Bell Hoppy

Another fun Sylvester short featuring Hippety Hopper, the young kangaroo that Sylvester always mistakes for a large mouse. The plot to this one has the Loyal Order of Alley Cats Mousing and Chowder Club refusing to let Sylvester join unless he can put a bell around the neck of Hippety. Lots of funny gags and lines with an especially amusing ending. Wonderful animation in this one with well-drawn characters and backgrounds. Lovely Technicolor is always a plus. The music is bouncy and whimsical. Mel Blanc provides great voice work, as he always did, and gets to play more characters than usual. This short has lots of dialogue, too, which I'm sure pleased Mel. The Hippety cartoons were almost always funny and this one is no exception.

The short Sylvester and Hippety Hopper series, while admittedly being one of the most increasingly routine of the Looney Tunes cartoons series, was still pretty well-made and entertaining, though none of the cartoons are among my personal favourites. Bell Hoppy is not an exception, not exceptional, but well-made, funny, entertaining and interesting.

Anybody already familiar with the basic formula of the Sylvester-Hippety Hopper series (Sylvester thinking Hippety to be a big mouse instead of a baby kangaroo, sounds silly but actually the cartoons generally manage to make it work) will have a pretty good idea with how the action and some of the story in Bell Hoppy map out. Pretty much the only complaint actually I personally have with Bell Hoppy is its routine-ness, and that one or two parts felt a tad rushed.

However, while one shouldn't expect much original or surprising here in Bell Hoppy, that it has an interesting take on fable Belling the Cat prevents it from being completely tired and predictable. The cartoon is very well animated, with smooth drawing, detailed but charmingly simple background art and vibrant colours, Sylvester and Hippety are both well-drawn. Carl Stalling's music score as always is outstanding, it's orchestrated beautifully and very cleverly, it's filled with energetic style and lively rhythms, it adds so much to what's going on and matches every expression, gesture and action seamlessly.

Bell Hoppy also has a sharp and funny script, and while the sight gags are not the most inventive in the world they are just as funny as the dialogue and are crisply timed. Sylvester carries the laughs with no problem and is as interestingly cunning as usual. Hippety is also very cute and is a similarly fun character, not feeling at all like a plot device like Tweety in some of his later cartoons, and a good job is done not making him too irritating apart from for Sylvester. The gang of cats are suitably menacing and while violent it's not to the point of being sadistic. Mel Blanc as always is brilliant providing the voices.

Overall, while not a personal favourite Bell Hoppy makes for 6 minutes or so of good entertainment. 8/10 Bethany Cox