House Hunting Mice
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''House Hunting Mice'' is a 1947 American
animated Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby image, still images are manipulated to create Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on cel, transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and e ...
comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...
short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...
directed by
Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, painter, voice actor and filmmaker, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He ...
and co-written by
Michael Maltese Michael Maltese (February 6, 1908 – February 22, 1981) was an American screenwriter and storyboard artist for classic animated cartoon shorts. He is best known for working in the 1950s on a series of '' Merrie Melodies'' cartoons with director ...
and Tedd Pierce. The short was released on September 6, 1947 by
Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film studio and distribution arm of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group division of Warner Bros., both of which are owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex ...
as part of the ''
Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...
'' series, and features Hubie and Bertie.


Plot

The short begins outside a model " home of tomorrow" designed by Frank Lloyd Wrong, Hubie reads the advertisement and calls up Bertie's attention. In the hopes of finding a home with plenty of food, the mice head on up to the House to see what's inside. Upon entering, Hubie and Bertie are greeted by a robotic voice to the "Super House - The House of Tomorrow", and are encouraged to test out the modern appliances. Hubie first tests out an "Automatic Phonograph", which involved a robotic hand throwing a record at a rising phonograph player akin to that of a frisbee, and then an "Automatic Sweeper" demonstrator, which demonstrates a robot that can clean any mess on the floor. Bertie begs Hubie if he can press the next button, of which he allows while watching from a safe distance. However, the button Bertie pressed ends up activating a laundry contraption, which sucks Hubie in and have him go through several cleaning processes before getting folded and placed on a stack of clean clothes. As a result, Hubie slaps Bertie for putting him through that. This is quickly forgotten, however, as Hubie notices another button labeled "Cheese Dispenser". Upon pressing it, the dispenser launches a piece of cheese into the floor, which causes the Sweeper robot to activate and discard it into a trash can. Bertie tries to catch the next cheese with a plate, but the plate shatters upon impact. The Sweeper returns to clean up the mess once again, this time throwing Bertie away as a result. Bertie tries to escape, but is thrown away again by the robot. Hubie tricks the Sweeper into jumping out of a window after throwing out a vase, but returns after Bertie answers the front door. He gets discarded once again. Hubie comes to agree that if they want to have the cheese, they must get rid of the Sweeper first. Hubie drops a box of fire crackers and a lit candle into the floor for the Sweeper to discard. Bertie leaves the trash can again before the robot could discard them both. Upon doing so, it results in an explosion that destroys it. However, its hand was able to press a button labeled "Repair Service", which summons a repair bot that fixes it up completely. In a last ditch attempt, the two mice nailed the record player shut in the floor and uses the "Automatic Phonograph" to throw an onslaught of records against the wall. Unable to clean the mess at hand, the robot gets fed up, dons a coat and hat, picks up a briefcase, puts an "I Quit!" sign on its closet door, and leaves the house. Hubie starts to revel in their victory over the Sweeper, but it is short-lived when Bertie spies a button labeled "Spring Cleaning Service" and presses it. This ends up summoning a whole army of Sweeper robots that come straight out of another closet and begin cleaning up the place. Hubie and Bertie try to escape the onslaught, but get caught up in a carpet being rolled up by one of the Sweepers and taken outside. In the cartoon's final scene, as the Sweepers begin the carpet beating process and whack the mice in the process, Hubie says "HEY, BOIT! C'MERE!" and starts repeatedly slapping Bertie for getting them into this recent mess.


Notes

''House Hunting Mice'' is essentially a re-imagining of Jones' 1939 cartoon Dog Gone Modern, which featured The Two Curious Puppies. It also, among many other animated shorts, features the song "Powerhouse" by
Raymond Scott Raymond Scott (born Harry Warnow; September 10, 1908 – February 8, 1994) was an American composer, band leader, pianist and record producer. Known best in his time as a composer of production music, Scott is today regarded as an early ...
when the automated sweeping robots pursue the two mice. This cartoon is also the first Warner Bros. cartoon to have its color process in
Cinecolor Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two-color motion picture process that was based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and the 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel an ...
since
Beauty and the Beast "Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales''). Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...
.


References


External links

* {{Chuck Jones 1947 films Short films directed by Chuck Jones Looney Tunes shorts Warner Bros. Cartoons animated short films Cinecolor films Animated films about mice Films scored by Carl Stalling 1940s Warner Bros. animated short films Films with screenplays by Michael Maltese Hubie and Bertie films 1947 animated short films