The Hep Cat [Part One]: Clampett's brilliant transition to color cartoons

This post (the first in a little series) in particular deals with The Hep Cat, a 1942 Bob Clampett cartoon, which was also one of his first color films. If you're a sucker for great color combinations and design, then this cartoon is for you!

Also, does anybody know if this cartoon exists outside of a Merrie Melodies reissue? I'd love to know!

The cartoon begins with a beautifully rendered moonlit night. Look at those colors! For being one of his first color films, Clampett really knew what he was doing.

Wow! These hues are wonderful, aren't they? Very subtle blues and greys combining to create pure visual candy. Even the cat conforms to the palette! Absolutely exquisite. This cartoon always gets me.

I always found this kind of strange. The doghouse for Willoughby (I think that's the name of this dog, wasn't he am Avery character for awhile?) is painted in completely different colors than the fence and the ground, but it doesn't look bad either! The colors are mixed with grey and it doesn't overly detract. I'm sure that was done on purpose; like this doghouse serves as an extreme focal point in this shot. I sure can't think of another reason it would be like this.

Isn't this painting Jim-dandy too? I absolutely adore it! Everything has a purpose; no arbitrary placement of objects whatsoever! And this cute Scribner animation doesn't hurt at all, either.

Not even a minute into the cartoon, and we're met with some great stuff. What else would you expect of Clampett? Why doesn't everyone have such a high regard for quality?

Whoever was animating this sure had a lot of fun doing it. Lots of very solid forms and clear silhouettes. There's also a lot of lively, tightly-timed musical coordination too! Very skilled! It looks like it was drawn by Robert McKimson, but I could be wrong. (ibcf, if you read this, would you mind confirming?)

Now who would think of that? Heels on a lady cat! Ideas absolutely everywhere, and things that nobody would ever think of. Fascinating!

It looks like I'll have to do this in a series of posts, or else this will get to be absolutely huge. I'll post some more thoughts on this cartoon later!