The Hep Cat
The Hep Cat
NR | 03 October 1942 (USA)
The Hep Cat Trailers

A cat-about-town fancies himself such an irresitible "hunk" he momentarily resembles Victor Mature. His wooing of a cute kitten gets derailed by a prankster dog using a cat hand puppet to trap him.

Reviews
Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.
phantom_tollbooth Bob Clampett's 'The Hep Cat' is a distinctly average cartoon only really notable for the fact that it was the first colour Looney Tune (previously Looney Tunes were all black and white while Merrie Melodies were in colour). The tale of a singing, dancing cat's attempts to woo a lady cat and a dog's attempts to catch the cat, 'The Hep Cat' lacks the trademark energy and pace of most Clampett shorts. To be fair, Clampett doesn't have a great deal to work with. Warren Foster's script is embarrassingly thin and, while he has spun straw into gold with other cartoons, Clampett doesn't manage it with 'The Hep Cat'. It's often said of Clampett that you can't mistake his cartoons for anyone else's and it's generally true but 'The Hep Cat' is an exception. There's flashes of Clampett genius, such as the chase scene in which the cat stops to ask the dog "Hey, are you following me". When the dog confirms that he is, the cat simply says "Oh" and the chase immediately resumes. Unfortunately, there's very little of such brilliance on show here. Knowing who directed it, 'The Hep Cat' is a bitter disappointment. We all have off days and this was clearly one of Clampett's!
Lee Eisenberg I can't claim to be a connoisseur of Bob Clampett's work, but I've liked most of the classic Looney Tunes cartoons. A previous reviewer said that "The Hep Cat" falls short of Clampett's usual quality. I, on the other hand, think that this cartoon is actually quite neat, as a cool feline tries to woo a woman, but a dog keeps interfering. I assume that the title referred to the sort of person who would soon be a beatnik. Even if it doesn't, I still have often noticed that the Looney Tunes cartoons had a way with jazz (the ultimate kind of beatnik music).All in all, not a masterpiece, but worth seeing.
buzzdav4 I am a huge fan of this cartoon. I'll skip all the editorializing and simply list my favorite parts: the short vignette of the cold-shouldered little female kitty , with her high-heeled feet, moving in beat to a fine boogie-woogey score, and the resulting tongue-wagging suitor panting along to the beat is hilariously sexy (I can't believe the censors missed it).And the horny tomcat romances the pussycat puppet, excitedly feeling her posterior (the dog's nose)--finally receiving a kiss, springing out erect (!) and then streaming down the steps in a flaccid puddle...incredible-! The cat & dog chase scene is a little tiring, and a letdown after the hot & heavy courting. But--this is one heckuva cartoon. Eleven stars.
movieman_kev A swinging hep cat is trying to make it with a cute female cat but a dog is in the way at every step. When I usually think of the name Robert Clampett, the word that automatically comes to mind is "sheer greatness", which only makes this short all the more disappointing. In fact if I didn't read the title screen I would've had to no clue he even made this short. In other Clampett cartoons you can come in at any point and sit down to watch and KNOW he made that given short. His hand in it was usually that great. Sadly, this one I don't like nearly as much as it's not a good barometer of his major talents. This animated short can be seen on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2.My Grade: C