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Mouse and Garden is a 1960 Looney Tunes short directed by Friz Freleng.

Plot[]

Sylvester and his orange feline friend Sam are looking through trash cans for whatever food scraps they can find. Suddenly, Sylvester spots a mouse, runs after it, and catches it. When Sam comes to see what he's up to, Sylvester hides the mouse, holding it by the tail with his foot. Sam slyly engages Sylvester in conversation while surreptitiously feeling the mouse with his own foot. Sam swaps the mouse for a lit stick of dynamite without Sylvester knowing. Sylvester distracts Sam long enough to pop what he thinks is the mouse into his mouth. When it explodes, Sam retrieves the real mouse, but before he can eat it, Sylvester comes to investigate. Sam hides it in a dresser, but Sylvester finds it and tries to eat it. Eventually, they agree to keep the mouse in a jug and share it for breakfast in the morning.

Temptation soon overcomes Sam, and he opens the jug but is caught. Sylvester ties Sam to the bed, but then goes for the jug himself and is caught. They go back to bed, but Sylvester ties a string to Sam's toe, sneaks outside, and ties the other end to a motorboat. While he is trying to get the motor started, Sam wakes, unties the string from his toe, and ties it to Sylvester's tail. He grabs the jug and shakes Sylvester's hand goodbye, but the boat takes off and pulls both of them out into the lake, slamming them into a pole. They swim to a tiny island and kick each other as the mouse rows past them on the floating jug.

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Censorship[]

  • Versions shown on ABC's The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show cut the sequence of Sam the Cat replacing the captured mouse under Sylvester's foot with a stick of dynamite, Sylvester swallowing the dynamite, and the requisite explosion, with Sam then saying to the unwell-looking Sylvester, "You'd better get that tooth fixed."[1]
  • Nickelodeon left in the dynamite sequence, but some versions that aired on the channel had two lines cut: Sylvester's "You never know where those little devils will hide, do you?" after Sam catches him trying to keep the mouse to himself and Sam's "Aw, geez! Now you made me feel bad!" as Sylvester ties his toe to Sam's and tells him he cannot trust him.[1]

Goofs[]

  • The Warner Bros. shield does not zoom in all the way on the opening rings, missing the final frame of the zoom animation.
  • When Sylvester and Sam are sleeping and dreaming about the mouse, Sylvester's tail has a white tip. Throughout the rest of the cartoon before and after, Sylvester's tail is plain black with no white tip.

Notes[]

  • Sylvester lacks the white tip on his tail, much like some of his appearances in the 1940s shorts and most of the pre-1955 Robert McKimson shorts. His tail's solid black appearance would be used consistently up until "The Jet Cage".
  • This short was nominated for the 33rd Academy Awards for "Best Short Subject (Cartoon)" alongside "High Note", both losing to the Czechoslovak-American short "Munro".[2]

Gallery[]

References[]

External Links[]


Sylvester Cartoons
1945 Life with FeathersPeck Up Your Troubles
1946 Kitty Kornered
1947 Tweetie PieCrowing PainsDoggone CatsCatch as Cats Can
1948 Back Alley OproarI Taw a Putty TatHop, Look and ListenKit for CatScaredy Cat
1949 Mouse MazurkaBad Ol' Putty TatHippety Hopper
1950 Home, Tweet HomeThe Scarlet PumpernickelAll a Bir-r-r-dCanary RowStooge for a MousePop 'Im Pop!
1951 Canned FeudPutty Tat TroubleRoom and BirdTweety's S.O.S.Tweet Tweet Tweety
1952 Who's Kitten Who?Gift WrappedLittle Red Rodent HoodAin't She TweetHoppy Go LuckyA Bird in a Guilty CageTree for Two
1953 Snow BusinessA Mouse DividedFowl WeatherTom Tom TomcatA Street Cat Named SylvesterCatty CorneredCats A-weigh!
1954 Dog PoundedBell HoppyDr. Jerkyl's HideClaws for AlarmMuzzle ToughSatan's Waitin'By Word of Mouse
1955 Lighthouse MouseSandy ClawsTweety's CircusJumpin' JupiterA Kiddies KittySpeedy GonzalesRed Riding HoodwinkedHeir-ConditionedPappy's Puppy
1956 Too Hop to HandleTweet and SourTree Cornered TweetyThe Unexpected PestTugboat GrannyThe Slap-Hoppy MouseYankee Dood It
1957 Tweet ZooTweety and the BeanstalkBirds AnonymousGreedy for TweetyMouse-Taken IdentityGonzales' Tamales
1958 A Pizza Tweety-PieA Bird in a Bonnet
1959 Trick or TweetTweet and LovelyCat's PawHere Today, Gone TamaleTweet Dreams
1960 West of the PesosGoldimouse and the Three CatsHyde and Go TweetMouse and GardenTrip for Tat
1961 Cannery WoeHoppy DazeBirds of a FatherD' Fightin' OnesThe Rebel Without ClawsThe Pied Piper of GuadalupeThe Last Hungry Cat
1962 Fish and SlipsMexican BoardersThe Jet Cage
1963 Mexican Cat DanceChili WeatherClaws in the Lease
1964 A Message to GraciasFreudy CatNuts and VoltsHawaiian Aye AyeRoad to Andalay
1965 It's Nice to Have a Mouse Around the HouseCats and BruisesThe Wild Chase
1966 A Taste of Catnip
1980 The Yolks on You
1995 Carrotblanca
1997 Father of the Bird
2011 I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat
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