The Hep Cat

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The Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall	The Sheepish Wolf

Airdate:
3 October 1942 Blue Ribbon reissue: 12 November 1949

Series:

Looney Tunes

MPAA Number:	Production Number:	Vitaphone Number:
8121	LT-15-12 1177 (reissue)	776

Runtime:

6 minutes, 16 seconds (reissue)

Copyright Renewed:

11 December 1969^[1]

Starring:

Rosebud

Crew

Animated By:

Bob McKimson
Rod Scribner (uncredited)
Virgil Ross (uncredited)^[4]
Sid Sutherland (uncredited)
Rev Chaney (uncredited)^[5]

Background Artist:

John Didrik Johnsen (uncredited)

Film Editor:

Treg Brown (uncredited)

Musician:

Carl W. Stalling

The Hep Cat is a 1942 Looney Tunes short directed by Bob Clampett.

Title[]

The title can be taken two ways. Figuratively, a "hep cat" is slang for someone who knows the latest in music, fashion, and other things. In the context of the film this is taken literally, as the main protagonist is literally a hep cat.

Plot[]

The titular hep cat waltz over a fence and through an abandoned lot. However, he walks past the dog house of Rosebud. Upon noticing the cat, he gives chase, until the cat jumps over the fence which the dog slams into. A red bird tells Rosebud that he almost got him tonight, and having failed to catch the cat over several nights, Rosebud plans a way to get back at him.

The cat sings on the other side of the fence, just when the cat sees an attractive female cat. He tries to woo her, but fails utterly. Rosebud throws a brick with a note attached to tell the cat to go to the other side of the fence to encounter the female cat. The cat falls for this, and another chase pursues that ends with Rosebud dazed under a set of dirt.

Rosebud tries to use a puppet of a cat to attract the hep cat. The ruse proves to be more successful than the cat's previous attempt with a real cat, but once the cat notices the dog's nose behind the puppet, he gets suspicious. He attempts to kiss the "cat", but ends up kissing Rosebud. Angered yet again, Rosebud pursues the cat throughout the city. Eventually, the cat manages to corner Rosebud into being hanged into a clothespin line in baby clothing. Now able to keep the puppet for himself, the cat swoons over it, much to the disgust of the red bird, who says that isn't a real cat, although the hep cat states he can always dream.

Caricatures[]

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Production[]

According to Milton Gray, beginning from this cartoon, Bob Clampett's creativity and experimentation reaches his peak, as subsequent Looney Tunes cartoons became wilder, zanier, and loonier in tone, direction and timing.^[6] In cartoons Clampett directed after this one such as "A Tale of Two Kitties" or "A Corny Concerto", there is a notable increase in violence, irreverent humor, more exaggerated double takes and surrealism.

Music Cues^[7][]

Five O'Clock Whistle - Josef Myrow [Credits and continues in the opening sequence, dog & cat chase sequence]^[8]^[9]
Java Jive - Ben Oakland & Milton Drake [Sung with substitute lyrics by the cat]
Always in My Heart (Siempre en mi corazón) - Ernesto Lecuona [The cat wooing the female cat, cat embraces the puppet]
Frühlingslied [Spring Song] - Felix Mendelssohn [Cat reads the note, Cat slides down the stairs and kisses Rosebud]
Rock-a-Bye Baby - Effie I. Canning [Dog in diaper]

Notes[]

This cartoon is the first Looney Tunes short to be produced in color. Also starting with this short, the Looney Tunes series adopted the "bullseye" rings originating from Merrie Melodies, the opening familiar to Warner Bros. cartoon audiences generally; in this series, the rings are usually thicker. This continued for the remaining seven black-and-white cartoons and all color shorts in the series up until 1964.
Of the six Looney Tunes shorts produced when color and black-and-white shorts were made concurrently, this is the only one to be a one-shot; the other five star Daffy Duck.
A cultural reference is made when the cat claims to be a "gorgeous hunk of man", as his face turns into a caricature of Victor Mature. As the cat feels Rosebud's hand beside the puppet he's kissing he exclaims, "Ah, something new has been added!" At the end of the cartoon the cat says, "Well, I can dream, can't I?" Both quotes were used often in Looney Tunes cartoons of this era (like for instance "Plane Daffy") and are both catch phrases by Jerry Colonna. "Ah, something new has been added" was a slogan for Old Gold (cigarette).
The song the cat sings is a parody of the 1940 song "Java Jive," made famous by The Ink Spots.