Katnip Kollege (1938)
At the Katnip Kollege, we see a roomful of cats taking a course in Swingology. Everyone swings except Johnny, who can't cut it and has to sit in the dunce chair. Miss Kitty Bright tells him to look her up when he learns how to swing. Finally, listening to the pendulum clock at night, Johnny gets the beat. He rushes out to where everyone is playing and sings "Easy As Rollin' Off a Log" to Kitty Bright. She joins in; he grabs a trumpet for an instrumental break, with the complete band. They both fall off a log; she covers him with kisses.
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Excellent, Without a doubt!!
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
I usually try to avoid the 30s cartoons but some of them are real good, especially this swing one. The plot is Johnny a cat who can't swing is embarrassed by his college classmates. He sits in the classroom thinking of how to swing. When he hears a rhythm to a clock, he joins in the swing and sings a song, the girl named Kitty dances with him and they fall and Kitty kisses him. Songs like "As easy as rolling off a log", "you're an education", and "we're working our way through college" are heard. The Blue Ribbon is available on golden collection volume 3, and platinum collection volume 2, with the original 1937-38 ending cue. EXCELLENT! Definitely recommended, one of a kind film! 10/10 MERRIE MELODIES!
This is the shortest of the three Merrie Melodies on the 2-Disc Special Edition DVD of Adventures of Robin Hood from 1938, and definitely the one that has the least to do with the film itself. It's part of the Warner Night at the Movies feature, as back then, you got this, trailers and other productions in addition to the motion picture itself. The basic plot, if you can call it that, is that some cats(I think they might be cool ones) are attending a college where the teacher teaches, and all the students are tested, in song(and it's rather well-performed, these are catchy). Why this did not cause a country-wide rebellion back then, of children and adults alike demanding that their schools change to be like that, I have no clue. On that note, tomorrow I will be picketing and collecting signatures for a petition to alter our educational facilities. Honestly, I'm only half-joking here, some people learn better using music, and the current state of sitting still, reading and not reflecting isn't doing much for the future of our nations. Anyway, one of the kids in this lacks rhythm, and there's your conflict. Some of this is funny, and the animation is reasonable. Not being an expert on tunes, I couldn't tell you what style this is(jazz, maybe?). There's definitely a beatnik vibe to it, with words like "swing" and "groove". I recommend this to those that this appeals to. 6/10
Watching the classic Looney Tunes cartoons, one can see that they had a thing for jazz. In "Katnip Kollege", the focus is on swing music, as a feline in school can't keep time and gets made the dunce...until he figures out the beat. Even though I love the classic Looney Tunes cartoons, it always seemed to me like their musical cartoons from the '30s tried a little too hard to be cute. Of course, any emphasis on swing music is something to be acknowledged. Still, I prefer their other music-centric shorts (such as "I Love to Singa", "Three Little Bops" and "What's Opera, Doc?").Anyway, this one's worth seeing as a historical reference, if nothing else.
This is a cute, rather charming musical short patterned after things like Along Flirtation Walk and Varsity Show. The lead character, Johnny, might as well have "Dick Powell" stenciled on his forehead and the professor reminds me of Kay Kyser. The music is infectious and entertaining, even if the plot is as thin as a piece of gauze. Come to think of it, the plots of those old musicals this is patterned after are pretty much just as thin and this is much shorter than those were!Warner Brothers made a fair number of these musical cartoons, because the animation department had access to the entire musical catalog for the studio and the studio big-wigs saw the shorts as a way to remind people of Warner Brothers features and music (sheet music was popular and the sheet music for songs made a pretty for all involved in the loop-composers, film studio, etc.) by keeping songs fresh in the public's memory. This is on Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 2 and is well worth seeing. Recommended.