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This article is about the character. For the 1949 cartoon, see Hippety Hopper (short).

Hippety Hopper is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes series of cartoons.

History[]

Robert McKimson introduced Hippety Hopper in "Hop, Look and Listen" (1948), which created the mold into which future Hippety Hopper cartoons would fall: baby kangaroo Hopper escapes from the zoo, the circus, etc., and is mistaken for a giant mouse by Sylvester. Sylvester then tries to capture and eat his "prey", but the innocent and infantile Hippety mistakes Sylvester's predations for a game — a game of rough-housing, to be exact. Sylvester is repeatedly punched, kicked, juggled, spun, and pounced, but each failure only cements his will to have the "mouse" for lunch. The cat's dignity will suffer no less.

After "Hippety Hopper" (1949), the first cartoon where the character is officially named, the character would later return in McKimson's "Pop 'Im Pop!" (1950) in which proud papa Sylvester boasts of his mousing skills to his son, Sylvester Junior. Also in 1950, Hippety made a cameo in the Bugs Bunny cartoon "Bushy Hare", which is the only time he talks.

In "Cats A-weigh!", (1953) Sylvester accepts a position as mouse-catcher on a ship. He encounters Hippety Hopper being shipped from Australia. Sylvester mistakes Hippety Hopper once again for a giant mouse, and the baby kangaroo promptly beats the cat to a pulp. Junior is mortified, but the true victim is Sylvester, humiliated by a mere "mouse" in front of his own son.

McKimson would continue the Sylvester/Hippety Hopper series for 16 years, varying it slightly from cartoon to cartoon. In "Bell Hoppy" (1954), for example, Sylvester must hang a bell around a mouse's neck in order to join the "Loyal Order of Alley Cats and Mousing and Chowder Club."

In "Lighthouse Mouse", Sylvester must guard a lighthouse from the baby kangaroo who wants nothing more than to turn it off. "Hoppy Go Lucky" (1952) was a parody of Of Mice and Men, with Sylvester accompanied by the giant, simple-minded cat named "Benny" who wants a mouse to "hug and pet." The central theme is always the same: Sylvester is shamed for his failure to capture a simple "mouse".

The Hippety Hopper/Sylvester cartoons ended in 1964 when the Warner Bros. studio closed its animation unit, with "Freudy Cat" as Hippety's final appearance. The character continues to appear in Looney Tunes marketing and other projects, such as some cameo appearances in the crowd shots of the 1996 film Space Jam and the very end of the 2003 film, Looney Tunes Back in Action. In an episode of The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries set in Australia, Sylvester stumbles into a group of baby kangaroos, who all resemble Hippety, and comments that this is the first time he had seen the "giant mice" for years. Originally Hippety Hopper intended to appear as a cameo in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit in the deleted scene "Acme's Funeral".[1]

In April 2013, a DVD called Looney Tunes Super Stars' Sylvester & Hippety Hopper: Marsupial Mayhem was released, containing all the Hippety Hopper/Sylvester cartoons.

He also appeared in the 1993 Sega Genesis video game Sylvester and Tweety in Cagey Capers in the third, fourth and eighth levels, as both an enemy and a sidekick in the third and eighth levels and as a silhouette in the window in the fourth level, and in the 2000 Game Boy Color video game Looney Tunes Collector: Alert!.

Filmography[]

Cartoons[]

  1. Looney Tunes "Hop, Look and Listen" (1948) Blue Ribbon
  2. Merrie Melodies "Hippety Hopper" (1949) Blue Ribbon
  3. Looney Tunes "Pop 'Im Pop!" (1950) Blue Ribbon
  4. Looney Tunes "Bushy Hare" (1950)
  5. Looney Tunes "Hoppy-Go-Lucky" (1952) Blue Ribbon
  6. Looney Tunes "Who's Kitten Who?" (1952) Blue Ribbon
  7. Merrie Melodies "Cats A-weigh!" (1953)
  8. Merrie Melodies "Bell Hoppy" (1954) Blue Ribbon
  9. Merrie Melodies "Lighthouse Mouse" (1955) Blue Ribbon
  10. Looney Tunes "Too Hop to Handle" (1956) Blue Ribbon
  11. Merrie Melodies "The Slap-Hoppy Mouse" (1956)
  12. Merrie Melodies "Mouse-Taken Identity" (1957)
  13. Looney Tunes "Hoppy Daze" (1961)
  14. Looney Tunes "Freudy Cat" (1964)

In other media[]

The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries - cameo

The films:

The Looney Tunes Show (2011) - cameo at the top right corner at the beginning of the intro

Looney Tunes Cartoons:

Bugs Bunny Builders

Gallery[]

References[]

Characters
Main Characters
Bugs Bunny (Prototype Bugs Bunny) Daffy Duck Elmer Fudd Foghorn Leghorn Lola Bunny (Honey Bunny) Marvin the Martian (K-9) Pepé Le Pew (Penelope Pussycat) Porky Pig Road Runner Speedy Gonzales Sylvester (Sylvester Jr.) Taz Tweety Wile E. Coyote Yosemite Sam
Recurring Golden Age Characters
1930s debuts

Bosko Honey Bruno Foxy Piggy Goopy Geer Buddy Cookie Beans Little Kitty Oliver Owl Ham and Ex Petunia Pig Piggy Hamhock Gabby Goat Egghead Big Bad Wolf Little Red Riding Hood Yoyo Dodo Mrs. Daffy Duck The Two Curious Puppies Sniffles Inki Minah Bird

1940s debuts

Willoughby Three Little Pigs Cecil Turtle Beaky Buzzard Mama Buzzard Leo the Lion Babbit and Catstello Conrad the Cat Hubie and Bertie Claude Cat A. Flea Three Bears Schnooks Hector the Bulldog The Drunk Stork Gossamer Rocky Barnyard Dawg Henery Hawk Charlie Dog Bobo the Elephant Goofy Gophers The Dog Wellington Gruesome Gorilla Hippety Hopper The Talking Bulldog The Crusher The Supreme Cat Playboy Penguin

1950s debuts

Melissa Duck Frisky Puppy Granny (Proto-Granny) Miss Prissy (Emily the Chicken) Sam Cat Nasty Canasta Marc Anthony and Pussyfoot Spike and Chester Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog The Weasel Witch Hazel Tasmanian She-Devil Ralph Phillips Egghead Jr. Mugsy Jose and Manuel The Honey-Mousers (Ralph Crumden, Ned Morton, Alice Crumden, Trixie Morton) Instant Martians Slowpoke Rodriguez Pappy and Elvis Blacque Jacque Shellacque

1960s debuts

Cool Cat Colonel Rimfire Merlin the Magic Mouse Second Banana Bunny and Claude

One-Off Golden Age Characters
1930s debuts

Owl Jolson

1940s debuts

The Gremlin The Dover Boys (Tom Dover, Dick Dover, Larry Dover, Dora Standpipe, Dan Backslide) Mr. Meek Russian Dog The Little Man from the Draft Board Colonel Shuffle Giovanni Jones

1950s debuts

The Martin Brothers Pete Puma George and Benny Toro the Bull Babyface Finster Michigan J. Frog Shropshire Slasher Mot Pablo and Fernando Charles M. Wolf Señor Vulturo Mighty Angelo

1960s debuts

Hugo the Abominable Snowman Nelly the Giraffe Count Bloodcount Spooky Rapid Rabbit and Quick Brown Fox

Post-Golden Age Characters
Tiny Toon Adventures

Buster Bunny Babs Bunny Plucky Duck Hamton J. Pig Fifi La Fume Shirley the Loon Sweetie Bird Elmyra Duff Montana Max

Taz-Mania

Jean Hugh Molly Jake Dog the Turtle Drew

Pinky and the Brain

Pinky The Brain

Baby Looney Tunes

Floyd Minton

Duck Dodgers

Dr. I.Q. Hi Captain Star Johnson Commander X2

Loonatics Unleashed

Ace Bunny Lexi Bunny Danger Duck Slam Tasmanian Tech E. Coyote Rev Runner

The Looney Tunes Show

Tina Russo

New Looney Tunes

Squeaks the Squirrel Bigfoot Barbarian Boyd Cal Carl the Grim Rabbit Claudette Dupri Dr. Clovenhoof Eagle Scout Elliot Sampson Horace the Horse Ivana Jack Thes Leslie P. Lilylegs Miss Cougar Pampreen Perdy and Paul Perdy Rhoda Roundhouse Shameless O'Scanty Sir Littlechin Slugsworthy the First Squint Eatswood Tad Tucker Trey Hugger Viktor Winter Stag

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