Terrytoons Studios' output is very hit and miss but when seeing it as a completest it is also quite fascinating. Most of it ranges between mediocre and pretty decent, though there are cartoons of theirs that are more and also less. The Mighty Mouse cartoons up to this point of his series were generally watchable if very formulaic (though that is not the case for all), though there was yet to be one that was above very good level and Mighty Mouse himself is a pleasant enough if limited character.
1946 started off very well with 'The Talking Magpies', one of the best Terrytoons cartoons from that respective year and one of the studio's best overall too. It was sad though that the 1946 batch went from one of its best cartoons to one of its worst in its worst cartoon since 1945's 'Who's Who in the Jungle' (one of the few misfires in the Gandy/Sourpuss series). Not quite a Terrytoons low point and it is not quite one of the worst Mighty Mouse cartoons, close though, but this was not representative of things improving. If anything, it felt that things were going backwards.
'Svengali Cat's' best asset is the music, outstanding yet again and the component consistently good even in lesser outings such as this one. It is its usual lush and characterful self, not just adding to the action but enhancing it as well and also love how wild it is. The animation is equally great in quality, especially the backgrounds and landscapes, the characters are well drawn and the colours are really beautiful on the eye.
Only the villain cat is interesting of the characters, while derivative there was at least some personality with the character and one that had some menace.
Mighty Mouse however for a lead character doesn't have enough to do and when he does have something to do it is fairly derivative of what he usually does. When he does appear, too late, it becomes very, very standard Mighty Mouse territory with no real variation. Again am not trying to not make a big deal of this, but for such a long running theatrical series to have a constant feel "if you see one Mighty Mouse cartoon and see others after you've seen them all" and very early on, it is a little tiresome.
Not even the femme fatale mouse has enough to her to spice things up, her type of character is so over-familiar with no variation and her situation is so predictable and un-suspenseful. The other characters are very bland. The conflict could have been more and so could have the gags, the too few there are not being very funny. In terms of momentum, it is routine and lacks energy.
In summary, lacklustre. 4/10