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Tale of Two Mice, re-released as A Tale of Two Mice, is a 1945 Looney Tunes planned by Frank Tashlin and finished by Robert McKimson.

Title[]

As with the first Babbit and Catstello cartoon, the title is a play on the Charles Dickens novel A Tale of Two Cities.

Plot[]

Catstello is being chased at high speed around the house by a cat, yelling "Hey Babbit!" Catstello narrowly escapes into the mousehole, while the cat crashes into a wall. Babbit notices this and asks Catstello for the cheese, which he replied that he hasn't got any because he is scared of the cat. Babbit then chastises Catstello for his cowardice, but when this doesn't get into Catstello's head. Babbit continuously slaps him on the head.

They attempt to steal cheese that is being guarded by a cat. Their schemes include past a sleeping cat, which doesn't go so well as Catstello runs off at first time, a small airplane and a rope and pull system. Finally, Catstello manages to escape the cat with a wedge of Swiss cheese, which unfortunately Babbit doesn't like. Fed up with Babbit constantly ordering him around, repetitively slapping him as well as his ungratefulness for his efforts, Catstello continuously slaps him and force-feeds Babbit chunks of Swiss cheese. Catstello remarks "Ooohhh, I'm a baaaaaaad boy!"

Caricatures[]

Availability[]

Censorship[]

  • On the now-defunct WB channel, the sequence in which Babbit's states, "If this don't work, then I'll be a jack-ass," followed by Catstello in a crashed toy airplane yelling, "Jack-ass! A jack-ass!" and braying like a donkey was cut.[4]

Notes[]

  • This is the first cartoon where Babbit and Catstello are recast as mice instead of cats as in their debut cartoon "A Tale of Two Kitties" (1942), as well as as the protagonists rather than as antagonists to Tweety. They would later be recast as mice again in "The Mouse-Merized Cat" (1946)
    • This is also the first cartoon where Catstello turns against Babbit in the end due to the former fed-up of the latter's constant abuse. This would happen again in "The Mouse-Merized Cat".
    • It was also the first (and only) appearance of Babbit and Catstello in the Looney Tunes series.
  • The plot of the short resembles the 1941 Screen Gems cartoon "The Great Cheese Mystery". Both share a similar setup, featuring a pair of mice stealing food from a sleeping cat. Arthur Davis and Frank Tashlin both worked in that cartoon as director and writer respectively.
  • When this short was re-released as a Blue Ribbon, it was retitled as A Tale of Two Mice.
  • The unnamed cat in this cartoon physically resembles Babbit from "A Tale of Two Kitties".
  • MeTV aired a previously unreleased restored print of the cartoon on Toon In With Me. While a 16mm print with the original titles is known to exist, Warner Bros. only restores 35mm prints, hence the Blue Ribbon titles were restored instead.
  • This cartoon is the first cartoon that was directed by Robert McKimson, although he isn't credited as he only completed the cartoon following Frank Tashlin's departure from the studio.

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