Freudy Cat is a 1964 Looney Tunes short directed by Robert McKimson.
Title[]
The title is a play on the expression "fraidy cat."
Plot[]
A paranoid Sylvester runs back home, imagining that a giant mouse is chasing him. Sylvester Junior states that the mouse is gone and that he is still in a state of shock. The two head to therapist Dr. Freud E. Katt to discover what is causing Sylvester to lose his sanity. The therapist suggests that Sylvester flash back to his first encounter with the giant mouse. Junior states that it started when Hippety was hopping out of a box and into an abandoned mansion in which Sylvester and Junior were hunting. Sylvester spots Hippety and is scared. He tries to load a rifle to hunt the mouse. Each attempt to load the rifle results in Sylvester being blasted by a small mouse.
Sylvester even imagines Hippety stowing away on a ship and being given a beating. The therapist says that such fantasy can be easy to avoid thinking about, but the real Hippety crashes by the therapist office and hops along. The therapist loses his sanity and hops away, with Sylvester and Junior joining him.
Production Music[]
These tracks are only played in most unrestored prints and overlaps the cartoon's original soundtrack.[1]
- At the Circus - Philip Green
- Calamity Chase - Philip Green
- Elephant Party - Philip Green
Availability[]
Looney Tunes Super Stars' Sylvester & Hippety Hopper: Marsupial Mayhem (restored, with fixed soundtrack)
Streaming[]
Censorship[]
- On ABC, the flashback from "The Slap-Hoppy Mouse" where Sylvester repeatedly attempts to load a rifle "frontier-style" (and gets blasted) was cut.[2]
Notes[]
- The short's premise is very similar to that of "Tweet Dreams", as both shorts are "cheater" shorts which center on Sylvester, who experiences nervous breakdowns, visits the therapist, and tells his story to the therapist via footage from previous cartoons.
- This was the last theatrical appearance of both Hippety Hopper and Sylvester Junior.
- Hippety Hopper only appears in clips and has a minor appearance near the end. "Hoppy Daze" is his last appearance where he physically interacts with Sylvester.
- A small scene from this cartoon would be used in the special Bugs Bunny's Thanksgiving Diet.
- The cartoon is unusual in that, during the original shorts that make up this cartoon, it mixes a new soundtrack by Bill Lava with music by Carl Stalling, who had retired six years earlier. This results in a schizophrenic soundtrack, which, given the premise of the short, may or may not have been intentional.
- Even more unusual is that certain televised versions of the cartoon, most notably on earlier Cartoon Network and Boomerang USA airings as well as on the Latin American channel Tooncast, contain a stock music piece by Philip Green that plays over numerous areas of the cartoon without removing the old soundtrack, creating a rather dissonant, overbearing "new" soundtrack, in a vein similar to the mixed audiotracks of both "Sniffles Takes a Trip" and "Hop and Go" on Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 6 DVD release and "Bugs vs. Daffy: Battle of the Music Video Stars" on Space Jam 2003 two-disc DVD release.[3] Some of the character dialogue's volume has been decreased, making it hard for viewers to understand the lines the characters say. The restored version of this cartoon released on Looney Tunes Super Stars' Sylvester & Hippety Hopper: Marsupial Mayhem DVD, as well as the streaming services Boomerang and HBO Max in America fixes these anomalies.
- This short containing portions of earlier cartoons such as "Who's Kitten Who?", "Cats A-weigh!", and "The Slap-Hoppy Mouse".
Gallery[]
TV Title Cards[]
References[]