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We, the Animals - Squeak! is a 1941 Looney Tunes short directed by Bob Clampett.
Plot
On the radio program We, the Animals Squeak!, a hare is finishing his story about how he got revenge on a hunter that had been stalking him. Porky Pig, the program's host, introduces the Irish-accented Kansas City Kitty, a champion mouse catcher.
Kansas City Kitty tells her life story, including her marriage of Tom Collins and the birth of her son, Little Patrick. The main thrust of her story is how her reputation as a mouse catcher was nearly ruined by the mice, who, tired of being harassed by Kansas City Kitty and being kept away from the food, plot their revenge. In the catacombs of the house's walls, the lead mouse (Ratt McNalley) plots a scheme to kidnap Little Patrick while his mother is asleep. The mice carry out the plan and successfully flee the angry Kitty. The mother cat desperately claws at the wall, but Ratt stands up to her and threatens to brutally kill Little Patrick if their demands are not met.
Those demands – allowing free rein of the house – are played out in the next scene. A series of spot gags follow, where the mice carry food from the refrigerator, get drunk on milk and generally harass Kitty. Meanwhile, one of Ratt's henchmen teases Little Patrick, but Patrick proves to be very resourceful and quickly turns the tables on his captor. Patrick escapes and reunites with his mother; Ratt, who is taunting Kitty, quickly knows what this means and tries to flee, but Kitty quickly catches all the mice "shows those little devils they couldn't harm kit nor king of Kansas City Kitty!"
The story brings loud cheers from the audience, and an impressed Porky gives her a present: a wimpy little mouse that scares her. "Well, faith'n me jabbers," intones the mouse.
Availability
Censorship
When Nickelodeon aired the computer-colorized version of this short, the scene near the end in which the mice briefly turn into African jungle natives in tune with the music was cut.[1] Cartoon Network also aired a computer-colorized version of this short (as seen in the video panel) and didn't edit the scene of the black mice turning into jungle natives (with the white mouse in front of the line turned into a game hunter).
Notes
- The computer-colorized version, and certain prints of the black-and-white version, have the wrong opening music playing over the opening logos, i.e. the 1936-37 "Porky Signature" theme as heard on "Porky's Badtime Story" and "Porky's Railroad", instead of the correct 1941-45 "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" theme music.
- This cartoon entered the Public Domain in 1969.
Gallery
.png "We, The Animals - Squeak! (Redrawn Colorized).png (903 KB)")
References
