Cool Cat (Looney Tunes)

Last updated
Cool Cat
Looney Tunes character
Cool Cat Looney Tunes.png
First appearance Cool Cat (1967)
Created by Alex Lovy
Designed byJaime Diaz
Voiced by Larry Storch (1967–1969)
Joe Alaskey (1996)
Jim Cummings (1999–present)
Eric Bauza (2018)
In-universe information
Species Bengal tiger
GenderMale
NationalityAmerican

Cool Cat is a fictional cartoon character created by director Alex Lovy for Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Animation. [1] He was the final star of the original Warner Bros. theatrical cartoons. [2] His first appearance was in an eponymous short in 1967. [3] He was voiced by Larry Storch. Robert McKimson took over as director for the last two cartoons in this series.

Contents

In 1967, Jack L. Warner reorganized the Warner Bros. animation department, and hired Lovy away from Hanna-Barbera Productions to handle Warner's last two classic characters (Daffy Duck, Speedy Gonzales) and create some new cartoon series. The two series that Lovy developed were Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic Mouse. [4]

Biography

Cool Cat is a hip Bengal tiger (whose design was very similar to that of The Pink Panther and Snagglepuss) who wore a stylish green beret and scarf. Unlike most other Looney Tunes characters, Cool Cat was unapologetically a product of his time. He spoke in 1960s-style beatnik slang and acted much like a stereotypical laid back 1960s teenager — he was often seen strumming a guitar or traveling cross-country in his dune buggy. One cartoon — McKimson's Bugged by a Bee — depicted him as an alumnus of "Disco Tech" playing varsity football against the long-haired team from "Hippie University".

However, most of Cool Cat's cartoons dealt with his encounters with Colonel Rimfire (also voiced by Storch), a fussy, British-accented big-game hunter armed with a blunderbuss. Rimfire essentially acted as the Elmer Fudd to Cool Cat's Bugs Bunny, but was used only by Lovy. Cool Cat bears the distinction of starring in the very last cartoon produced at the original Warner Bros. Cartoons studio prior to its shutdown: Injun Trouble in 1969.

His cartoons can easily be distinguished from most of the other Looney Tunes cartoons, as they feature an updated Looney Tunes logo with stylized animation, a 1967 remix of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" by William Lava, and featuring the then-current Warner Bros.-Seven Arts logo (a combination of a simple W and 7 inside a stylized shield outline).

Cool Cat reappeared later in The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries TV series, for which he was voiced by Joe Alaskey. He made brief cameos in most, if not all of the episodes, appearing on posters in the background, walking by in street scenes, etc. His appearances aren't entirely overlooked by the cast, as Tweety once responded to Cool Cat's appearance in the episode “Good Bird Hunting” with "You realize we had to stick this guy in someplace."

Cool Cat and Colonel Rimfire both appear in the 2000 direct-to-video movie Tweety's High-Flying Adventure which Colonel Rimfire had a major role which Granny makes a bet with him to see if Tweety is smarter than felines by touring the world and collecting 80 cats' pawprints in 80 days, while Cool Cat makes a cameo appearance where it is revealed that he was disguised as one of the members of the club Granny and Colonel Rimfire are members of. Cool Cat was voiced by Jim Cummings and Colonel Rimfire was voiced by Joe Alaskey.

He later appears in the Looney Tunes Cartoons short "Happy Birthday Bugs Bunny!" in the opening crowd shot.

Cool Cat, Colonel Rimfire, Merlin the Magic Mouse, and Spooky the Ghost are the only W-7 Arts characters to make any further appearances, beyond the classic era shorts, to date.

Cool Cat appears in Tiny Toons Looniversity . [5]

Titles

Related Research Articles

<i>Looney Tunes</i> Warner Bros. animated short film series and media franchise

Looney Tunes is an American animated franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. It began as a series of short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series Merrie Melodies, during the golden age of American animation. Following a revival in the late 1970s, new shorts were released as recently as 2014. The two series introduced a large cast of characters, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig. The term Looney Tunes has since been expanded to also refer to the characters themselves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daffy Duck</span> Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

Daffy Duck is a fictional character created by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett for Leon Schlesinger Productions. Styled as an anthropomorphic black duck, he has appeared in cartoon series such as Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, in which he is usually depicted as a foil for either Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig or Speedy Gonzales. He was one of the first of the new "screwball" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to replace traditional everyman characters who were more popular earlier in the decade, such as Mickey Mouse, Porky Pig, and Popeye.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tweety</span> Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

Tweety is a yellow canary in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated cartoons. The name "Tweety" is a play on words, as it originally meant "sweetie", along with "tweet" being an English onomatopoeia for the sounds of birds. His characteristics are based on Red Skelton's famous "Junior the Mean Widdle Kid." He appeared in 46 cartoons during the golden age, made between 1942 and 1964.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylvester the Cat</span> Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

Sylvester J. Pussycat Sr. is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic cat in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Most of his appearances have him often chasing Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper. He appeared in 103 cartoons in the golden age of American animation, lagging only behind superstars Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, and Daffy Duck. Three of his cartoons won Academy Awards, the most for any starring a Looney Tunes character: they are Tweetie Pie, Speedy Gonzales, and Birds Anonymous.

<i>Tiny Toon Adventures</i> American animated television series

Tiny Toon Adventures is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger that was broadcast from September 14, 1990, to December 6, 1992. It was the first animated series produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television in association with Warner Bros. Animation. The show follows the adventures of a group of young cartoon characters who attend Acme Looniversity to become the next generation of characters from the Looney Tunes series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hippety Hopper</span> Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

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. The character appeared in 14 theatrical cartoons between 1948 and 1964.

Tasmanian Devil (<i>Looney Tunes</i>) Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

The Tasmanian Devil, commonly referred to as Taz, is an animated cartoon character featured in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Though the character appeared in only five shorts before Warner Bros. Cartoons shut down in 1964, marketing and television appearances later propelled Taz to new popularity in the 1990s.

Granny (<i>Looney Tunes</i>) Warner Bros. fictional character

Granny is a fictional character created by Friz Freleng, best known from the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies animated short films of the 1950s and 1960s. She is the owner of Tweety Bird and, more often than not, Sylvester and Hector. Her voice was first provided by Bea Benaderet from 1950 through 1955, then by June Foray for almost 60 years then Candi Milo took over in 2017 following Foray’s death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henery Hawk</span> Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

Henery Hawk is an American cartoon character who appears in twelve comedy film shorts produced in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series. His first appearance is in the 1942 theatrical release The Squawkin' Hawk, which was directed by Chuck Jones and produced by Leon Schlesinger. Henery's second screen appearance, one directed by Robert McKimson, is in Walky Talky Hawky (1946), which also features the characters Foghorn Leghorn and Barnyard Dawg in their first cartoon roles. The last Warner Brothers theatrical short to showcase the little chickenhawk is the 1961 release Strangled Eggs in which he co-stars again with Foghorn Leghorn as well as with another popular character of that period, Miss Prissy. Following that production, Henery continued to be seen periodically in other animated presentations such as The Looney Tunes Show and Looney Tunes Cartoons.

Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was an American animation studio, serving as the in-house animation division of Warner Bros. during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, it was primarily responsible for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated short films. The characters featured in these cartoons, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig, are among the most famous and recognizable characters in the world. Many of the creative staff members at the studio, including directors and animators such as Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, Tex Avery, Robert Clampett, Arthur Davis, and Frank Tashlin, are considered major figures in the art and history of traditional animation.

<i>The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries</i> Animated television series

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 "This Is the End", was never shown on Kids' WB, not premiering until December 18, 2002, when the show aired in reruns on Cartoon Network. 52 episodes were produced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merlin the Magic Mouse</span> Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

Merlin the Magic Mouse is an animated cartoon mouse, who starred in five Warner Bros. Looney Tunes shorts late in the series, from 1967 to 1969. The first cartoon was Merlin the Magic Mouse, directed by Alex Lovy.

Colonel Shuffle is a fictional character in the Looney Tunes stable, based in the Southern United States.

<i>Tweetys High-Flying Adventure</i> 2000 animated film

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 Visser, and Kyung Won Lim, starring Tweety.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beaky Buzzard</span> Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

Beaky Buzzard is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Foghorn Leghorn</span> Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon character

Foghorn Leghorn is a cartoon rooster who appears in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and films from Warner Bros. Animation. He was created by Robert McKimson, and starred in 29 cartoons from 1946 to 1964 in the golden age of American animation. All 29 of these cartoons were directed by McKimson.

This is a listing of all the animated shorts released by Warner Bros. under the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies banners between 1960 and 1969. A total of 147 shorts were released during the 1960s.

References

  1. ↑ Markstein, Don. "Cool Cat". Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  2. ↑ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 69. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7 . Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  3. ↑ Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Bros. Cartoons. Henry Holt and Co. p. 362. ISBN   0-8050-0894-2.
  4. ↑ Maltin, Leonard (1987). Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons (Revised ed.). Plume. p. 276. ISBN   0-452-25993-2.
  5. ↑ "Tiny Toons Looniversity Review". 4 September 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.