Watch Mouse Wreckers For Free
Mouse Wreckers
Mice Hubie and Bertie drive Claude the cat insane through an escalating series of head games.
Watch Trailer
Cast List
Related Movies
Reviews
I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
Good start, but then it gets ruined
Best movie of this year hands down!
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Mouse Wreckers (1948) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Mice Bertie and Hubie come to their new home when they notice Claude the Cat, the best mouse catcher out there, is staying there. Together the two try to make Claude think he's crazy so that he'll move out. This here is a minor cartoon that makes for one great ending but everything before it is rather dull and bland. All of the "tricks" being done to the cat are rather blandly done and for the life of me I could never believe that the cat would be dumb enough to think everything that was happening was only a dream. A dumb cat would have fallen for this but apparently this one was a great one so I don't buy it. The ending is terrific as the cat thinks he's in an upside-down room. The payoff to this sequence is enough of a reason to watch the film.
Chuck Jones's Hubie and Bertie shorts generally worked with darker material and 'Mouse Wreckers' was no exception. A relentlessly cruel cartoon, it involves the attempts of two mice to convince an unwitting cat that he is mentally ill. Hiding up a chimney, Hubie and Bertie subject the cat to various ordeals that rudely awaken him from his slumber. Starting small, these pranks build up to an inspired sequence involving an upside down room which just gets more and more confusing. The cartoon ends with the mice taking over the house as the cat cowers in a tree, driven completely insane. Jones's was a master at drawing out the comedy from these morbid scenarios and he manages to make an hilarious film which has a constant sense of unease without leaving a bad taste. The concept of actually having the mice as the bad guys and the cat as a manipulated innocent was a bold and brilliant move. It's worth noting that Jones remade 'Mouse Wreckers' as a Tom and Jerry cartoon named 'Year of the Mouse'. Although I'm not hugely fond of the majority of Chuck Jones's Tom and Jerry shorts, 'Year of the Mouse' is actually fantastic and, in many ways, improves on 'Mouse Wreckers' by making the scenarios more horrifically violent and the ending more satisfyingly just.
Mice Hubie and Bertie attempt to drive Claude, the cat of the house, and an award winning mouse catcher to boot, insane in order to make him leave the house that they want to move into. They go about this in a series of complex, yet hysterical ways. This is my favorite short with the two mice, with it's sequel, "Cheese Chasers" a very close second. This Oscar nominated animated short can be seen on Disc 2 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2. It also features an optional commentary by Greg Ford that is a fairly good, insightful listen as well.My Grade: A
This is a tour-de-force in animation, as well as story line and character study. Hubie and Bertie make Claude cats' life miserable throughout this toon, eventually driving him crazy with the ceiling-floor switch. If you like to see the little guys prevail, this is a treat you wont soon forget. Never a dull moment in the entire film, and filled with belly-laughs from beginning to end. A million stars!