The title of Hip, Hip, Hoorah! was intended to celebrate the artistic freedom from tradition achieved by the CoBrA group. The figures are hybrid creatures, combining human attributes with animal or bird-like features. Appel thought of them as ‘people of the night’, and so gave them a dark background. The bright colours and child-like imagery are typical of CoBrA. Appel often took inspiration from children's drawings, believing that ‘the child in man is all that's strongest, most receptive, most open and unpredictable’.
