The Lyin' Mouse

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Airdate:
16 October 1937 Blue Ribbon reissue: 22 December 1945

Series:

Merrie Melodies

MPAA Number:	Production Number:
3667	MM-2-7

Copyright Renewed:

27 September 1965^[1]

Crew

Voice Characterizations:

Mel Blanc (uncredited)
Billy Bletcher (uncredited)
Berneice Hansell (uncredited)

Assistant Animators:

Rod Scribner (uncredited)

Film Editor:

Treg Brown

Musician:

Carl W. Stalling

Video

The Lyin' Mouse is a 1937 Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng.

Title[]

The title is a play on "lion."

Plot[]

A mouse is trying to free himself from a trap when a cat arrives. The mouse, desperate to avoid being eaten, asks if the cat has heard the story of "The Lion and the Mouse". He tells a story about a ferocious lion in the jungle who scares all the animals; the mouse has a horn that imitates the lion's roar, and has some fun with it until the lion catches him. The mouse pleads for his life, and the lion, distracted by a bigger catch, agrees. The bigger catch is a trap set by the Frank Cluck expedition; the lion avoids the first trap, but falls for the second, and find himself in a circus lion-taming act, where he put his head inside the tamer's mouth. The mouse happens by, and chews a lion-shaped hole in the lion's wooden cart/cage, setting him free. The cat, moved by this story, releases the mouse. Just before entering his hole, the mouse yells one last word at the cat: "Sucker!" The cat then shrugs and says, "Well, can you imagine that."

Availability[]

Streaming[]

Goofs[]

A quotation is missing in the Blue Ribbon reissue title of this cartoon.

Notes[]

This is the first cartoon to give story credit, here to Tedd Pierce. The Blue Ribbon reissue removes the original titles, and thus the credit.
While the American Turner "dubbed" version print retains the original ending music, the European Turner print changes it to that of the 1941-55 rendition of Merrily We Roll Along. As the restoration on HBO Max uses the European Turner print's soundtrack, the error persists in that version.
The ostrich from "Plenty of Money and You" makes a cameo appearance, when the animals run away from the mouse's lion noise.
- Coincidentally, both shorts featuring this character were directed by Friz Freleng, and both got reissued.
This is the first Merrie Melodies known to not have any actual songs sung anywhere in the short, breaking the Merrie Melodies tradition of using the short to promote a song. (while "Uncle Tom's Bungalow" experimented with the idea, it still used "Swanee River" in it's intro prior to the main story; whereas this short has no songs sung anywhere in the short)
As shown on a model sheet, the working title of the short was "The Lion and the Mouse."
Vitaphone release number: 8092^[2]

Gallery[]

References[]

↑ Catalog of Copyright Entries
↑ Liebman, Roy (2003). Vitaphone Films: A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts (in en). McFarland, page 252. ISBN 978-0786412792.

[1] Catalog of Copyright Entries

[2] Liebman, Roy (2003). Vitaphone Films: A Catalogue of the Features and Shorts (in en). McFarland, page 252. ISBN 978-0786412792.

[1]

[2]