Herman and Katnip: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 22:41, 21 April 2025

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Animation historian [[Leonard Maltin]] described the ''Herman and Katnip'' series as a prime stereotype of the "violent cat versus mouse" battles that were commonplace among Hollywood cartoons of the 1920s through the 1960s.{{citation needed|date=April 2015}} The violence in this series, while intended for comedic effect, often reached a level of brutality that surpassed both ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'', ''[[Mighty Mouse]]'', and [[Warner Bros.]]' [[Sylvester the Cat]].{{citation needed|date=April 2015}}

All of Herman's battles with Katnip ended with Herman victorious. Only two cartoons, "''You Said a Mouseful''" and "''Katnip's Big Day''", had Katnip sharing in Herman's victory. Frequently Herman and his mouse companions would sing a victory song as they observed Katnip being brutally tortured; e.g. being eaten by sharks, killed in a rockslide while mountain climbing, strung up with Christmas lights and plugged into an electric socket, getting electrocuted by a "shock tester" machine, then flattened by it; or even dying and his ghost being warned about "the fiery furnace" in "Of Mice and Menace". It had been originally intended that Herman and Katnip would make a cameo appearance in the film ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit]]'' in the scene called "Acme's Funeral", but the scene was cut out of the film.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hill |first1=Jim |title=Storyboards reveal what Marvin Acme's funeral in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" would have looked like |url=http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief1/b/jim_hill/archive/2014/05/08/storyboards-reveal-what-marvin-acme-s-funeral-in-quot-who-framed-roger-rabbit-quot-would-have-looked-like.aspx |website=jimhillmedia.com |date=8 May 2014 |language=en}}</ref> Katnip later appeared in the episode "Self Help Huey" of the animated series ''[[The Baby Huey Show]]'' as a cat redeemed by his persecutions of the past and tries to teach a Fox to follow the same path with [[Baby Huey]].

''[[The Simpsons]]'' writer/producer [[Mike Reiss]] insists that ''[[The Itchy & Scratchy Show]]'' is based on ''Herman and Katnip'', which he calls a "cheap, ultra-violent knockoff" of ''Tom and Jerry''.<ref name="sprcon">{{cite book |last1=Reiss |first1=Mike |last2=Klickstein |first2=Mathew |title=Springfield confidential: jokes, secrets, and outright lies from a lifetime writing for the Simpsons |date=2018 |publisher=Dey Street Books |isbn=978-0062748034 |page=102|___location=New York City}}</ref> Director [[David Silverman (animator)|David Silverman]] supports this, stating ''Herman and Katnip'' "is hilarious because it's just bad".<ref name="silverman">{{cite web|url=http://cagle.msnbc.com/hogan/interviews/silverman.asp |title=The David Silverman Interview |publisher=[[MSNBC]] |access-date=2008-12-02 |year=2004 |author=Heintjes, Tom |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081023004901/http://cagle.msnbc.com/hogan/interviews/silverman.asp |archive-date=2008-10-23 |url-status=dead}}</ref>