It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House is a 1965 Looney Tunes short directed by Friz Freleng and Hawley Pratt.
Title[]
The title is a play on the 1959 Dinah Shore song "It's So Nice to Have a Man Around the House".
Plot[]
Speedy Gonzales invades Granny's home. Sylvester tries to chase Speedy out, but is scared into a pool after Speedy screams "Yeehaw!" This drives Sylvester to a nervous breakdown. Concerned about the welfare of her cat, Granny calls on the Jet Age Pest Control to remove the rodent. Daffy Duck is assigned the job while Granny takes Sylvester to the vet.
Daffy first inspects the mousehole with a stethoscope to see if the mouse is still inside. Speedy sees the stethoscope and yells at it, launching Daffy into the ceiling.
Daffy first uses "Approach B", which is a table set with cheese on a platter. Speedy falls for the bait, and Daffy catches him with a net, but Speedy runs around the house while inside the net, dragging Daffy with him and slamming into the wall above the mousehole. Daffy moves on to "Plan C", a glue trap onto the floor in front of the mousehole. However, Speedy appears behind Daffy and yells behind him, scaring Daffy again and leaving him stuck on the ceiling, clinching on his brush with glue on it. Eventually, the handle of the brush breaks off and Daffy falls onto the pile of glue. In a double whammy, Speedy yells "Yeehaw!" a third time on Daffy, defeathering him and sending him back to the glue pile on the ceiling. Daffy says, "He's despicable," and part the ceiling collapses onto the ground. Daffy attempts to suck Speedy into a vacuum cleaner, but gets outrun into the swimming pool, and the vacuum sucks up the water and eventually pops, making Daffy fall into the empty pool.
Daffy programs a mouse disposal robot with a card featuring a mouse that attempts to shred Speedy, but Speedy outwits the robot and grabs a Daffy Duck comic book and places it into the reader. The robot, now identifying Daffy as the threat, chases Daffy out of the house as Speedy watches. As Daffy calls out to the robot to not hunt for him, Speedy says that it is indeed nice to have a mouse around the house.
Notes[]
- The cartoon marked the first theatrical pairing of Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales, with Daffy serving as Speedy's new foe in the cartoons, it was also the only time where they paired together in a Friz Freleng cartoon.
- Not counting this short, Daffy and Speedy's next pairing, "Moby Duck", would be the first short to exaggerate Daffy's evil and egotistical traits, which were first seen in "Stork Naked" and "The Iceman Ducketh".
- Granny is voiced by GeGe Pearson instead of June Foray, who marks her swan song appearance as owner of Sylvester; Granny would make one last appearance in a Warner Bros. cartoon, "Corn on the Cop", later in 1965.
- This marks Daffy and Granny's final cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, though this was the only DePatie-Freleng Enterprises Daffy Duck cartoon to be directed by Friz Freleng.
- Sylvester and Granny's respective screen-times in this short are limited to just brief cameos at the beginning; both of them are not seen for the rest of the short once Daffy arrives.
- Sylvester doesn't speak in the short.
- This is Sylvester's 100th cartoon appearance in the series.
- MeTV has aired a previously unreleased restored print of this short on Toon In with Me.
- However, this restoration omits the "Directed by Friz Freleng" card from the opening credits.
Availability[]
Streaming[]
Gallery[]
References[]
- Friedwald, Will and Jerry Beck. "The Warner Brothers Cartoons." Scarecrow Press Inc., Metuchen, N.J., 1981. ISBN 0-8108-1396-3.
Preceded by The Iceman Ducketh |
Daffy Duck cartoons 1965 |
Succeeded by Moby Duck |
Speedy Gonzales Cartoons | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
1953 | Cat-Tails for Two | |||
1955 | Speedy Gonzales | |||
1957 | Tabasco Road • Gonzales' Tamales | |||
1958 | Tortilla Flaps | |||
1959 | Mexicali Shmoes • Here Today, Gone Tamale | |||
1960 | West of the Pesos | |||
1961 | Cannery Woe • The Pied Piper of Guadalupe | |||
1962 | Mexican Boarders | |||
1963 | Mexican Cat Dance • Chili Weather | |||
1964 | A Message to Gracias • Nuts and Volts • Pancho's Hideaway • Road to Andalay | |||
1965 | It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the House • Cats and Bruises • The Wild Chase • Moby Duck • Assault and Peppered • Well Worn Daffy • Chili Corn Corny • Go Go Amigo | |||
1966 | The Astroduck • Mucho Locos • Mexican Mousepiece • Daffy Rents • A-Haunting We Will Go • Snow Excuse • A Squeak in the Deep • Feather Finger • Swing Ding Amigo • A Taste of Catnip | |||
1967 | Daffy's Diner • Quacker Tracker • The Music Mice-Tro • The Spy Swatter • Speedy Ghost to Town • Rodent to Stardom • Go Away Stowaway • Fiesta Fiasco | |||
1968 | Skyscraper Caper • See Ya Later Gladiator | |||
1979 | Fright Before Christmas | |||
1980 | The Chocolate Chase |