named Colonel Rimfire, who always carried a blunderbuss. The pairing was intended to be the new Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. In the last classic Looney Tunes short, "Bugged by a Bee", he is a student attending Disco Tech and partaking in sports against the rival college, Hippie University. Cool Cat is notable for starring in the final cartoon of the series' theatrical run, "Injun Trouble", where he travels throughout an Indian territory after a GPS malfunction. In contrast to most of the other Looney Tunes characters, who have come to be seen as fairly timeless, Cool Cat was very much a product of his time. Cool Cat was designed to be contemporary; however, his expressions, style of dress, speech and mannerisms became dated, hence he was quickly retired after the Warner Bros.-Seven Arts cartoon studio was closed.

Post-Golden Age

Cool Cat's cartoons would be shown on a sister analogy show that aired concurrently with The Bugs Bunny Show, being The Merrie Melodies Show. All of Cool Cat's cartoons aired on the analogy show; his cartoons did not appear on the other analogy shows outside of The Merrie Melodies Show. His cartoons would also air rather commonly on Nickelodeon when the channel picked up the Looney Tunes cartoons, largely in part due to Nickelodeon's original library primarily consisting of black-and-white cartoons and cartoons released/reissued past 1959.

After being largely forgotten, Cool Cat 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". He later appeared at the end of Tweety's High-Flying Adventure, removing his human businessman disguise. In these, Cool Cat was voiced by Joe Alaskey and Jim Cummings.

He returned twenty years after that in the Looney Tunes Cartoons short "Happy Birthday Bugs Bunny!". He appeared again in Tiny Toons Looniversity episode "Souffle, Girl Hey", voiced by Fred Tatasciore. He has a son named Chillest Cat.

To date, Cool Cat, Colonel Rimfire, Spooky, and Merlin the Magic Mouse are the only W-7 Arts characters to make any prominent appearances after the classic era shorts, with other characters only getting non-speaking cameos.

Filmography

The classic shorts:

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

The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries episodes:

• "Autumn's Leaving" (physical appearance) (speaking role)
• “Niagara’s Fallen” (sand mask on Hector’s head)
• “Yes, We Have No Canaries” (physical appearance)
• "Catch as Catch Cannes" (physical appearance)
• "The Granny Vanishes" (physical appearance)
• "Curse of De Nile" (painting cameo)
• "If It's Wednesday, This Must Be Holland!" (stamp cameo)
• "Keep Your Pantheon" (statue cameo)
• "They Call Me Mr. Lincoln" (physical appearance in Sylvster's dream)
• "Froggone It" (scratching stick cameo)
• "Mush Ado About Nothing" (watch cameo)
• "Happy Pranksgiving" (parade float cameo)
• "Fangs for the Memories" (painting cameo)
• "Is Paris Stinking?" (physical appearance)
• "Moscow Side Story" (portrait cameo)
• "El Dia de los Pussygatos" (mask cameo)
• "3 Days & 2 Nights of the Condor" (lunchbox cameo)
• "Yelp" (physical appearance)
• "Fleas Release Me" (physical appearance) (speaking role)
• "Ice Cat-Pades" (painting cameo)
• "To Catch a Puddy" (hood ornament cameo)
• "A Good Nephew Is Hard to Find" (stock footage)
• "A Game of Cat and Monster!" (iron maiden cameo)
• "Hold the Lyin' King, Please" (physical appearance)
• "Good Bird Hunting" (physical appearance)
• "A Mynah Problem" (painting cameo)
• "When Granny Ruled the Earth" (physical appearance)
• "What's the Frequency, Kitty?" (physical appearance)
• "The Tail End?" (germ cameo)
• "This Is the End" (physical appearance) (speaking role)

The film:

• Tweety's High-Flying Adventure

Looney Tunes Cartoons:

• "Happy Birthday Bugs Bunny!"

Tiny Toons Looniversity

• "Souffle, Girl Hey"

Comic Appearances

Western Publishing

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 Tarzunter Encounter - 4 pages - Looney Tunes #19 Gold Key April 1978
• 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

DC Comics

Looney Tunes

• Looney Tunes - Moulin Stooge - 2 pages - Looney Tunes #150 DC July 2007 (1 panel cameo)

International

Sage/Sagedition (France)

• Chat Tigre (Cool Cat) - Trophée...Tôt Faît (Trophy...Early) - 5 pages - Titi Géant #62 Sagedition 1979
• Chat Tigre (Cool Cat) - Trophée...Tôt Faît (Trophy...Early) - 5 pages - Titi Géant Album #21 Sagedition 1979

Rosnock/Magazine Management (Australia)

• Cool Cat - Tricky Trophy - 6 pages - Porky Pig #26003 Rosnock 1976
• Cool Cat - Painless Hunting - 6 pages - Road Runner #29012 Rosnock 1979
• Cool Cat - Slippery Target - 4 pages - Road Runner #49014 Rosnock
• Cool Cat - Stripe Strategy - 4 pages - Road Runner #49014 Rosnock
• Cool Cat - Alive And Kicking - 4 pages - Road Runner #49014 Rosnock

Gallery

1967 Version

1968 Version

1969 Version

"Autumn's Leaving"

Cool Cat heads in "El Dia de los Pussygatos"

"Yelp"

"Hold the Lyin' King, Please"

"A Good Nephew Is Hard to Find"

"Happy Pranksgiving"

With Colonel Rimfire

In his Dune Buggy

As a race car driver

Driving a race car

Spooky scares Cool Cat

Running with Spooky

Chased by Colonel Rimfire

Playing a guitar

Tweety's High-Flying Adventure

Looney Tunes Cartoons

Trading card

First Page of Moulin Stooge DC Comics Looney Tunes #150 July 2007