User Reviews

Little Roquefort is in love and taking a bath in the soap dish before meeting Genevieve. Percy the Cat is flabbergasted, and then aghast at the thought of all their children in his house and goes after the loving couple in this entry in the series.

Most of the major cartoon studios had cat-and-mouse series. At MGM, Hanna and Barbera's Tom & Jerry seemed to win the Oscar every year; Famous Studio's Herman & Katnip were pretty good, even if they quickly settled into a pleasant rut. Little Roquefort was Terry's attempt to tap this market and his competent staff knew how to turn out the violent gags. As for me, I still prefer Heckle & Jeckle.

The Little Roquefort series was first introduced in this year 1950. None of the cartoons were my definition of great, but many were pleasant inoffensive watches as long as you know what to expect. Little Roquefort is not the most compelling of lead characters and in the series (like a fair share of cat and mouse cartoon series) it is often a case of the supporting characters being a lot more interesting in personality. Which was true of recurring character Percy the Cat.

1950's 'Three is a Crowd', the studio's first Little Roquefort and Percy cartoon for that year, is inoffensive and watchable, but not that great and is somewhat bland. It is not one of the worst Little Roquefort and Percy cartoons, but it is not one of the best ones either. Didn't mind at all that it was different compared to the previous two cartoons in the series, but with so much focus on the love story it is pretty toned down. As far as the 1950 Terrytoons cartoons go, 'Three is a Crowd' is neither one of the best or worst.

By all means, there are a fair amount of things done right in 'Three is a Crowd'. One great aspect is the animation, the studio's most improved component. The ambitious, elaborate detail in the backgrounds is on display, the colours are a mix of vibrant and atmospheric and fluidity of drawing and movement has improved such a lot for the studio. Even better is the music, it is beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and arranged, is terrific fun to listen to and the lively energy is present throughout, doing so well with adding to the action.

A few of the gags are cute and amusing, namely with Percy and his reactions. Percy is a fun and suitably ruthless adversary and did like the cat and mouse chemistry between him and Little Roquefort, which amused.

However, Little Roquefort himself however, while pleasant enough and not annoying, is quite limited as a character and is not as vibrant a personality, rather one dimensional and bland. Not much different at all from other theatrical series with mice as the titular character. Genevieve is also very cute, but also not the most compelling personality and everything with them takes up too much of the cartoon and is a little too cutesy.

Did feel also that the gag count could have been a lot higher, there are too few of them and none are really that fresh or inspired while being amusing. The story is very predictable, due to following very closely a very familiar formula, and quite flimsy, barely existent most of the time, as well as lacking in energy and too cutesy.

Overall, a watchable cartoon but an average and bland one. 5/10.

Here is another Little Roquefort cartoon that I like. Now this cartoon reminded me of the 1946 Tom & Jerry cartoon "Springtime for Thomas." Only in this cartoon, Percy the cat is persuaded by his "shoulder devil" to stop Roquefort's romance with his girlfriend Genevieve. The devil also tells him that if the two mice get married, the house would be overrun with their many children who would one day overpower him. But fortunately the "mousey" couple would escape from the cat's clutches.

I thought it was a good cartoon and that is all I have to say, except that it is another favorite starring Little Roquefort.