The Mouse on 57th Street

Director: Chuck Jones
Release date: February 25, 1961
Rating: ★★½
Review:

This short starts with a mouse eating his way through the largest uncut rum cake and getting drunk.

For a while we watch some fine silent comedy, but when the mouse mistakes a diamond for ice, the cartoon turns into an ordinary chase cartoon starring two talkative cops, with one being a late addition to a plethora of characters inspired by Lon Chaney jr.’s Lennie in the 1939 film ‘Of Mice and Men’.

These sequences are more tiresome than funny, but give the viewer ample time to watch the gorgeous background art, with its beautiful cityscapes. The animation, too, is top notch, but these elements cannot rescue the rather uninspired story.

Watch an excerpt from ‘The Mouse on 57th Street’ yourself and tell me what you think:

‘The Mouse on 57th Street’ is available on the Blu-Ray ‘Looney Tunes Collector’s Choice Vol. 3’