Robert McKimson had just been appointed director after Frank Tashlin had left the studio to pursue a career in live action writing. He was meant to be Clampett's successor, but Tashlin left the studio first. McKimson was a logical successor because of his loyalty, outstanding work as an animator, and seniority. He was rather accomplished, having designed THE definitive Bugs Bunny model sheet, and doing exquisite work on cartoons such as "Old Glory," where his Uncle Sam animation looks like it was traced from live action, even though it isn't. So, with "Daffy Doodles," McKimson started his directorial career off with a bang. His cartoons seemed to carry on the silliness of Clampett, and they match the best of the other directors. He directed great and funny cartoons with Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, and all the rest. He received an Academy Award nomination for his cartoon "Walky Talky Hawky", which introduced the world to Foghorn Leghorn, early in his directorial career, quite a feat. Strangely, McKimson's work is largely put down today, people have used words like "dull", "boring", repetitive", and even "abomination" to describe his films. Perhaps this is true of some of his later cartoons, his unit lost a great deal of talent in the mid 50s due to a brief closing of the studio. This left McKimson with a group of mediocre animators who had been cast out from the Freleng and Jones units. While McKimson didn't hit the mark as much as the other 2-3 directors at the time, he did put out many memorable and funny creations.
Hippety Hopper was created in 1948 for the cartoon "Hop, Look, and Listen". This cartoon was the springboard for a very long running series of short cartoons with virtually the same exact plot. This plot being that a baby kangaroo escapes from the zoo/circus/ect, and Sylvester, thinking the kangaroo is a giant mouse, tries to catch the marsupial. His motivation is usually to prove himself to his little son, who idolizes his dear father.
Sylvester always fails, and causes his son to be ashamed, unable to face the other cats. Like many Sylvester shorts, this one tries to employ a psychological element, this can work very well when handled correctly, but many of the films in this series fail to achieve this, and like much of Robert McKimson's later work, it fails to show good emotion or character animation. This series is usually overshadowed by Friz Freleng's very popular Sylvester and Tweety cartoons, and many sources completely ignore McKimson's contributions to Sylvester's character, and his creation of Hippety Hopper, even though the baby kangaroo was featured in the lineup of characters seen in the introduction of "The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show".
The series ended in 1963, with "Freudy Cat," a "cheater" cartoon with all new music that used footage from several older shorts. The character was then retired because the original Warner Brothers cartoon studio closed down.
