Director: Seymour Kneitel
Release Date: January 2, 1959
Stars: Herman & Katnip
Rating: ★★½
Review:
This cartoon centers on a small owl who starts sleepwalking during daytime. To save him from certain death Herman takes the little fellow home and christens him ‘Hootie’.
Unfortunately, Hootie immediately starts walking out of Herman’s lair to make a nest on Katnip’s back. When Katnip discovers the bird, he tries to catch it and eat it. What follows is a chase cartoons that gets complicated by the fact that Hootie may be blind and helpless during daytime, he sure can see when it’s dark en then he suddenly changes into a violent foe to Katnip.
‘Owly to Bed’ contains one of the most violent takes on Katnip: during one scene we watch him being split in two by Hootie’s axe, and trying to put himself back together again. More interesting than either the violence or the chase, however, is the music that accompanies Hootie’s sleepwalking.
Watch ‘Owly to Bed’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Owly to Bed’ is available on the DVD ‘Herman and Katnip – The Complete Series’
4 comments
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February 7, 2020 at 03:32
Hans Christian Brando
Winston Sharples’ music, which sounds cobbled together (and portions of which would be used in dozens of TV cartoons), makes this cartoon bearable; indeed, the music was usually the best part of the latter Famous shorts. The only other noteworthy thing about this one is that, as in the latter Herman cartoons, Katnip is wearing pants, which he didn’t in the earlier cartoons. And Herman is less arrogant than he usually is.
February 6, 2020 at 03:17
wotppaper@aol.com
The violence here manages to be both more and less painful at the same time. They’ve never cut Katnip in half before, but the limited 1950s animation softens the effect a bit, combined with the fact Katnip’s more annoyed than anything else — in the earlier more fully animated Famous efforts, the animators and voiceman Sid Raymond made sure you knew Katnip was feeling the pain (and with Paramount’s budget cuts, they only used Arnold Stang’s voice in this cartoon).
February 6, 2020 at 03:13
J Lee
The gag here manages to be both more and less violent than the earlier ones, in that the far more limited late 1950s animation somewhat softens the blow, and bisected Katnip is more annoyed than anything else — in many of the earlier pain gags, the Famous animators and Sid Raymond really let you know Katnip’s feeling the pain.
February 5, 2020 at 18:16
Jonathan Wilson
Just when you think you’ve seen one violent gag in these shorts, another comes along that’s even worst.