{"id":3481,"date":"2022-03-06T21:34:49","date_gmt":"2022-03-07T04:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wackyland2.com\/?p=3481"},"modified":"2026-03-14T21:47:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T03:47:01","slug":"a-mouse-divided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wackyland2.com\/?p=3481","title":{"rendered":"A Mouse Divided"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s face it; I can&#8217;t fly any feather.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Merrie Melodies - A Mouse Divided (1951)\" width=\"525\" height=\"394\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QkFae87jmLA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Directed by I. Freleng; Story by Warren Foster; Animation by Art Davis, Manuel Perez, Ken Champin, and Virgil Ross; Layouts by Hawley Pratt; Backgrounds by Irv Wyner; Voice Characterization by Mel Blanc; Musical Direction by Carl W. Stalling. A Merrie Melody released on January 31, 1953.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve seen a cat delivered to mice parents <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wackyland2.com\/blog-1\/2021\/09\/12\/mouse-placed-kitten\/\">before<\/a>, what if the situations were reversed? All thanks to Stupor Stork, making his first appearance, and not only being inebriated BEFORE any deliveries, but also sounding a bit more helium-ish. As fate is funny, he gives up at the house of Sylvester and his Mrs. She&#8217;s just been complaining to him about their lack of offspring. Something that she must have brought up before, seeing as how Sylvester mockingly imitates her as she weeps.<\/p>\n<p>Stupor leaves them with the bundle, and even if Sylvester wasn&#8217;t too keen on the idea of having children, he&#8217;s still as excited as his wife to hear the news. (I like that.) To their shock, their son is a mouse. (To my shock, there was lot more bundle than what is needed for a mouse pup. But then, how else could anyone be fooled into thinking a kitten is in there?) Mrs. S. is a bit taken aback, but one &#8220;Mama&#8221; is enough to get her maternal instincts going. Her husband is more on the &#8220;He&#8217;s so cute, I could eat him up&#8221; train of thought. She won&#8217;t have it.<\/p>\n<p>Foolishly enough, she even trusts her man with watching the kid while she goes out. As soon as the door shuts, Sylvester gives the baby a pepper powdering, a lettuce diaper, and two slices of bread to rest between. (I guess the safety pin is akin to a toothpick.) Before one bite happens, the infant identifies the predator as &#8220;daddy&#8221; and that&#8217;s all it takes. Sylvester is more taken with the child then I&#8217;ve ever seen him with his biological <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wackyland2.com\/blog-1\/2016\/07\/19\/2016-7-18-sylvester-jr\/\">kid<\/a>. It&#8217;s still sweet.<\/p>\n<p>Well, it looks like father and son are going to get along swimmingly. The two decide to take a stroll around the block, and are almost immediately chased home by throngs of other cats. Seeing as how they are a species that is concerned about nobody&#8217;s happiness but their own, they have no problem trying to kill a child in front of its parent. They try anyway they can to get in. Disguised as a salesman, claiming to be a babysitter, even trying to break down the door. (You&#8217;d think these drama queens have never eaten before.)<\/p>\n<p>Unlike most of his movie career, Sylvester succeeds in driving them all off. (I mean, if he didn&#8217;t, then Friz would have infant blood on his resume. I&#8217;m not even sure Parker and Stone can make such a claim. And I&#8217;m not looking it up.) But even though I&#8217;d say the family is happy together and can overcome these obstacles, the higher ups really got on Stupor&#8217;s case and he&#8217;s back to retrieve the kid. Rather than, pfft, I don&#8217;t know, knocking at the door to explain the mistake, he opts to use a baited fishing line.<\/p>\n<p>Considering the kind of day he&#8217;s been having, it&#8217;s not strange that Sylvester thinks its just another cat trick. He pulls the line himself, and Stupor proves his strength by reeling him in. (As a stork, I&#8217;m sure he&#8217;s delivered his fair share of whale calves.) Still not clear in the head, he mistakes Sylvester for the mouse, and delivers him to the mouse parents. That&#8217;s going to be embarrassing to explain.<\/p>\n<p>Favorite Part: When his wife says that the kid is theirs, Sylvester takes that as an excuse to share the meal. Even going so far as to hold a cleaver above the child.<\/p>\n<p>Personal Rating: 4. It&#8217;s adorable. True the ending is a bit mean, but I choose to think that afterwards, the two cats got to keep the kid, and he learned to fight off all his would be predators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s face it; I can&#8217;t fly any feather.&#8221; Directed by I. Freleng; Story by Warren Foster; Animation by Art Davis, Manuel Perez, Ken Champin, and Virgil Ross; Layouts by Hawley Pratt; Backgrounds by Irv Wyner; Voice Characterization by Mel Blanc; Musical Direction by Carl W. Stalling. A Merrie Melody released on January 31, 1953. We&#8217;ve &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wackyland2.com\/?p=3481\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;A Mouse Divided&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,92,14,12,95,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartoonsfromthefifties","category-firstappearances","category-frizfreleng","category-merriemelodies","category-stuporstork","category-sylvester"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is 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