'From Mad to Worse' (1957) Online

From Mad to Worse reminded me of Mice-Capades, another Herman and Katnip cartoon that deals with Katnip being tricked into being nice to the mice in the form of madness. Except in Mice-Capades it was dealt with more extremely and cruelly, something that I don't always like in the Herman and Katnip cartoons. Even with that, Mice-Capades for me is the superior cartoon because it had the better-looking and more imaginative visuals and it did actually try to do something different.

That is not to say that From Mad to Worse is bad, it isn't at all. What makes it more than watchable is the outstanding music from Winston Sharples, which boasts very clever and beautiful orchestration, very lively energetic rhythms and so much character that matches every visual wonderfully and even enhances it. And while it offers little new the gags are still funny and capably timed, and certainly a little more subtle than the gags in Mice-Capades while still being a touch on the cruel side. Katnip is a great antagonist, and one does feel sorry for him, and cunning Herman is a good contrast and interacts and gels with him well. The voice acting is very well done as usual.

However, the lower budget does sometimes show. It's not bad animation, there are some very nice colours, some good detail in the backgrounds and Katnip's facial expressions are done and animated extremely well. It's just that it's been better before, it's not always as smooth as it could've been and other backgrounds are a little blocky and lacking in imagination. The story is standard Herman and Katnip, the beginning and ending are how most Herman and Katnip cartoons begin and end, with not enough done with the department store setting and it has a slight over-familiarity to it. The dialogue is not particularly memorable and a little repetitive, even in the doctor scene, while Herman's Chinese stereotype while brief is out of place and not for the easily offended and the cousin mice have little to do and are getting a bit tiresome and not as poignant now.

In conclusion, decent but not great. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Katnip is doing his rounds as a night watchman at "Stacy's" department store, when he catches Herman and his gang playing with the toys. Herman hatches a plot to get rid of Katnip by convincing the cat that he is crazy in this good episode in the cartoon series from Famous Studios.

Department stores were a natural setting for comedies. Their large assortment of props and different show rooms offered a lot of choices in gags. Even though this cartoon does not offer any new jokes, it offers them capably performed and the extreme physical and facial reactions permitted by cartoons help enliven them here.