The Country Mouse

The Country Mouse
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Airdate:	13 July 1935 Blue Ribbon reissue: 14 March 1953
Series:	Merrie Melodies
MPAA Number:	874
Production Number:	1311 (reissue)
Vitaphone Number:	6857
Copyright Renewed:	1 March 1963
Crew
Voice Characterizations:	Tedd Pierce (uncredited)
Director:	Isadore Freleng
Producer:	Leon Schlesinger
Animated By:	Jack Carr Don Williams
Film Editor:	Bernard B. Brown (uncredited) Treg Brown (uncredited)
Musician:	Bernard Brown Norman Spencer (uncredited)

The Country Mouse is a 1935 Merrie Melodies short directed by Isadore Freleng. 

Plot

A tough mouse named Elmer is punching a boxing bag, showcasing his skills to a crowd including Beans and Porky. Elmer wants to become the heavyweight champion of the world. He shows his skill to his grandma by punching a scarecrow, but the scarecrow's arm holding a stick bops Elmer in the head. His grandma tells him to do his chore of chopping down wood. Elmer slides through each side of the tree using an axe, but his grandma is not amused and shows off her own strength, which is remarkably greater than his. Elmer states that he wants to be a fighter, but his grandma just drags him into the house by his ear in frustration.

That night, he sneaks off to go to the city to take part in a boxing match. His opponent, the champion, is a bulldog, and Elmer proves to be extremely weak against him, despite landing a few hits at the bulldog's face before the bulldog turns the tables and pulverizes Elmer while the crowd laughs riotously at his misfortune. Back at Elmer's house, his grandma happens to hear the boxing match on the radio, and she goes after him so she can stop him fighting. She cycles to the boxing match, and punches the bulldog and knocks him out, wins the match, and receives a crown. Despite her victory, her work is not done yet; she grabs Elmer's ear and spanks him as punishment for sneaking out of the house, as the audience again laughs riotously at Elmer's situation.

Availability

(1997) LaserDisc
The Golden Age of Looney Tunes, Volume 5, Side 4, Musical Madness (USA 1995 dubbed print)

(2012) DVD
Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles: The Chuck Jones Collection (USA 1995 dubbed print)

(2012) Blu-ray
Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles: The Chuck Jones Collection (USA 1995 Turner print)

Notes

• When the short was reissued, the title was changed to Country Mouse.
• Beans makes a cameo at the beginning of the short. Porky also makes a cameo to comfort a stunned Elmer after the mouse has been knocked out in the wrestling match.
• In the opening shot, a poster on the wall depicts a boxer named "Battling Freleng", a reference to director Friz Freleng.
• Another poster shows a boxer named "Bugs", a nickname for director Ben Hardaway. The prototype for Bugs Bunny would not appear until three years later in "Porky's Hare Hunt", directed by Hardaway and Cal Dalton.
• It is the oldest cartoon released to be reissued into the Blue Ribbon program.
• MeTV aired a previously unreleased restored print of the cartoon on Saturday Morning Cartoons and later on Toon In With Me.