CROSSOVER MADNESS

I've now reviewed the three Famous Studios cartoons that led to the ascension of Herman the Mouse to his small degree of stardom. None of these are crossovers, but because they give Herman stature, he's a star when he's teamed up with his most famous adversary. Once or twice Herman, or other mice from the same studio, encountered a cat that some fans label a "Proto-Katnip," but I've looked at these and don't think that there's sufficient resemblance, even if the same voice actor who later did Katnip may have been billed for the earlier cat. So as far as I'm concerned, the Katnip who first appears in MICE MEETING YOU (November 1950) is the only Katnip. He becomes a co-star in these cartoons, as he is in his slightly later teaming (December 1950) with "Buzzy the Crow." MICE MEETING YOU is not any kind of crossover, but the first Buzzy/Katnip cartoon, SOCK-A-BYE KITTY, is a stature-crossover because Katnip had become a co-star in the Herman series first and remained the dominant co-star in the HERMAN series. One might argue that though none of the Herman-Katnip cartoons are crossovers, all of the Buzzy-Katnip cartoons are stature-crossovers-- though I don't plan to watch any more of them to find out.

Herman also made a couple of cameo appearances, notably in the 1946 banned POPEYE short THE ISLAND FLING.

And here's Buzzy and Katnip teamed for the first time.