A Mouse Divided

The stork gets drunk and mistakenly delivers a baby to Sylvester the cat and his wife, who was just nagging Sylvester about wanting to have kids. But the baby turns out to be a mouse! Right away, Sylvester wants to eat it but, once it calls him Daddy, he has a change of heart. The same can't be said for all the other neighborhood cats, who try their best to get at the baby mouse. Sylvester finds himself in the odd position of protecting a mouse against his fellow felines.

The baby mouse is absolutely adorable. The wife, whose name I do not recall (if she was ever even given one), was a funny character brought to life by the very underrated Bea Benaderet. The other voices, including Sylvester, are handled by the immortal Mel Blanc. Nothing else needs to be said about the quality of the voicework once you know he's involved. The music is energetic and fun. The animation is bright and colorful. A very funny short with some heart and good gags throughout. The ways the cats try to get into the house are hilarious. Loved the ending, too.

I've long wondered what's the deal with the image of the inebriated stork. Whatever it is, it leads to a pretty funny cartoon here, as the alcoholic bird delivers a baby mouse to Mr. and Mrs. Sylvester, and Sylvester becomes enamored with the little guy and has to protect him from the rest of the cats in the neighborhood.

Was "A Mouse Divided" the best Looney Tunes cartoon ever? No, far from it. Some parts were clearly lifted out of the Bugs Bunny vehicle "Gorilla My Dreams". What I like in this cartoon is the extent to which Sylvester goes to keep the hungry felines from eating the mouse (including a dynamite gag; those guys sure had a way with TNT). It's a nice, fun way to pass time.

He doesn't get it from my side of the family. Some arguments seem to continue forever.

I love seeing Sylvester be the good guy (or cat) for once. In this episode, the Drunken Stork accidentally delivers a baby mouse to Sylvester and his wife. Sylvester, initially excited, immediately wants to eat the little rodent upon discovering that it's a mouse but the wife will have none of it. Just before she leaves the house, she tells Sylvester to take Junior for a walk, and he takes it upon himself to make a Baby Mouse sandwich once she exits. Sylvester is about to take a bite when Junior pops out from between the 2 slices of bread and calls him Daddy. This gives the cat a sudden change of heart. But when he takes the little guy out for a walk, he suddenly has to protect him from every hungry cat in the neighborhood, all of which try various methods of breaking into the house and stealing the mouse, only to be foiled by Sylvester. And at the end we get a clever plot twist! As stated above, I love how we finally get to see Sylvester be the protagonist and foil his own kind, when it's usually him who gets foiled. My favorite part is when one of the cats disguises himself as Santa but Sylvester looks at the calendar and it says July. That's one of my favorite gags, seen in several Looney Toons shorts. Anyway, Sylvester ties a stick of dynamite to a balloon which he sends up the chimney and sends Santa cat flying. lol! And we get a 3 second shot of all the cats waiting outside the house, surrounding it. The music score for that short scene was perfect. And Junior, the baby mouse is adorable, especially when he sees the slice of cheese (used as bait by the Stork) and goes "babblebabblebabblebabble ... cheese! :D" I remember watching this one years ago on Nickelodeon and I finally re-discovered it in 2013. It's just how I remembered.

there is not such a thing as a "best movie ever", "best song ever", or a "best anything ever". well, that said, this is the best cartoon ever. nothing has surpassed the quality of the dialogs or the great scene where a bunch of cats look through a window the new 'baby cat'.. that's pure cinema. at its best. not a cartoon or anything. it's one of the most expressive (and hilarious) scenes (yeah..) ever there are many directors and script writers that try forever to do something just decent. this 5 minutes cartoon rich what most people has never ever been able to do. I hate to be so much superlative, mainly when what you should be doing is just watching the thing, but I need to write 10 lines to be published and get you. I do not know why you are already reading, just get a copy and watch it. You own me one..

The dialogue alone is worth giving this cartoon short high marks. The whole premise is pure Warner Bros. golden age magic: Sylvester is forced to put his instincts aside to protect his "son" from the hungry neighborhood cats. I loved it!