Cool Cat (Looney Tunes)

Cool Cat
"Call this big game filming? I do not!" - Colonel Rimfire
Series: Looney Tunes Episode Number: 981 Air Date: October 14, 1967 Writer: Bob Kurtz Director: Alex Lovy Previous episode: "Go Away Stowaway" Next episode: "Merlin the Magic Mouse"

Cool Cat is a 1967 Looney Tunes short directed by Alex Lovy. It was the first short starring its title character, Cool Cat, and his rival, Colonel Rimfire. It was also the first Looney Tunes short released with the Warner Bros.-Seven Arts title card.

Why It Isn't Cool

1. The main problem with this cartoon is that it's basically a rehash of the 1940 Bugs Bunny debut/Elmer Fudd cartoon, "A Wild Hare".
   • Cool Cat barely even does anything in his own debut short, which focuses more on Colonel Rimfire, suggesting that they didn't really have an idea what to do with the character. This would continue throughout his shorts, with only his second-to-last one, "Bugged by a Bee", putting him in the kind of situation you'd expect to find a beatnik (namely attending college).
     • Colonel Rimfire is a rip-off of Elmer Fudd, except with a British accent and somehow even more incompetent.
     • Cool Cat himself is a rip-off of DePatie-Freleng's Pink Panther, Hanna-Barbera's Snagglepuss and Looney Tunes' own Bugs Bunny, but minus the humor and charm of all three characters.
2. As with most Seven Arts-era shorts, the animation is pretty poor throughout, though it's at least less noticeable here than with the Daffy vs. Speedy shorts, as Cool Cat and Colonel Rimfire, unlike both Daffy and Speedy, were designed for this type of limited animation from the outset.
3. Absolutely hideous backgrounds, which are easily the worst in any Looney Tunes cartoon. Most of them look like that a small child scribbled some plants onto a piece of paper, and then splashed some paint onto it, making them look more like backgrounds from 1960s Hanna-Barbera, Jay Ward or Total Television TV cartoons than a classic Looney Tunes cartoon. The only decent background is when Rimfire falls into a chasm, since it's actually recycled from a previous Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoon.
   • Speaking of which, the Road Runner cartoon-esque chasm background feels very out-of-place in this short, especially since it comes from a Texas desert, and this cartoon isn't even remotely set in a Texas desert but instead rather set in the African savannah.
4. Obnoxious use of Hanna-Barbera sound effects. Some of the sound effects choices are really weird as well, such as the chattering of Colonel Rimfire's dentures, which has the sounds of a tiki drum playing over it.
5. The ending is way too predictable, with it turning out that Cool Cat knew all along that Ella was a mechanical elephant.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Unlike his other music scores in the Looney Tunes shorts, William Lava actually provides a pretty good soundtrack here, with Cool Cat getting a nice theme tune that continues to appear throughout his shorts. The Clinger Sisters also sing the title card theme pretty well.
2. Animator Volus Jones lets Colonel Rimfire spin as he falls into the chasm.
3. Better pacing and gags compared to most other Seven Arts cartoons, though this isn't saying much.
4. The "exploding pineapple" sequence is quite funny, and has some of the better animation in the short.

Trivia

• This short predicted the existence of the Cool Cat movie franchise, mainly because of the title.

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