Hippety Hopper
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Hippety Hopper is a young
kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...
character in the
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
''
Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series ''Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation.
'' series of cartoons.
Robert McKimson Robert Porter McKimson Sr. (October 13, 1910 – September 29, 1977) was an American animator and illustrator, best known for his work on the ''Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons from Warner Bros. Cartoons and later DePa ...
introduced Hippety Hopper in ''
Hop, Look and Listen ''Hop, Look and Listen'' is a 1948 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon directed by Robert McKimson. The short was released on April 17, 1948, and stars Sylvester and Hippety Hopper, in the latter's first appearance. Plot Hippety Hopper escape ...
'' (1948), which established the pattern for future Hippety Hopper cartoons. The character appeared in 14 theatrical cartoons between 1948 and 1964.


History

Hippety Hopper cartoons have a typical
formula In science, a formula is a concise way of expressing information symbolically, as in a mathematical formula or a ''chemical formula''. The informal use of the term ''formula'' in science refers to the general construct of a relationship betwee ...
: Hopper escapes from a
zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...
,
circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...
, etc., and is mistaken for a giant
mouse A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...
by Sylvester the Cat. Frequently, Hopper changes places with an actual mouse, generally when it is most embarrassing for Sylvester. Sylvester tries to capture and eat his "prey", but the innocent and infantile Hippety mistakes Sylvester's predations for a game of rough-housing. Sylvester is repeatedly kicked, punched and spun around, but each failure only strengthens his desire to have the "giant mouse" for lunch. Hippety Hopper returns in McKimson's '' Pop 'Im Pop!'' (1950), in which proud father Sylvester boasts of his mousing skills to his son,
Sylvester Jr. Sylvester J. Pussycat Jr., simply known as Sylvester Jr., is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series. He was created by Robert McKimson. Appearances Sylvester Jr. appeared in the following shorts ...
In '' Cats A-Weigh!'' (1953), Sylvester accepts a position as mouse-catcher on a ship. He encounters Hippety Hopper being shipped from
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
. Sylvester mistakes Hippety Hopper once again for a giant mouse and the baby kangaroo promptly beats the cat soundly. 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 ''Bell Hoppy'' is a 1954 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon short directed by Robert McKimson. The short was released on April 17, 1954, and stars Sylvester the Cat and Hippety Hopper. The story sees Sylvester in his "mouse chaser" person ...
'' (1954), for example, in a twist on " belling the cat", Sylvester must hang a bell around the neck of the biggest mouse that he can find in order to join the "Loyal Order of Alley Cats Mouse and Chowder Club". Surprisingly, he actually ''succeeds'' this one time and gets to join the club, even becoming its Grand High Exalted Poobah, "being the only active member" (the other members were hit by the city zoo truck taking Hippety away to the zoo when they tried to catch him after Sylvester belled him). In '' Lighthouse Mouse'', Sylvester must guard a lighthouse from the baby kangaroo and a mouse who wants nothing more than to turn the lighthouse's light off just so that he can get some sleep. '' Hoppy Go Lucky'' (1952) was a parody of ''
Of Mice and Men ''Of Mice and Men'' is a novella written by John Steinbeck. Published in 1937, it narrates the experiences of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, who move from place to place in California in search of new job o ...
'', with Sylvester accompanied by the giant, simple-minded cat "Bennie," who wants a mouse "to hug him and pet him". The central theme is always the same: Sylvester is shamed for his failure to capture what seems to be a simple "mouse". Hippety Hopper also appeared on records produced by
Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...
and
Golden Records Golden Records was a Simon & Schuster record label based in New York City. It was conceived and founded in 1948 by the Grammy Award-winning children's music producer, Arthur Shimkin, then a new recruit in the S&S business department. Shimkin ...
. Unlike in the cartoons, Hippety actually spoke frequently on these, voiced by Mel Blanc using an Australian accent. The Hippety Hopper/Sylvester/Sylvester Jr. cartoons ended in 1964 when the Warner Bros. studio closed its animation unit.


Legacy

Originally Hippety Hopper intended to appear as a cameo in the film ''
Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American live-action/animated comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely adapted by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman from Gary K. Wolf's 1 ...
'' (1988) in the deleted scene "Acme's Funeral". The character continues to appear in ''Looney Tunes'' marketing and other projects, such as cameo appearances in the crowd shots of the film ''
Space Jam ''Space Jam'' is a 1996 American live-action/animated sports comedy film directed by Joe Pytka, with animation sequences directed by Bruce W. Smith and Tony Cervone, and written by Leo Benvenuti, Steve Rudnick, Timothy Harris, and Herschel ...
'', and in the ending scene of ''
Looney Tunes Back in Action ''Looney Tunes: Back in Action'' is a 2003 American live-action/animated comedy film produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the second theatrical feature film in the ''Looney Tunes'' franch ...
''. In an episode of ''
Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries ''The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries'' is an American animated television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation which aired from September 9, 1995 to February 5, 2000 on Kids' WB. The final episode, containing the segments "The Tail End?" and ...
'' set in Australia, Sylvester stumbled into a group of baby kangaroos, who all resembled Hippety Hopper, and commented that this was the first time he had seen the "giant mice" in years. He said the same thing in ''
Tweety's High-Flying Adventure ''Tweety's High-Flying Adventure'' is a 2000 American animated musical slapstick comedy film produced by Tom Minton and James T. Walker, written by Tom Minton, Tim Cahill and Julie McNally, and directed by James T. Walker, Karl Toerge, Charles Vi ...
''. Hippety Hopper appears in ''
The Looney Tunes Show ''The Looney Tunes Show'' is an American animated sitcom produced by Warner Bros. Animation that ran from May 3, 2011, through November 2, 2013, on Cartoon Network. The series consists of two seasons, each containing 26 episodes, and features ch ...
'' opening and makes a cameo appearance in ''
Looney Tunes Cartoons ''Looney Tunes Cartoons'' is an American animated television series developed by Peter Browngardt and produced by Warner Bros. Animation, based on the characters from ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies''. The series made its worldwide debu ...
''. Hippity Hopper also makes an appearance as a playable character in Looney Tunes: World Of Mayhem as a Legendary Toon. In ''
Bugs Bunny Builders ''Bugs Bunny Builders'' is an American animated television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation, based on the characters from ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies''. The series aired on July 25, 2022 on Cartoon Network on their Cartooni ...
'', he is depicted as being able to speak and is voiced by
Debi Derryberry Debi Derryberry is an American voice actress who has provided voices for a number of animations and video games. Biography Derryberry was born in Indio, California to a family of Hungarian Jewish descent. Her grandparents were Holocaust surviv ...
.


Appearances

All of the shorts from 1948 to 1964 were directed by
Robert McKimson Robert Porter McKimson Sr. (October 13, 1910 – September 29, 1977) was an American animator and illustrator, best known for his work on the ''Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons from Warner Bros. Cartoons and later DePa ...
. * ''
Hop, Look and Listen ''Hop, Look and Listen'' is a 1948 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon directed by Robert McKimson. The short was released on April 17, 1948, and stars Sylvester and Hippety Hopper, in the latter's first appearance. Plot Hippety Hopper escape ...
'' (1948) * ''
Hippety Hopper Hippety Hopper is a young kangaroo character in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' series of cartoons. Robert McKimson introduced Hippety Hopper in '' Hop, Look and Listen'' (1948), which established the pattern for future Hippety Hopper cartoons ...
'' (1949) * '' Pop 'im Pop!'' (1950) * ''
Bushy Hare ''Bushy Hare'' is a 1950 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon directed by Robert McKimson. The short was released on November 18, 1950, and stars Bugs Bunny. Bugs winds up in the Australian Outback, where he is switched with a baby kangaroo and ...
'' (1950, cameo) * ''
Who's Kitten Who The pronoun ''who'', in English, is an interrogative pronoun and a relative pronoun, used primarily to refer to persons. Unmarked, ''who'' is the pronoun’s subjective form; its inflected forms are the objective ''whom'' and the possessive ' ...
'' (1952) * '' Hoppy Go Lucky'' (1952) * '' Cats A-Weigh!'' (1953) * ''
Bell Hoppy ''Bell Hoppy'' is a 1954 Warner Bros. ''Merrie Melodies'' cartoon short directed by Robert McKimson. The short was released on April 17, 1954, and stars Sylvester the Cat and Hippety Hopper. The story sees Sylvester in his "mouse chaser" person ...
'' (1954) * '' Lighthouse Mouse'' (1955) * ''
Too Hop to Handle Too or TOO may refer to: * Threshold of originality, a concept in copyright law * ''Too'' (Fantastic Plastic Machine album), the fourth studio album by Fantastic Plastic Machine * ''Too'' (FIDLAR album), the second studio album by American skate ...
'' (1956) * ''
The Slap-Hoppy Mouse ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' (1956) * '' Mouse-Taken Identity'' (1957) * '' Hoppy Daze'' (1961) * ''
Freudy Cat ''Freudy Cat'' is a 1964 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' animated short directed by Robert McKimson. The short was released on March 14, 1964, and stars Sylvester the Cat, Sylvester Jr. and Hippety Hopper. A paranoid Sylvester flashes back to e ...
'' (1964)


References


External links


Hippity Hopper
at
Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on February 5, 2016. {{Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies Looney Tunes characters Fictional kangaroos and wallabies Film characters introduced in 1948 Films scored by Carl Stalling