| Cool Cat | |
|---|---|
| Looney Tunes character | |
 | |
| First appearance | Cool Cat (1967) |
| Created by | Alex Lovy |
| Designed by | Jaime Diaz |
| Voiced by | Larry Storch (1967–1969) Joe Alaskey (1996) Jim Cummings (1999–present) Eric Bauza (2018) Fred Tatasciore (2023) |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Bengal tiger |
| Gender | Male |
| Nationality | American |
Cool Cat is a fictional cartoon character created by directorAlex Lovy forWarner Bros.-Seven Arts Animation.[1] He was the final star of the original Warner Bros. theatrical cartoons.[2] His first appearance was inan eponymous short in 1967.[3] He was voiced byLarry Storch.Robert McKimson took over as director for the last two cartoons in this series.
In 1967,Jack L. Warner reorganized the Warner Bros. animation department, and hired Lovy away fromHanna-Barbera Productions to handle Warner's last two classic characters (Daffy Duck,Speedy Gonzales) and create some new cartoon series. The two series that Lovy developed were Cool Cat andMerlin the Magic Mouse.[4]
Cool Cat is depicted as ahumanoidBengal tiger who wears a greenberet and ascarf. His design resembles two other feline characters from the 1960s, thePink Panther andSnagglepuss. He primarily speaks inbeatnikslang, and acts as a typical laid backteenager. He was mostly depicted while strumming hisguitar or traveling in hisdune buggy. Only one film depicted him playingvarsityAmerican football for his university.
Cool Cat is a hipBengal tiger (whose design was very similar to that ofThe Pink Panther andSnagglepuss) who wore a stylish greenberet and scarf. Unlike most otherLooney Tunes characters, Cool Cat was unapologetically a product of his time. He spoke in 1960s-stylebeatnikslang and acted much like a stereotypical laid back 1960steenager – he was often seen strumming aguitar or traveling cross-country in hisdune buggy. One cartoon – McKimson'sBugged by a Bee – depicted him as an alumnus of "Disco Tech" playing varsityfootball against the long-haired team from "Hippie University".
However, most of Cool Cat's cartoons dealt with his encounters with Colonel Rimfire (also voiced by Storch), a fussy, British-accented big-gamehunter armed with ablunderbuss. Rimfire essentially acted as theElmer Fudd to Cool Cat'sBugs Bunny, but was used only by Lovy. Cool Cat bears the distinction of starring in the very last cartoon produced at the original Warner Bros. Cartoons studio prior to its shutdown:Injun Trouble in 1969.
His cartoons can easily be distinguished from most of the otherLooney Tunes cartoons, as they feature an updated Looney Tunes logo with stylized animation, a 1967 remix of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" byWilliam Lava, and featuring the then-currentWarner Bros.-Seven Arts logo (a combination of a simple W and 7 inside a stylized shield outline).
Cool Cat reappeared later inThe Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries TV series, for which he was voiced byJoe Alaskey. He made brief cameos in most, if not all of the episodes, appearing on posters in the background, walking by in street scenes, etc. His appearances aren't entirely overlooked by the cast, asTweety once responded to Cool Cat's appearance in the episode “Good Bird Hunting” with "You realize we had to stick this guy in someplace."
Cool Cat and Colonel Rimfire both appear in the 2000direct-to-video movieTweety's High-Flying Adventure.Granny makes a bet with Colonel Rimfire that Tweety is smarter than felines. As stipulated in the bet, Tweety will tour the world and collect 80 cats' paw prints in 80 days. Cool Cat makes a cameo appearance as a background member of Granny and Colonel Rimfire‘s Looney Club. Cool Cat was voiced byJim Cummings and Colonel Rimfire was voiced byJoe Alaskey.
He later appears in theLooney Tunes Cartoons short "Happy Birthday Bugs Bunny!" in the opening crowd shot.
Cool Cat, Colonel Rimfire, Merlin the Magic Mouse, and Spooky the Ghost are the only W-7 Arts characters to make any further appearances, beyond the classic era shorts, to date.[when?]
Cool Cat appears in an episode ofTiny Toons Looniversity,[5] voiced byFred Tatasciore.
