I watched this short for the first time in years late last month online. Even though I hadn't seen it in years, once I finally saw it again, the familiarity and memories came flooding back. This is among the shorts I remember that aired and watched as part of Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon having grown up on it. I think this is another one of my more favored WB cartoon/Merrie Melodies shorts of the '60s, those directed by Chuck Jones, one-shots, and favorites in general. It was great seeing this again. I just learned that the title of this short is a play on the title of something else, like several other Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies shorts. Interesting.
This is a good, early '60s, Jones-directed short. It involves a muddled mouse who has a few mishaps, such as mistaking rum cake for cheese, causing him to end up drunk. Another instance is due to him being near a noisy construction site, he winds up getting a headache later and wears a diamond on his head, confusing it for a block of ice. That diamond had gone missing from a department store and two cops are on the case, and in pursuit to return it there. But not without them having any mishaps of their own. As a result, the mouse inadvertently ends up being in the midst of a caper.
Speaking on the technical aspects, the animation quality at this point is still good, as it usually was with other WB featurettes prior to those from the mid '60s DePatie-Freleng era and the late '60s W-7 Arts era. The scene with the mouse's head throbbing is a good example of a good animation moment. The appearance of his cranium in that scene may have inspired the design of the genius mouse, Brain, from Animaniacs and Pinky & The Brain. The art is fine, the colors, backgrounds, and layouts aren't too bad either. Concerning the comedy, the parts with the two cops are the highlights of this, as they play off each other well. The dim-witted out of the two, Muldoon, may have inspired Ralph the security guard, also from Animaniacs, as they remind me of each other. The music by Milt Franklin is as good as Carl Stalling's, but better than most of William Lava's compositions in the DFE and W7-Arts cartoons. The commonly used Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse", touches upon this well. I've always known of that familiar tune well, but I didn't know who composed that nor what the title of it was at the time. Something noteworthy of mentioning that I noticed is that though the name of the department store, Lacy's, is an evident play on the real department store, Macy's, an LT short, A Waggily Tale, features a department store with the name, Stacy's. It makes me wonder why a different rhyming name in each of those was used instead of sticking to just either one of them. The voice work, especially by Mel Blanc, is well done as normal. I consider it one of Jones's better material. Recommended.
