A Mouse Divided

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A Mouse Divided
Production company Warner Bros. Cartoons
Distributor Warner Bros. Pictures
The Vitaphone Corporation
Release date January 31, 1953
Run time 6:30
Starring Mel Blanc
Bea Benaderet[1]
Producer(s) Edward Selzer
John W. Burton[1]
Music composed by Carl Stalling
Story by Warren Foster
Animation Arthur Davis
Manuel Perez
Virgil Ross
Ken Champin
Director(s) I. Freleng
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Title card
A Mouse Divided Title Sequence.png
Second title card
A Mouse Divided TV Title Card.png

A Mouse Divided is the three-hundredth and fifteenth Merrie Melodies theatrical short. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Vitaphone Corporation on January 31, 1953. It was written by Michael Maltese, produced by Edward Selzer and John W. Burton, and directed by Friz Freleng.

A drunk stork mistakenly delivers a baby mouse to Sylvester and his wife. Despite Sylvester's initial hesitance to take care of the mouse, his eventual prospect leads to trouble when it attracts the attention of other cats in the neighborhood.

Detailed summary

Memorable quotes

Mrs. Sylvester: Isn't it strange that we never have a little bundle from heaven?
Sylvester: Thufferin' thuccotash! Don't start that patter of little feet around the house stuff again. I'm busy.
Mrs. Sylvester: Ooh, hoo, hoo! I work and I slave...
Sylvester: "And what thanks do I get? I wish I was dead! Yoo, hoo, hoo!" Every day it's the same thing - pitter-patter of little feet!


Mrs. Sylvester: Aww, he called me Mama. Isn't he cute?
Sylvester: Cute? He's delicious!
Mrs. Sylvester: Sylvester, how could you?! After all he's just a baby. Even if he's a mouse, he's ours.
Sylvester: Yours and mine? You're a gambling woman. What would you take, heads or tails?
Mrs. Sylvester: Ah! You beast! You cannibal! How could you!? Mouse or no mouse, he's our son.
Sylvester: A fine thing... I've become a father of a breakfast.


Baby mouse: Daddy!
Sylvester: Aww... He called me Daddy.


Salesman cat: Good day, Sir. I represent the Little Giant Vacuum Cleaner Company of Walla Walla, Washington. And if you watch closely, you'll notice the powerful action of this machine as it removes completely and forever all foreign particles from around the room. I realize you may not be ready to purchase the Little Giant right now but if you ever do, just remember the Little Giant Vacuum Cleaner Company of Walla Walla, Washington.


Drunk Stork: Boy, did that mouse grow!


Mother mouse: Well, nothing like this ever happened in my side of the family.

Characters

Legend
Character debut Speaking debut Ep. debut No lines Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character Actor
Drunk Stork Mel Blanc
Mrs. Sylvester Bea Benaderet
Sylvester Mel Blanc
Baby mouse Mel Blanc
Tabby cat N/A
Cat salesman Mel Blanc
Babysitter cat Mel Blanc
Santa Claus cat Mel Blanc
Mother mouse Bea Benaderet
Mother father N/A


Organizations

  • Little Giant Vacuum Cleaner Company

Locations

Objects

  • Cutting table
  • Cleaver
  • Diaper
  • Baby powder
  • Pepper
  • Vinaigrette
  • Iceberg lettuce
  • Clothespin
  • Sliced bread
  • Vacuum cleaner
  • Vinyl record player
  • Dynamite tied to balloon
  • Giant log
  • Fishing hook
  • Cheese

Vehicles

  • None

Production

Filming

It was copyrighted in 1951 (MCMLVI).

Music

The music was composed by Carl W. Stalling.

The short also contains the following music cues:

  • "He's a Jolly Good Fellow" - Drunk Stork's leitmotif and arrival
  • "Wiegenlied" ("Lullaby"; "Cradle Song") by Johannes Brahms - Baby mouse's reveal
  • "A Cup of Coffee, a Sandwich and You" by Joseph Meyer - Sylvester wrapping the baby mouse like a sandwich
  • "The Fountain in the Park" ("While Strolling Through the Park") by Ed Haley - Sylvester taking a stroll with his baby in the sidewalk
  • "Jingle Bells" - A cat dressed as Santa Claus coming down the chimney

Crew credits

Release

Dates are in order of release:

  • United States: January 31, 1953

Behind the scenes

  • The title is a play on Abraham Lincoln's "House Divided" speech, in which Lincoln delivered the remark, "A house divided against itself cannot stand," at the Illinois State Capitol on June 16, 1858. The line itself comes from the 25th verse in the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, in the New Testament.
  • The Stork Club in the short is named after the actual nightclub of the same name, which existed in Manhattan, New York from 1929 to 1965.
  • The stork of this short is a reworking of a similar character in Baby Bottleneck, although unlike the one in this short, the stork in the latter is a Jimmy Durante-esque caricature.
  • The voice of the stork is modulated with a higher pitch, making him sound like a drunken Daffy Duck.
  • This short serves as a slight commentary of the post-war baby boom in the mid-20th century, which was a concept previously explored in shorts like Baby Bottleneck and Gorilla My Dreams.
  • The short takes place in the month of July.
  • It is the first Merrie Melodies short released in 1953.
  • The short was submitted for consideration for an Academy Award in 1952, but was never nominated.[2]

Error

Legacy

  • The drunken stork would later make a number of appearances in Friz Freleng's shorts, including Goo Goo Goliath, Stork Naked, Pappy's Puppy, and Apes of Wrath. Unlike his appearance in A Mouse Divided, the stork spoke in more or less his natural speaking tone in these later cartoons.
  • Sylvester's wife appears again in Goldimouse and the Three Cats, but in a character design that resembles closer to her husband.
  • This short was used in the feature film Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island, as part of Sylvester and his wife's wish. In the film, the short's beginning scene was ommitted to cut straight into Sylvester's house, and the ending was changed so that the stork delivers Sylvester back to the island.

Home availability

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Webb, Graham (2011). The Animated Film Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to American Shorts, Features and Sequences (1900-1999), p. 235. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-4985-9.
  2. ↑ Beck, Jerry (May 11, 2017). "Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award – 1952". Cartoon Research. Retrieved July 28, 2024.
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