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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By the late 1930s, the Schlesinger studio had phased out plugging popular tunes in favor of broad comedy. This short was probably one of the last of its kind to feature popular tunes as opposed to aiming for comedy.Like most musical cartoons, the featured songs were lifted from recent WB features. Let That Be A Lesson To You came from HOLLYWOOD HOTEL (1937), As Easy As Rolling Off A Log is briefly heard in OVER THE GOAL (1937). The trumpet solo is directly taken from the latter films soundtrack. Johnnie Davis, who sang and performed a trumpet solo in the aforementioned films, does the voice of the bespectacled cat. His meek design is in contrast to Davis' actual handsome appearance. The college setting of OVER THE GOAL was probably an inspiration. Maybel Todd, who sang a part in the Let That Be A Lesson To You number in HOLLYWOOD HOTEL, voices Kitty Bright.For a Cal Dalton short, this is a very handsome effort. A good quintessential late 1930s WB short with catchy jazz numbers. Be sure to check out the films where the musical numbers originated. Although I have yet to hear a full recording of As Easy As Rolling Off A Log.
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
"Katnip Kollege" is a delightful Warner Bros. musical cartoon. The plot involves a swingology class at Katnip Kollege, where all the "young cats" go to study one of my favorite subjects: how to swing! Every student in the class does a fine job of singing, clapping, dancing, and playing instruments to a tireless swinging jazz groove! That is, every student except one bespectacled cat named Johnny, who is so terrible at swinging that his classmates ridicule him, and his professor declares him to be a dunce. At the end of the school day, as all the other cats swing their way into the night, Johnny stays after school and listens to the ticking of a clock, which ultimately kicks off a tempo for him, and he finally understands how to swing! Showing off his newly-acquired skill, Johnny becomes the star of the evening as he wins the respect of his classmates and the affections of a spunky gal named Ms. Kitty Bright.My favorite moments from "Katnip Kollege" include the following. During the opening shot of the classroom before the professor arrives, Johnny quite humorously stands out from the rest of his classmates as he cannot even clap his hands in time to the beat. The professor has a Bing Crosby-type voice as he swings his rhymed speech while calling on different students to give their swinging recitations. And how could I not mention the wonderful jazz music that fills this entire cartoon? In closing, here is one final interesting observation that relates to "Katnip Kollege." Dave Brubeck, one of my favorite jazz pianists/composers, wrote a tune in 1955 titled "The Duke" as a homage to one of the greatest composers/bandleaders/pianists of the 20th Century: Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington. Decades later, when an interviewer asked Brubeck how he actually went about writing the tune, Brubeck replied, "Just think of windshield wipers." As Brubeck was driving his car on a rainy day, the motion of the wipers ultimately kicked off a tempo for him!
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.
