Much Ado About Mousing (1964) Online

There's no denying that Chuck Jones' animation is slick… far better than Gene Deitch's, but by this episode, only his fourth, the quality of Jones' content—the story lines and the gags—are already in decline. I sure hope that he doesn't sink to the depths of Deitch's cartoons.

Much Ado About Mousing takes place in a harbour. Tom is on a jetty fishing for mice, using cheese as bait. Soon enough, he catches a rodent, Jerry, but the mouse isn't about to make things easy for Tom, escaping capture and landing Tom in trouble with a big dog.

The action is predictable and repetitive (Tom turned into a bowling ball and getting a crab on his tail), genuine laughs are thin on the ground and I'm still struggling with the look of Tom and Jerry, which is nothing like the original cartoons of the '40s and '50s.

4.5 out of 10, rounded up to 5 for IMDb.

If I were to give examples of those two extremes, 40s-mid 50s Tom and Jerrys like The Cat Concerto, Tom and Jerry at the Hollywood Bowl and The Little Orphan are classics and the Gene Deitch output like Switchin' Kitten, Sorry Safari and High Steaks are abominations. Much Ado About Mousing is neither of those. It is a decent cartoon, that is a little better than Pent-House Mouse, but there is still the feeling of Chuck Jones understandably still trying to find his feet. There are good things of course. The story, while kind of reading that Jones' answer to The Bodyguard, is simple but well-constructed and entertaining. The gags are also fine, not laugh-a-minute(still funny though) and much less dangerous-looking than usual, but a long way from distasteful. The animation is much better than the Deitch cartoons and the later Jones Tom and Jerry output, yes there is still the scratchy character designs seen previously in Pent-House Mouse especially with Tom but the colouring is much more vibrant and it is less rushed looking as well. Tom, Jerry and the Bulldog are likable characters and have good chemistry between them. There are problems also though. The most disappointing one was the music, apart from an effective use of Beethoven's 5th symphony it doesn't give much life or energy to the action, much of it is rather pedestrian-sounding and on the most part it just isn't memorable. Another major problem is that like Pent-House Mouse everything seems too restrained, the sound effects while thankfully not bizarre just lack any kind of energy, but the iconic cartoony violence is now not cartoony enough, while funny the gags lack danger and the in-between action and set-ups feel routine and padded out. In conclusion, rather mixed on Much Ado About Mousing. 6/10 Bethany Cox