Hoppy-Go-Lucky (1952) User Reviews

Sylvester must always 'roo the day

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 28 June 2007]

Apparently, Benny is so retarded that he believes that all other cats are named George (in Speedy Gonzales's debut "Cat-Tails for Two", Benny co-starred with a feline named George). In "Hoppy-Go-Lucky", he and Sylvester are looking for mice, but come across baby kangaroo Hippety Hopper. So, Sylvester - believing HH to be an over-sized rodent - engages in a series of schemes to try and capture the big guy; oh, and the whole time, Benny thinks that Sylvester is slacking off. That guy's gonna accidentally break someone in half one of these days.

So, it's pretty silly, but always a pleasure to watch. I wonder why Sylvester always has to suffer so much.

Lenny from OF MICE AND MEN is a cat this time

[wilhelmurg · 8/10 · 11 January 2015]

This is an interesting McKimson cartoon because instead of Sylvester Jr. egging Sylvester on to catch the "Giant mouse" he's been replaced by Benny, voiced by the legendary star of records, cartoons, and classic TV commercials, Stan Freberg. Benny is based on the simple-minded character Lenny from the novel and film OF MICE AND MEN. Lon Chaney Jr.'s performance as Lenny in the classic 1938 Lewis Milestone film adaptation was mercilessly lampooned multiple times in the Looney Tune universe, and then Tex Avery continued the tradition when he moved to MGM. Lenny was used as the inspiration for Bugs Bunny's Abominable Snowman adversary, Hugo, in THE ABOMINABLE SNOW RABBIT (1961) and for Willoughby the Dog in OF FOX AND HOUNDS (1940) to name but a couple of characters. The dramatic climax of the novel, when George is about to shoot Lenny in the back of the head out of mercy, Lenny's line heartbreaking line, "Tell me about the rabbits, George," is often echoed in the Looney Tune universe whenever someone gets hit in the head REALLY hard (with birds and stars orbiting around their heads). I always liked the threat of rubbing Sylvester's hair the wrong way.

One should not have to read a novel . . .

[pixrox1 · 6/10 · 5 June 2021]

. . . to understand a seven-minute animated short. Unless you have been bamboozled into taking one of those bogus "speed reading" brain-washing sessions, it takes the normal person about 1,500 hours to read WAR AND PEACE (or at least three times that long, if you want to savor it in the original Russian). Who wants to spend three working years' worth of time enabling yourself to comprehend HOPPY-GO-LUCKY? On any kind of decent cost\benefit analysis, the effort is not worth the reward!

"Where there's cheeses, there's bound to be mouses."

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 26 June 2016]

Another fun Sylvester & Hippety Hopper cartoon directed by Robert McKimson. This one also features a giant dimwitted cat named Benny, yet another of the many Looney Tunes parodies of Lennie from "Of Mice and Men." The plot has Sylvester and his sidekick Benny (who insists on calling Sylvester George) searching a warehouse for mice. This leads to Sylvester meeting kangaroo Hippety Hopper and confusing him for a mouse, which leads to the usual gags of Hopper knocking Sylvester around. The animation is well-drawn and colorful. Lively music courtesy of the great Carl Stalling. Mel Blanc handles the voice work for Sylvester and Stan Freberg voices Benny. This is a funny cartoon, despite the quibble I have about Benny's purpose here. I always like seeing Sylvester and Hopper shorts, even if they are fairly predictable. My one real complaint (aside from the lack of Sylvester, Jr.) is that Benny is here solely for the Steinbeck parody, which had already been done a lot by 1952. I mean Benny's fine and has some amusing lines. I love the bit where he strokes Sylvester's fur the wrong way. But why introduce a giant cat that could cause Hopper some difficulties and never do much with that? Their one brief scene together at the end is something but I felt like there could have been more opportunities for laughs had Hopper and Benny interacted more. Still, fun short that I doubt most Sylvester fans will find any problems with.

One of the standouts of the Sylvester/Hippety Hopper cartoons

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 18 August 2015]

Along with Pop 'Im Pop and Cats Aweigh, Hoppy-Go-Lucky is one of the standouts of the Sylvester and Hippety Hopper series, sadly it is one of the more obscure cartoons in the series (a distinction that it doesn't deserve). Even if it has a concept that was pretty much the same for every one of their cartoons, and one that stretched out longer than it needed to with the later cartoons (after starting to feel tired after Bell Hoppy), it feels very fresh here and makes the most of the absurdity.

Hoppy-Go-Lucky very well animated, with bright colourful backgrounds, rich colours, all the characters being smoothly drawn (Benny's oafishness and clumsiness is very endearing here) and all the gestures and expressions being expressive and adding much to the humour. The animation not only looks good here but it also shows off McKimson's personality and comedic talents. Carl Stalling's music score is as always wonderful (one of the stronger ones in the series actually), putting so much energy and soul into the cartoon (and every single cartoon he scored for in fact). It is also fabulously and cleverly composed music in its own right, with lush orchestration, lively style, energetic rhythms and how it matches so well with everything and helps enhance gestures, expression and the action.

It is a very funny cartoon too, the exchange between Sylvester and Benny with Sylvester trying to correct Benny on his name is hilarious, and the gags and physical comedy is sharply timed and among the funniest of the series. Benny later accusing Sylvester of not trying hard enough and threatening him is also surprisingly funny yet menacing and contains some inventive animation, showing that Benny is more than just the oafish, dim-witted character that he appears to be. The story is lively in pace, and while not new concept-wise there is nothing tired about the material here. Sylvester and Hippety Hopper's chemistry is amusing as ever, but it's between him and Benny where the cartoon shines even better, because it is very funny, suspenseful and sometimes sweet.

Hippety is basically a plot device but is still cute and amusing, while Sylvester is like Wile E. Coyote in that it is so easy to laugh at and feel sympathy for him. A great job is also done with Benny, who could have easily have been irritating, cloying or the stereotypical dim-witted character, but he's actually a lot of fun and also exudes menace and endearment. Mel Blanc does typically wonderfully, and Stan Freberg is up to his expert level.

To conclude, a great cartoon and one of the standouts of the series, doesn't deserve the relative obscurity it has. 9/10 Bethany Cox

John Steinbeck wrote OF MICE AND MEN . . .

[oscaralbert · 5/10 · 21 November 2015]

. . . to warn the budding Flowers of American Maidenhood that an element of sexual deviancy lurked deep in the pool of U.S. males. Warner Bros.' "Looney" animators do their best to cancel out Steinbeck's caution by transforming the Nobel Prize-winning novelist's too-heavy petter "Lennie" into pervert panda "Benny" in this wrong-headed parody, HOPPY-GO-LUCKY. "If you get me angry, I'll do mean things to you--like rub your fur the wrong way," Benny warns Warner's feline animated short regular Sylvester, who stands in for Steinbeck's "George" here. (LITERARY SPOILER:) In the original story, Lennie rubs his "pet" mouse's fur so hard the wrong way that it dies. After he does the same thing to a young lady, George has to Euthanize Lennie. In this brief cartoon, Sylvester tries to crush Benny's brains with a sledge hammer, but the business end of this tool crumbles to dust upon impact. This bit of action leads to a bevy of dismembered female mannequins. Any way you look at it, this short would have been better titled BENNY-SO-KLUTSY (THAT HE'LL KILL YA).

Obscure but great episode

[rpiehl5 · 8/10 · 25 June 2009]

Several classic Warner Brothers lines are uttered by Benny in this short.

• Benny calls Sylvester "George." When quizzed by Sylvester as to why he doesn't use the correct name Benny says "Because I can't say Sylvester, George." - - Later, Benny accuses Sylvester of not trying hard enough to catch the mouse and threatens to do mean things to Sylvester "like stroke your fur the wrong way. Like this!" grabs Sylvester by the tail and pulls his fur forward to his ears.- The name 'George' was later reused by a character with a similar personality to Benny's in the 1962 Bugs Bunny short - The Abominable Snow Rabbit.