Mouse Mazurka

One of Sylvester's outings with neither Tweety, Hippety Hopper nor Speedy Gonzales* has the slobbering cat going after a mazurka-dancing rodent in a fictional Slavic country. There's the common gag with explosives: in this case, it's nitroglycerin (what kind of person keeps that stuff in his/her house?!).

"Mouse Mazurka" has the true feeling of a Friz Freleng cartoon, given how it incorporates music (Freleng's frequent themes in cartoons were music and breaking into show biz). Here we get to hear "Song of the Volga Boatmen". But another thing about this one: the scene where Sylvester paints his finger like a female mouse - plus the shot of the woman at the beginning of the cartoon - reminds me how hot Eastern European women are. While staying with a family in St. Petersburg, Russia, I totally had a crush on my host sister; I like to describe her as a cross between Barbara Eden and Julie Christie. Think what you will about Eastern Europe, but the women there are some of THE MOST gorgeous! Anyway, a pretty funny cartoon.

*Actually, this was before Speedy debuted.