The Hep Cat is a 1942 Looney Tunes oneshot cartoon, directed by Bob Clampett.
It is notable for both being the first Looney Tunes cartoon produced in color (up to then, only the Merrie Melodies were in color while the Looney Tunes were in black and white). Unfortunately, the original Looney Tunes title cards are lost (though it's easy to assume it also used the red rings as most preserved color Tunes from 1942/43 did), and only the Merrie Melodies Blue Ribbon titles are available.
Tropes:
- Animate Inanimate Object: Used for a gag when Rosebud gets some soil with flowers dropped on his head. When the cat faces him, the flowers make an angry expression towards the cat for him before the chase resumes.
- Brick Joke: The Robin who shows up early in the cartoon. At first, she shows up to tell Rosebud that he almost got the cat. Just at the end, she shows up again to remark to the cat that the puppet he's in love with isn't a real cat.
- Gravity Is a Harsh Seamstress: Rosebud falls through some clotheslines and ends up dressed in a baby bonnet, booties and a diaper.
- Metaphoric Metamorphosis: The cat turns into Victor Mature when he calls himself a "gorgeous hunk of man", and into a wolf while romancing a lady cat.
- Mickey Mousing: The first couple minutes of the cartoon are timed around the "Java Jive" song.
- Mid-Battle Tea Break: During part of the chase, the cat deliberately interrupts it and he turns to Rosebud, asking "Hey, are you following me?". As he responds "Yeah", the cat replies: "Oh", and the chase continues.
- No Name Given: The cat that the cartoon is centered on isn't given a name.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Played for laughs. Rosebud briefly lapses into his usual Simpleton Voice between his falsetto-based calls using the lady cat puppet, but with a splutter, he immediately goes back to the falsetto.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Rosebud uses an obvious cat puppet and throws a falsetto voice to try and lure the cat to him. It almost works.
- Pun-Based Title: The title is a play on the old slang phrase "Hep Cat" (a performer or admirer of jazz).
- Shout-Out:
- The name painted on the doghouse is Rosebud, a reference to Citizen Kane.
- When the cat looks at himself in the mirror, his likeness turns into that of actor Victor Mature. The cat also impersonates Charles Boyer at one point. He also references the song "A Cup of Coffee, A Sandwich and You".
- The ending gag has the cat impersonate actor Jerry Colonna's phrase "Well, I can dream, can't I?".
- Simpleton Voice: Rosebud the dog isn't all that bright, so he talks like this.
