Mighty Mouse actually had a bigger number of cartoons in most previous and succeeding years than the number he had in 1947, though his theatrical series still dominated Terrytoons' output that year. Alternating with the, for me superior, Heckle and Jeckle series, their cartoons from 1947 also being quality-wise more consistent. While still being a bit up and down, compared to previous and succeeding years this was actually one of Mighty Mouse's least inconsistent years.
'A Date for Dinner' though to me is one of the misses when it comes to the 1947 Mighty Mouse cartoons and is among the lesser cartoons from that year for the studio, also in one of its less uneven years (still with ups and downs but the divide between best and worst isn't as wide). It had its good things, none of the Mighty Mouse cartoons are irredeemable, but the bad things outweigh them and are pretty much the same as most of his other cartoons.
The good things are going to be started off with. The most consistent asset of all Terrytoons' output was always the music, and it is once again the best asset here. Being one of only two things to be outstanding. It is its usual lush and characterful self, not just adding to the action but enhancing it as well and also love how wild it is. The animation is equally great in quality, especially the backgrounds and landscapes, the characters are well drawn and the colours are really beautiful on the eye.
Despite 'A Date for Dinner' being very thin on material, there were sporadic moments of mild amusement. The six mousetrap gag and the pulling off the skin one agreed come off best. The best character by far is the cat, being the only one to have any kind of personality that is remotely interesting, with nice comic timing and menace.
Sadly, the mice characters are very bland and Mighty Mouse himself feels too shoehorned in, his presence being pretty pointless other than plot device material that could have been filled by any character, and despite being the titular character is merely a very underused supporting character reduced to very more of the same action tacked on at the end. Also bland is the conflict, it's basically typical mice vs cat conflict with far too little tension and nothing is surprising here. Apart from a few moments, there is very little funny here and nothing is inspired (pretty stale actually).
One of 'A Date for Dinner's' biggest problems is the story, or should we say lack of it. The story is paper thin to the point of non-existence and takes forever to get going. The action has glimpses of amusement but has very little spark or tension, as well as being very predictable with everything practically being seen from miles away. Despite the cartoon being short, it really does struggles with having enough content to sustain the length which meant that the first half drags badly and feels padded. Little more than bland and repetitive cat and mouse conflict. The last one or two minutes feel very rushed and almost pointless, with a tone that is so different from the rest of the cartoon that it was like it was lifted from something else (a common problem for the series).
Concluding, pretty mediocre. 4/10