The Haunted Mouse (1941) Poster

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7/10
Now that Today's Breaking News on CNN . . .
oscaralbert11 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
. . . fulfills the prophecies of the Warner Bros. Animated Shorts Seers division (aka, the Looney Tuners) intended to warn We Americans of (The Then) Far Future through their Clairvoyant Extreme Early Warning System concerning our USA Homeland's Upcoming Calamities, Catastrophes, Cataclysms, and Apocalypti with brief cartoons such as the one in question Today--THE HAUNTED MOUSE--it should be perfectly safe for armchair prognosticators to split the finer hairs of this Warner Bros. offering. CNN's talking heads today said that Junior Rump and the rest of the Rump\Kushner Crime Syndicate committed High Treason against the USA when they branched out from serving as the primary money launderers for History's Greatest Thief (Red Commie KGB Chief Vlad "The Mad Russian" Putin, who stole a documented $1 trillion or about half of that Failed Nation State's Total Net Worth from his countrymen) to plotting a Traitorous takeover of America in New York City's Rump Tower to loot the U.S. Treasury with the intent to further feed Mad Vlad's insatiable Greed. The only question left now, CNN says, is the specifics of erasing this hornet's nest clique of Traitors. THE HAUNTED MOUSE begins at Rump Tower, nicknamed the "Hotel Waldorf Ghostoria" here. About 5:45 into this story the ghost of a Rumpcare victim--played here by a typical True Blue Progressive Loyal Patriotic Normal Average Union Label mouse--marches around while performing a drum roll, acting out the usual Traitors' Welcoming Party: A firing squad. However, a little bit later--at approximately 6:30--the mouse gives the Feline standing in for Rump a nasty hot foot, suggesting a fate of burning at the stake, similar to Joan of Arc. Then, to further muddy the issue of squelching treason, the Fat Cat Oligarch takes a suicidal plunge out the penthouse window of Rump Tower (that is, the Ghostoria). Though all of this might prove a bit confusing to rookies new to Warnology, veteran Looney Tune decoders may well point out that multiple traitors are likely to meet with a variety of fates. Reading between the lines of CNN's breaking news, THE HAUNTED MOUSE suggests that Junior will be the first to go, via the Mata Hari route. Iwanna Rump will likely follow in Joan's blaze of gory. At this point Don Juan himself will surely take a dive rather than facing the music like Nathan Hale.
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9/10
Seeing this in the original black and white is best.
llltdesq25 November 2002
While I have not seen a colorized version of this, I understand one does exist. But I hope never to see a colorized version of this, as I would never want to see The Skeleton Dance colorized and for the same reason: the cartoons make excellent use of shadows, light and dark contrasts and visuals which would be severely weakened or destroyed outright by the use of color. The spooky atmosphere of this cartoon makes black and white a perfect fit and Tex Avery and his team use this remarkably well. This excellent, if under-rated and somewhat unjustly overlooked, short deserves more attention than it seems to have gotten. While cartoons like The Skeleton Dance have clearly set the bar high for cartoons that venture into the spooky corners, cartoons like The Haunted Mouse deserve notice. This is a Tex Avery cartoon and as such is very funny, as well as technically interesting, if hardly novel by 1941. Well worth watching, in black and white. Recommended.
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10/10
Atmospheric and beautifully done
TheLittleSongbird7 March 2010
For a cartoon this is wonderfully creepy. The animation is done with real precision and care, I do agree with the other reviewer that this is better seen in black and white, it would be much more atmospheric especially with the shadows. The story is good, the music is brilliant yet again and the gags are solid. I also agree it deserves much more attention, this is an example of a cartoon I would see willingly again for a number of reasons. It is atmospheric. It is fun. It is well animated. And the score as I've said is brilliant.

I definitely recommend the Haunted Mouse. It is really something. 10/10 Bethany Cox
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8/10
Dark...but funny.
planktonrules5 February 2022
For some reason, perhaps cost savings, Looney Tunes made many cartoons in color in the late 1930s and into the 40s and many which were black & white. Most of the black & white ones, especially the later ones, were Porky Pig outings but for some reason they decided to make "The Haunted Mouse" without color even though the pig is no where to be seen. Perhaps it's because it is about ghosts and they thought this would enhance the look of the short.

A hungry cat wanders into a ghost town...where he is annoyed by a ghost mouse. In many ways, the cartoon is like a Tweety or Bugs Bunny cartoon, as the hero (in this case a dead mouse) annoys the aggressor for our amusement. However, I found the cat a bit more sympathetic...especially since you really cannot defeat a ghost unless you arrange for an exorcism...or if you do what they did at the end of this cartoon! Overall, very dark...but funny and worth seeing.
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