Our bookend narrator introduces us to the quaint little village of Smertnoff in the Slobovian mountains. Here we zoom in on a mouse hole in the home of the Boris Borscht, the Bagel Baron. This mouse, like the villagers we saw before him, is dancing the Mazurka, kicking it's tiny rodent feet in the air all the way to the food-table and back. One day this happy carefree fellow is startled to find Sylvester the Pussycat barring his way (at last a familiar face!) or, since this cartoon takes place 'many years ago' as stated up front, it might be a Russian ancestor of his. After all, if this were the real Sylvester, wouldn't the McCarthy hearings have called him to testify? Anyway, whoever he may be, this cat is also hindered by having to move in step to the music.
Pussy has some cunning tricks up his sleeve, like baiting his prey with the rich odor of food, only to change the lock on his mouse hole when he's not looking. Plan B involves the old painting-the-hand to-look-like-a-dancing-girl trick. Of course, the mouse can't resist the dance, but still manages to turn the table on his feline trickster. The rest of the cartoon is taken up by an elaborate gag involving a dangerous jug of nitroglycerin (do not jar!), meaning the mouse forgets about the cheese, the cat neglects to catch the mouse and the audience doesn't notice there are only three routines in the whole picture. This is because all the jokes are winners, even the once including death and suicide (the explosions should be watched frame by frame, there a riot!)
8 out of 10
Pussy has some cunning tricks up his sleeve, like baiting his prey with the rich odor of food, only to change the lock on his mouse hole when he's not looking. Plan B involves the old painting-the-hand to-look-like-a-dancing-girl trick. Of course, the mouse can't resist the dance, but still manages to turn the table on his feline trickster. The rest of the cartoon is taken up by an elaborate gag involving a dangerous jug of nitroglycerin (do not jar!), meaning the mouse forgets about the cheese, the cat neglects to catch the mouse and the audience doesn't notice there are only three routines in the whole picture. This is because all the jokes are winners, even the once including death and suicide (the explosions should be watched frame by frame, there a riot!)
8 out of 10
