Mouse and Garden

Friz Freleng's Oscar-nominated 'Mouse and Garden' is a nicely orchestrated piece of toing-and-froing which is constantly entertaining. While the Oscar-nomination may have been a bit of an overreaction, Freleng still shows himself to be an old master at timing gags. Sylvester and his supposed pal Sam (voiced by the legendary Daws Butler, doing an impersonation of Stan Freberg's Pete Puma voice) scavenge for food together while constantly attempting to screw the other out of whatever they find. When Sylvester finds a live mouse, the battle is upped to the next level. 'Mouse and Garden' is ultimately a film about friendship and deceit and the detrimental result when the two meet. After suffering the indignity of being paired with intolerable characters like Tweety and Speedy Gonzales for years, it's always good to see Sylvester in a cartoon without either of these twin drag factors. Here, the mouse is more a prop than a character, looking on in mute bewilderment as the two cats cheat themselves out of a meal. The limited animation is effective in evoking the atmosphere of a pier at night and, while Sam is hardly a memorable adversary, the whole cartoon is carried by the false niceties and growing paranoia that eventually defeats the two characters. It might not quite be a classic but 'Mouse and Garden' is a solid, always enjoyable cartoon that stands out from much of the 1960s Warner Bros. output.

Saying that Mouse and Garden is one of the better 60s Looney Tunes cartoons is saying a fair bit actually. Some cartoons like this were good though not up the standards of the Looney Tunes cartoons of the 40-50s, some like the middling Roadrunner/Wile E. Coyote efforts ranged from mediocre to relatively decent and it also saw some dreck like Pre-Hysterical Hare, Devil's Feud Cake and the worst of the Daffy-Speedy cartoons. The cartoon at times is a little rushed and some of the detail and character designs in the animation can lack finesse. The colours are nice to look at and the main setting is effective. The music is composed with beautiful orchestration and energetic character, Carl Stalling is a superior composer but Milt Franklin stands very well on his own indeed. The writing has freshness and wit, and the visual gags are well timed and never less than amusing. Sylvester is still his usual funny and charismatic self, but fellow cat Sam steals the show this time round, a hilarious character that makes you ask the question why you don't see him more. Mel Blanc and Daws Butler give superb vocal characterisations, no surprise as they are two of the greatest ever voice actors who added so much to everything they did. Overall, fun stuff indeed. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Jeez, no matter how you look at it, Sylvester probably has THE worst luck of all the Looney Tunes. In some cartoons it plays out more than in others, but Friz Freleng's "Mouse and Garden" is an example.

One night, Sylvester and his friend Sam (an orange tabby who talks as though he suffers from either Downs syndrome or cerebral palsy) are rummaging through garbage cans looking for food - not to mention stealing each other's morsels - when they catch a mouse. But each cat still wants the mouse for himself, and so they spend the rest of the night trying to eat the little guy, all the while suspecting the other one of trying to do just that and trying to stop the other one from doing it! Needless to say, there's some dynamite involved.

While Milt Franklyn's music didn't quite equal Carl Stalling's, it still provides a neat setting for the wacky action here. And Daws Butler was clearly pretty adept at doing voices (he voices Sam, accompanying Mel Blanc as Sylvester). In any case, this is one of the nearly 1,000 classic cartoons released through Warner Bros. That'll never be all, folks.

And I now see that the song is called "Moonlight Bay". I'd heard the song before in "Porky's Duck Hunt" (Daffy Duck's debut), but couldn't understand the whole thing. Now I finally know.

Yeah, the Looney Tunes shorts from the '60s were a mixed bag that and finding one that is truly great is not easy to do. But this Oscar-nominated Sylvester short really wasn't that special, in my opinion. I do like it but it wouldn't make my top ten Sylvester shorts and might not even make my top ten Looney Tunes from the '60s. The premise is that Sylvester and his friend Sam both try to keep a mouse they find to themselves and not share it. There are some amusing gags and lines here. The Sam character is the best thing about it. Daws Butler provided the voice and he's just a hoot to listen to. Mel Blanc is great as Sylvester, as always. The animation is scratchy but colorful. I'm not sure why this was nominated for an Oscar but looking at the list of nominees that year, it appears there wasn't a particularly strong selection all around.

Mel Blanc and Daws Butler - two Hall-Of-Fame voices - combine their talents to give us this battle of the felines over possession of one mouse.

Sylvester (Blanc) and Sam (Butler) are two waterfront cats browsing through the garbage cans on the pier when they get a little mouse. The story from that point is the paranoia and mistrust these two guys have for each other. Neither is willing to share and both try every trick in the book to hide the fact they have the mouse. (It keeps changing hands, er paws.)

The huge moon and beautiful nighttime artwork in here on the water with his big house is fantastic. For the visuals alone, this is a good cartoon but listening to the accents and funny voices of these two geniuses doing these characters makes elevates this from very good to excellent.