This is a short in the Herman and Katnip series done by Paramount's Famous Studio animation department. There will be spoilers ahead:
By 1959, any minimally creative inclinations Famous Studio might once have had died of disinterest and neglect. They essentially were turning out product to a schedule for contractual reasons. The shorts were formulaic and aimed entirely at young kids. This had pretty much always been the case with the Herman and Katnip series, which established their format from the first short and kept it in place.
Even with the Herman and Katnip shorts, there was a period where they could actually be good, but that was long before 1959. This short is also a cheater, which means that it's composed of a framing device strung together for the purpose of allowing the use of footage from earlier shorts to make up much of the cartoon and saving time and money while maintaining the production schedule.
The "plot", such as it is, finds Katnip becoming the surprise recipient of what amounts to a celebratory roast of him by his "friends". Various characters from the shorts show up to recount past incidents, shown in clips from other cartoons and none of which go well for Katnip, who becomes angry at each succeeding story, only to forget his anger as a new "friend" comes out. Katnip isn't terribly bright.
The sad thing about this short is that the older footage, while not being for the most part anything extraordinary, still serves to point up just how horrid the new framing sequence is by comparison.
This short is available on a DVD release of the Herman and Katnip shorts and is recommended if you have you children or an interest in the Golden Age of animation, so to speak.
By 1959, any minimally creative inclinations Famous Studio might once have had died of disinterest and neglect. They essentially were turning out product to a schedule for contractual reasons. The shorts were formulaic and aimed entirely at young kids. This had pretty much always been the case with the Herman and Katnip series, which established their format from the first short and kept it in place.
Even with the Herman and Katnip shorts, there was a period where they could actually be good, but that was long before 1959. This short is also a cheater, which means that it's composed of a framing device strung together for the purpose of allowing the use of footage from earlier shorts to make up much of the cartoon and saving time and money while maintaining the production schedule.
The "plot", such as it is, finds Katnip becoming the surprise recipient of what amounts to a celebratory roast of him by his "friends". Various characters from the shorts show up to recount past incidents, shown in clips from other cartoons and none of which go well for Katnip, who becomes angry at each succeeding story, only to forget his anger as a new "friend" comes out. Katnip isn't terribly bright.
The sad thing about this short is that the older footage, while not being for the most part anything extraordinary, still serves to point up just how horrid the new framing sequence is by comparison.
This short is available on a DVD release of the Herman and Katnip shorts and is recommended if you have you children or an interest in the Golden Age of animation, so to speak.