The Hypo-Chondri-Cat

I've never heard of Claude Cat but he's another one of those Cartoon cats who likes to chase after mice/birds but never gets them. Only this time there's a twist...he's a hypochondriac. Dumb mice Bertie and Hubie break into his house (so they are in the wrong!) in order to steal some cheese. Claude doesn't like this and gives chase. Only when he runs past the open window they came in from he gets a sudden chill and believes he might have pneumonia. Trust me, I've had it, and it's a lot worse than a sudden chill.

The mice pretend that Claude is dying and ending convincing him he has died a fake death. Since I have never seen Claude since watching this cartoon today I can only assume his weak personality and unaesthetic appearance only did send him to Cat Heaven forever.

I swear that Hubie and Bertie get downright nasty when trying to expel Claude from the house that they want to inhabit (they also did in "Mouse Wreckers"). In this case, they play off of Claude's cryophobia to perform what he thinks is a lethal operation on him. I wonder why they can't just try and negotiate with him; if that cat's so afraid of the cold, couldn't he be willing to hold talks with a pair of wise guy mice? Oh well. "The Hypo-Chondri-Cat" is still a pretty funny cartoon, even if it is a little weird what Hubie and Bertie end up doing to Claude. Still, my favorite Hubie and Bertie-Claude pairing is "Cheese Chasers".

I first saw this cartoon when I was a little kid, and naturally, I had no idea what was going on. I was utterly clueless that Claude the Cat has hypochondria and that Bert & Hubie decide to take advantage of it to their full potential. In a way, the whole cartoon is really sad, and Claude's dream sure has the potential to freak out any young child. Of course, for those of us who do understand hypochondria and know how Claude thinks that he has every disease known to man, it's a laugh riot.

I've always been a big fan of black comedy so it's hardly surprising that Chuck Jones's Hubie and Bertie cartoons are amongst my favourite Warner creations. These fantastic shorts tackled such dark subjects as mental illness and attempted suicide but 'The Hypo-chondri-cat' is the grimmest of all, focusing on the big one; death itself. Pitted against their regular rival Claude Cat, a neurotic mess of a feline, the sadistic mice set about convincing him that he is fatally ill. This results in a terrific, nightmarishly surreal scene in which Claude visualizes himself being pursued by surgical equipment as he listens to Hubie and Bertie preparing to operate. When he comes round again is when the cartoon gets really cruel as the mice convince a terrified Claude that he didn't survive the operation. It's all very macabre but also hilarious in a deliciously sick way. The cartoon ends on a peaceful but troubling note with Claude still totally unaware he's not dead. With such dark subject matters, it's hardly surprising Hubie and Bertie didn't catch on with a 40s and 50s audience but these cartoons remain incredibly interesting and entertaining forgotten classics that give us a glimpse into the darker side of Warner animation. Riot!

Hubie and Burt, two ratty-looking mice, spot some cheese inside and break into a home. (Actually, they just push the window up.) They enjoy the cheese while lounging at the fireplace. "Claude the Cat" them spots them, chases them, but then spots the open window and shuts in. The cat then runs back to its bed and gets out several medicines, saying "I hope I can't catch a cold with that draft, or pneumonia, or athlete's foot!

The cat obviously is a hypochondriac and the mice quickly catch on to that. They tell Claude he looks terrible, so the cat is shaking and feeling worse by the minute. They tell him he looks green, so the cat turns green. They tell him he looks purple, so Claude turns purple. One of the mice says he looks "plaid," so the cat turns plaid. "Don't overdo it," admonishes the smarter of the mice. You get the picture - it gets sillier as the mice pretend to be doctors and operate on the poor Claude, who thinks he's getting worse by the minute.

They put a sign on the cat's butt: "Danger! Men At Work: Excavating!" (Don't ask). As a hypochondriac myself, I was highly offended at this cartoon and the stereotype it portrayed of us poor suffering slobs.

Anyway, the mice don't really operate but pretend to, and the cat faints at the thought. The rest of the cartoon is Claude's dream and it is bizarre - and the best part of the seven minutes - with an even-stranger ending.

Overall, a very odd animated short.