Sylvester and Hippety Hopper: Looney Tunes DVD...

Over the course of the last several months I'd been purchasing the DVD releases of the Looney Tunes Super-Star Series. I happen to love the releases...and although I've read many, many, many angry complaints over the years from those that criticize the cropped presentation of the cartoons in those DVD releases I decided to purchase some just to see what all of the criticism was about. This one I'm spotlighting in the photo arrived in the mail the other day but the very first DVD purchase was actually several years ago when I purchased the Foghorn Leghorn and Friends title. When I watched the DVD I couldn't really tell what all the negative fuss was about. I've seen compare/contrast images where someone's posted an original screen shot side by side with a cropped screen shot and while I can tell there's a visual difference in the presentation when images are shown side by side on an internet site the fact remains that when I'm actually watching the DVD I'm more engaged with what I'm watching (the cartoons themselves) and I'm enjoying the vocal work of Mel Blanc...I'm not concerned with aspect ratios and presentations and I think a general audience feels the same way. The Foghorn DVD was subtitled Barnyard Bigmouth. This DVD has the title of Sylvester and Hippety Hopper with a subtitle of Marsupial Mayhem. Also in my collection are Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl, Porky and Friends: Hilarious Ham, Bugs Bunny: Hare Extraordinaire, Road Runner and Coyote: Super Genius Hi-Jinks, and Pepe Le Pew: Zee Best of Zee Best.

The Foghorn Leghorn series of cartoons were directed by the under-rated Robert McKimson. I place his directorial style somewhere between Bob Clampett and Friz Freleng. He had been an animator for more than a decade at Warner Brothers before he became a director in 1944. Oddly enough a lot of McKimson's cartoons have heavy doses of wild animation and slap-stick sentiments which align him closer to the styles of Tex Avery and Bob Clampett but while there's precious few interviews either in written form or in audio form of Robert McKimson the interviews that happen to exist often show McKimson referring to the style of animation that consumes a lot of his own cartoons as being over-animated and he makes mention of this in a critical reflection rather than something he embraces as a director. Nevertheless the wild, slapstick style of animation is wonderful to watch and it's on full display on this Sylvester and Hippety Hopper DVD, too. You lose track of how many times the baby kangaroo kicks Sylvester all over the place...with the cat crashing through walls, floors, ceilings, and all kinds of other barriers both interior and exterior...or how many times Sylvester is flattened or tossed around by nameless bulldogs. The formula of the cartoons remains the same: the baby kangaroo wanders away from a zoo or a circus or from a crate and hops around until being spotted by Sylvester who always mistakes the baby kangaroo for a giant mouse.

The cartoons are made more memorable due to the creation of Sylvester, Jr. It is in these series of Sylvester/Hippety cartoons that a new development in Sylvester's personality is explored with that new development being the role of father. The overall formula depicts Sylvester as a bragging father attempting to impress his son but is constantly receiving a physical thrashing at the hands, or the feet, of Hippety whom they both consider a mouse. The fact that his father is constantly getting beaten up "by a mouse" forever leads the son into self-imposed shame...often times putting a paper bag over his head in disgrace and exclaiming melodramatic lines such as "oh, the humiliation...", "oh, the shame!!", or "I can see my friends now...laughing over how my father that can't even catch a mouse...". In Sylvester, Jr.'s eyes he doesn't see how physically strong Hippety actually is...all the son sees is a father getting beaten up by a mouse.

In the first two cartoons in the series "Hop, Look, and Listen" and "Hippety Hopper" a bulldog is on hand as a bystander observing the activity. The dog continually sees Sylvester being thrown out of the house at the hands of a little mouse...what the dog doesn't know is the mouse, in both cartoons, is playing a trick on Sylvester. The mouse has Sylvester believing in the super-natural and that he can change into a giant mouse...and every time the little mouse ducks behind a door or goes into hiding "the giant mouse" appears. The dog is the same one that appears in a couple of other cartoons directed by Robert McKimson...being paired with a nameless cat...in "Early to Bet" and "It's Hummer Time". One of the cartoons on the DVD, 1952's "Hoppy Go Lucky", is a take off on Of Mice and Men. In the cartoon, strangely enough, Sylvester protests to Benny to stop calling him 'George'. Benny (voiced by Stan Freberg) explains that he's unable to pronounce 'Sylvester' and returns to calling him 'George'. The Benny character in this cartoon is the same one that later appears in 1953's "Cat-Tails for Two", also directed by Robert McKimson. That's the cartoon which introduced the Speedy Gonzales character. Sylvester's fatherly protectiveness is on display in "Who's Kitten Who?". There's a scene in which Hippety falls onto a piece of fly paper with Sylvester, Jr. sandwiched between the paper and Hippety's stomach. Sylvester, quite naturally, freaks out over seeing an outline of his son 'inside' the stomach of the giant mouse. He, in turn, places a paper bag over his own head in disgrace for not being able to stop the giant mouse from eating his son. The cartoon doesn't end on that note, though...the son busts out of the flypaper licking a lollipop as the cartoon irises out (while Sylvester, off screen, presumably still has the paper bag over his head).

Sylvester sees the "giant mouse" for the first time!

There are 18 cartoons on this DVD...of all the cartoons that appear 16 had never been available on DVD before. Robert McKimson directed 17 of the 18 cartoons...the only one he didn't direct is the final cartoon on the disc, "Goldimouse and the Three Cats", which was directed by Friz Freleng. The physical appearance of Sylvester in nearly all of McKimson's cartoons was a bit different than how he appeared in Friz Freleng's cartoons. Friz was actually the creator of Sylvester and was utilized by Friz in a wildly popular series of cartoons where Sylvester was attempting to capture and eat a canary named Tweety. In Robert McKimson's cartoons Sylvester had a much more shaggier facial appearance, it seemed, with a smaller red nose in some of the earliest Hippety Hopper cartoons and his speech impediment was exaggerated even more. Also, Sylvester didn't have the white patch of fur at the end of his tail in many of the Robert McKimson cartoons...so there were subtle physical differences of the character depending on which director was working on the cartoon. Robert McKimson's most popular character was the rooster, Foghorn Leghorn...and in one of the Foghorn cartoons, "Crowing Pains", Sylvester co-stars. Sylvester would later become associated with Speedy Gonzales in a series of cartoons in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Friz Freleng and Robert McKimson took turns at directing the Sylvester/Speedy cartoons. For those that want to know more about Robert McKimson as well as his two brothers, Tom and Charles, purchase a copy of the book from Robert McKimson, Jr. called I Say, I Say...Son!!: A Tribute to Legendary Animators Bob, Chuck, and Tom McKimson. Robert, Charles, and Tom McKimson were all artists and each of them had lengthy careers in every facet of art. You can purchase it through AMAZON. I purchased the hardcover coffee table version of the book when it was hot off the presses in 2012. If you're serious about learning the story of the McKimson brothers and their individual career's you need to get this book! It's chock full of photo's, animation screen shots, directorial break down sheets, animator notes, copyright applications, etc. etc.