The Field Mouse

When the combine harvester comes by the wheat field, the family of mice pack up and move, except for grandpa and Herman, who get trapped by the machinery.

It's a pretty good cartoon from Hugh Harman. True it has the simplistic attitude that children are good-natured idiots that fill me with exasperated bafflement, but in terms of the mechanics of cartoon making, it's pretty near the peak of the the field, with lovely designs and lush, rich colors; the fields and grain are literally golden.

As for the rest of it, I am interested in the fact that the young mouse is named Herman. This couldn't be the Herman the Mouse who starred in Famous Studios cartoons a decade later, could it?

Just watched this M-G-M cartoon produced and directed by Hugh Harmon on YouTube. It's about these children mice on a farm doing work for their mama and grandpop. The mom catches one of her offspring, Herman, sleeping late and wakes him up by spanking him. After he cries to Grandpa, the ground starts shaking. The tractor is on the way! And Herman and Grandpa get caught up in it! No laughs here (well, maybe near the end) but a very thrilling chase ensues as one worries whether the two will make it. Those scenes inside the tractor and other machines are really well done. Oh, and I liked Mel Blanc as the voice of Grandpa especially when he's singing. And some of the most exciting scenes were animated by Don Williams. So on that note, I highly recommend The Field Mouse.

The field mice are hard at work harvesting while grandpa (Mel Blanc) sits and watches. Herman is sleeping in. His mother wakes him up and sends him out to work. He's sleeping on job when a loud rumbling wakes him up. It's the farmer's tractor. Every mouse is in danger.

This MGM cartoon is directed by legendary Hugh Harman. It's fine, but somewhat unremarkable. I'm not really taken with Herman. He's a bratty rat and not necessarily an appealing one. It's nice to see some of these old cartoons and it has Mel Blanc. It's a good cartoon for different completists, but it's not one of the classics.