Northwest Mousie (1953)

movie

(18)

Country: USA
Genres: Animation, Comedy, Short
Release: 1953-12-18
Director: Seymour Kneitel
Writers: Jack Mercer , Carl Meyer
Language: English
Stars: Jack Mercer , Jack Mercer , Sid Raymond , Sid Raymond , Arnold Stang , Arnold Stang
Runtime: 6 min
Awards: N/A
AKA: Northwest Mousie , Northwest Mousie (United States of America)
Plot: While not a big fan of the Herman and Katnip cartoons and of Herman's cartoons in general, while not going to appeal to all they are not terrible cartoons either, though none of them will be favourites any time soon. Northwest Mousie is not an exception, it's worth watching at least once but not personal-favourite worthy.The best thing is, as always with the Herman and Katnip cartoons, the music, which is wonderful. The title song is unforgettably catchy, there is a lot of vibrancy in how it's orchestrated and it's very lively rhythmically, the source of the cartoon's energy, enhancing the action very well and basically the heart and soul of the cartoon. The animation is very good too, some of their later cartoons and Famous Studios' output very soon would become increasingly repetitive and the budgets would become smaller which showed but Northwest Mousie's animation is colourful and smooth with a good amount of care and detail. Herman and Katnip work very well together and their chemistry gels at least, with Katnip a worthily menacing adversary and Herman appropriately resourceful and cunning, though his ways of outwitting Katnip are not hugely original or funny. The gags are nicely timed and do give off some amusement though there's not much inventive or hilarious. That they're not to me as mean-spirited, cruel or creepy as some gags in other Herman and Katnip is a good thing too, only Katnip's comeuppance comes close to that.But what stops Northwest Mousie from being better and more enjoyable is how repetitive and predictable it is. The story has been done to death before in Herman and Katnip cartoons with very little different other than the setting and the mice not running away from Katnip immediately after coming across him(even trying to defend themselves against him), and the dialogue is unmemorable and also very repetitive, I can swear it's the same or very similar dialogue in every Herman and Katnip cartoon. The other mice don't have an awful lot to do and while they have shown they can be poignant be what happens to them is very samey that it becomes cloying.Overall, unexceptional being rather repetitive and predictable but the great animation and music make it more than watchable. 6.5/10 Bethany Cox
IMDB:tt0151777