Looney Tunes Wiki
Register
Advertisement

Mouse Menace is a 1946 Looney Tunes short directed by Arthur Davis.

Plot[]

Porky Pig is a very frustrated homeowner trying to rid of a very pesky mouse with an attitude and with enough nerve to leave messages for each of the mouse traps that fail. Porky tries to trick it out, but it doesn't work and the mouse only causes him to make a mess in his house! He thinks of what other things he could do to stop the mouse, not realizing that the mouse has been following him and copying him. With no other ideas in mind, he tries hiring a domesticated cat, and later a mountain lion, to do the work for him. But none of the cats prove to be effective, as the mouse frequently defeats them and throws them out of the house bound and gagged with the cat tied up to a missile, and the mountain lion stuffed.

Just as another leaves, the mouse marks it down, revealing he had got rid of thirty of them! Porky then tries to hire a gangster-like cat who has many weapons concealed in his violin case. He then goes to knock on the mouse's door, which ends with the Mouse pushing a huge iron ball onto his head.

So he calmly packs up and leaves, making Porky resort to building a robotic cat. Porky gets behind the robot, revealing "Kill Mouse" as one of his function buttons, along with spit, stand up, claw, purr, and lie down. He tests it out by pushing the "stand up" button. It does, and is apparently very cuddly! Porky takes out a toy mouse from a chest inside his garage and he winds it up to see how the robotic cat reacts. He pushes the button "Kill Mouse" and the robotic cat proceeds to do so, then eats it.

Very happy with the results, Porky then sicks it onto the actual mouse. It actually puts up a fight too, as the mouse sees it approach it runs into its hole and tries to throw another heavy ball onto its head like it did with the previous cat. But this doesn't hurt the robotic cat at all! It gets bent up when it lands on its back and the mouse, out of shock runs from the cat. It then tries to melt it, shoot it, and blow it up.

The mouse is cornered and tries to run back to its mouse hole but the robotic blocks him and keeps blocking all of the mouse holes until the mouse finds one it didn't get to. So he quickly paints it to look like a mouse hole, then paints a message above the hole saying, "Thru this portal passed the most beautiful mouse in the woild!" So naturally the robotic cat thinks the mouse went into that hole and he puts his hand into it, causing to get a huge shock! But this does not mean its beat and it runs around the corner to see the mouse playing with a toy. The robot wants to see the toy, but the mouse refuses, only making it cry in response...

The mouse hands over the toy, then proceeds to try to melt and overheat the robotic kitty-cat once again but he is caught in the act and runs away. It then yanks a rope so hard it causes the robotic cat to decapitate itself! The cat manages to find a toaster and puts it onto its neck, thinking it was its head. It does regain its original head soon enough though as the mouse makes it trip and fall near it.

Eventually the mouse has no other resort but to try to blow everything up using nitroglycerin, uranium-filled items, and dumping out the contents of dynamite into metal mice and other objects. The mouse then sends out one of the metal mice as the cat sneaks over and off it goes! When it comes to a slow stop, the robot cat sneaks up on it, then jumps on it causing a chained explosion! The entire house goes up in flames, including the trees around it.

Despite this, Porky comes out from the hole he was in to see that very few things actually have withstood the explosion, such as a fireplace and a dog house. He is very happy to finally be rid of the mouse, but the mouse comes out of a small hole and says "Should I tell him?"

Caricatures[]

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Censorship[]

  • The entire sequence where the mouse plays around with a golliwog doll, the robot cat crying over not getting his turn with it, the mouse giving the doll to the robot cat, and the mouse burning the robot cat with a welding torch was cut on MeTV in 2023, despite that channel (and every other American channel that had the rights to air this short, specifically Cartoon Network, Boomerang, TBS, and TNT) previously airing it uncut.

Notes[]

  • This is the second short Arthur Davis directed at Warner Bros. Cartoons. The first was "Bacall to Arms", which he finished after Bob Clampett left.
  • Porky uses an older pronunciation of the word 'robot'.
  • The sign that the mouse paints over the power outlet is "THROUGH THIS PORTAL PASSED THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MOUSE IN THE WOILD!" This is a reference to the Rosarito Beach Resort in Mexico. It was once part owned by Peter Lorre, who had a sign installed above the entrance that states: "Through this door pass the most beautiful women in the world." It refers to the many Hollywood actresses who visited the resort.
  • While the American Turner "dubbed" version replaces the original 1946-55 ending rendition of The Merry-Go-Round Broke Downwith the 1941-55 'ending rendition of Merrily We Roll Along, the European Turner "dubbed version" preserves the original ending music. The restored print uses the European Turner print's soundtrack, hence the original ending music was retained on that version as well.
    • The American Turner "dubbed" print has dark blue borders, and the European print has burgundy borders.
  • The original titles have been found on a 16mm black and white print (as pictured above) by Thunderbean. The titles were uploaded by Ender onto YouTube on 9 Jan, 2024.

Gallery[]

References[]

External Links[]

Porky Pig Cartoons
1935 I Haven't Got a Hat ā€¢ Gold Diggers of '49
1936 Plane Dippy ā€¢ Alpine Antics ā€¢ The Phantom Ship ā€¢ Boom Boom ā€¢ The Blow Out ā€¢ Westward Whoa ā€¢ Fish Tales ā€¢ Shanghaied Shipmates ā€¢ Porky's Pet ā€¢ Porky the Rain-Maker ā€¢ Porky's Poultry Plant ā€¢ Porky's Moving Day ā€¢ Milk and Money ā€¢ Little Beau Porky ā€¢ The Village Smithy ā€¢ Porky in the North Woods ā€¢ Boulevardier from the Bronx
1937 Porky the Wrestler ā€¢ Porky's Road Race ā€¢ Picador Porky ā€¢ Porky's Romance ā€¢ Porky's Duck Hunt ā€¢ Porky and Gabby ā€¢ Porky's Building ā€¢ Porky's Super Service ā€¢ Porky's Badtime Story ā€¢ Porky's Railroad ā€¢ Get Rich Quick Porky ā€¢ Porky's Garden ā€¢ Rover's Rival ā€¢ The Case of the Stuttering Pig ā€¢ Porky's Double Trouble ā€¢ Porky's Hero Agency
1938 Porky's Poppa ā€¢ Porky at the Crocadero ā€¢ What Price Porky ā€¢ Porky's Phoney Express ā€¢ Porky's Five & Ten ā€¢ Porky's Hare Hunt ā€¢ Injun Trouble ā€¢ Porky the Fireman ā€¢ Porky's Party ā€¢ Porky's Spring Planting ā€¢ Porky & Daffy ā€¢ Wholly Smoke ā€¢ Porky in Wackyland ā€¢ Porky's Naughty Nephew ā€¢ Porky in Egypt ā€¢ The Daffy Doc ā€¢ Porky the Gob
1939 The Lone Stranger and Porky ā€¢ It's an Ill Wind ā€¢ Porky's Tire Trouble ā€¢ Porky's Movie Mystery ā€¢ Chicken Jitters ā€¢ Porky and Teabiscuit ā€¢ Kristopher Kolumbus Jr. ā€¢ Polar Pals ā€¢ Scalp Trouble ā€¢ Old Glory ā€¢ Porky's Picnic ā€¢ Wise Quacks ā€¢ Porky's Hotel ā€¢ Jeepers Creepers ā€¢ Naughty Neighbors ā€¢ Pied Piper Porky ā€¢ Porky the Giant Killer ā€¢ The Film Fan
1940 Porky's Last Stand ā€¢ Africa Squeaks ā€¢ Ali-Baba Bound ā€¢ Pilgrim Porky ā€¢ Slap Happy Pappy ā€¢ Porky's Poor Fish ā€¢ You Ought to Be in Pictures ā€¢ The Chewin' Bruin ā€¢ Porky's Baseball Broadcast ā€¢ Patient Porky ā€¢ Calling Dr. Porky ā€¢ Prehistoric Porky ā€¢ The Sour Puss ā€¢ Porky's Hired Hand ā€¢ The Timid Toreador
1941 Porky's Snooze Reel ā€¢ Porky's Bear Facts ā€¢ Porky's Preview ā€¢ Porky's Ant ā€¢ A Coy Decoy ā€¢ Porky's Prize Pony ā€¢ Meet John Doughboy ā€¢ We, the Animals - Squeak! ā€¢ The Henpecked Duck ā€¢ Notes to You ā€¢ Robinson Crusoe Jr. ā€¢ Porky's Midnight Matinee ā€¢ Porky's Pooch
1942 Porky's Pastry Pirates ā€¢ Who's Who in the Zoo ā€¢ Porky's Cafe ā€¢ Any Bonds Today? ā€¢ My Favorite Duck
1943 Confusions of a Nutzy Spy ā€¢ Yankee Doodle Daffy ā€¢ Porky Pig's Feat ā€¢ A Corny Concerto
1944 Tom Turk and Daffy ā€¢ Tick Tock Tuckered ā€¢ Swooner Crooner ā€¢ Duck Soup to Nuts ā€¢ Slightly Daffy ā€¢ Brother Brat
1945 Trap Happy Porky ā€¢ Wagon Heels
1946 Baby Bottleneck ā€¢ Daffy Doodles ā€¢ Kitty Kornered ā€¢ The Great Piggy Bank Robbery ā€¢ Mouse Menace
1947 One Meat Brawl ā€¢ Little Orphan Airedale
1948 Daffy Duck Slept Here ā€¢ Nothing but the Tooth ā€¢ The Pest That Came to Dinner ā€¢ Riff Raffy Daffy ā€¢ Scaredy Cat
1949 Awful Orphan ā€¢ Porky Chops ā€¢ Paying the Piper ā€¢ Daffy Duck Hunt ā€¢ Curtain Razor ā€¢ Often an Orphan ā€¢ Dough for the Do-Do ā€¢ Bye, Bye Bluebeard
1950 Boobs in the Woods ā€¢ The Scarlet Pumpernickel ā€¢ An Egg Scramble ā€¢ Golden Yeggs ā€¢ The Ducksters ā€¢ Dog Collared
1951 The Wearing of the Grin ā€¢ Drip-Along Daffy ā€¢ The Prize Pest
1952 Thumb Fun ā€¢ Cracked Quack ā€¢ Fool Coverage
1953 Duck Dodgers in the 24Ā½th Century
1954 Claws for Alarm ā€¢ My Little Duckaroo
1955 Jumpin' Jupiter ā€¢ Dime to Retire
1956 Rocket Squad ā€¢ Deduce, You Say
1957 Boston Quackie
1958 Robin Hood Daffy
1959 China Jones
1961 Daffy's Inn Trouble
1965 Corn on the Cop
1966 Mucho Locos
1980 Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24Ā½th Century
1996 Superior Duck
2004 My Generation G...G... Gap
Advertisement