This cartoon tries, but it just misses the mark. Something about it simply doesn't quite gel, which is a shame. It has some good moments, but the whole is less than the sum of its parts. Because I want to discuss a few details, this is a spoiler warning:
The short starts out promisingly enough, with the pampered cat of a rich dowager making the life of the butler, Meadows, an unhappy one. First, the cat squirts grapefruit juice in his eye and then causes him to slip on a bar of soap, each time laughing hysterically. So Meadows quits.
The cat panics and begins searching for food and reads that cats are supposed to eat mice. He and Hubie (Hubie is a mouse) spot one another simultaneously and both are terrified. Hubie realizes the cat is frightened and learns that the cat doesn't know what a mouse looks like, so he introduces his pal Bert (another mouse) and then clues Bert in on their new "friend's" ignorance. They then convince him that a bulldog is actually a very large mouse. The cat tries to eat the bulldog, in what is probably the best visual scene in the short.
Immediately after this scene, the short falls apart, probably because the cat then sees pictures of a mouse and a bulldog and realizes he's been tricked. At this point, the funniest premise in the short (a cat who doesn't recognize either mice or dogs) is removed as a plot device and nothing tangible is left to carry the rest of the short. for a good example of a much better use of the same characters where this mistake wasn't made and the short is infinitely the better because the funniest concept wasn't abruptly yanked away, watch Cheese Chasers, done eight years later.
The ending to this short partially salvages the cartoon, but it could have been so much better than it finally turned out. Still, it is worth seeing for the characters. This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 4, which is highly recommended.
The short starts out promisingly enough, with the pampered cat of a rich dowager making the life of the butler, Meadows, an unhappy one. First, the cat squirts grapefruit juice in his eye and then causes him to slip on a bar of soap, each time laughing hysterically. So Meadows quits.
The cat panics and begins searching for food and reads that cats are supposed to eat mice. He and Hubie (Hubie is a mouse) spot one another simultaneously and both are terrified. Hubie realizes the cat is frightened and learns that the cat doesn't know what a mouse looks like, so he introduces his pal Bert (another mouse) and then clues Bert in on their new "friend's" ignorance. They then convince him that a bulldog is actually a very large mouse. The cat tries to eat the bulldog, in what is probably the best visual scene in the short.
Immediately after this scene, the short falls apart, probably because the cat then sees pictures of a mouse and a bulldog and realizes he's been tricked. At this point, the funniest premise in the short (a cat who doesn't recognize either mice or dogs) is removed as a plot device and nothing tangible is left to carry the rest of the short. for a good example of a much better use of the same characters where this mistake wasn't made and the short is infinitely the better because the funniest concept wasn't abruptly yanked away, watch Cheese Chasers, done eight years later.
The ending to this short partially salvages the cartoon, but it could have been so much better than it finally turned out. Still, it is worth seeing for the characters. This short is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 4, which is highly recommended.
