Naughty But Mice
About Naughty But Mice
Herman, a city mouse, visits his country cousins and finds them starving. A barn cat has been killing them off. Herman vows to handle it, baits the cat with a catnip flower, and drops him down a well. Nine ghost cats then climb out of the well and chase Herman. The catnip does nothing to them.
Cast & crew
More about Naughty But Mice
Seymour Kneitel directed this Noveltoon, with Dave Tendlar as animation director. Bill Turner and Larry Riley wrote the story. Paramount released it on October 10, 1947.
Themes
Making
Winston Sharples wrote the score. Herman's city-slicker look, in the plot summaries, is drawn as a cross between James Cagney and Lee Tracy.
Music
Winston Sharples scored the barn visit, including Herman's "Ding, dong, dell" on the way to the well.
Preservation
Public domain in the United States since 1974, after NTA failed to renew the copyright.
Notes
- The title plays on "naughty but nice.
- The barn cat is the first appearance of the character later called Katnip.
- A 1939 Warner Bros. Sniffles cartoon uses the same title and a different plot.
- Arnold Stang voices Herman. Jack Mercer and Carl Meyer voice the other mice, and Sid Raymond the cat.
- It entered the public domain in the United States in 1974 after National Telefilm Associates missed the renewal.
Scenes
- Herman finds his cousins battered and a newspaper calling the cat a champion mouse catcher.
- He walks the sacked cat to the well singing "Ding, dong, dell.
- Nine ghost cats rise from the well and chase him out.
Also available
- Internet Archive (noveltoon_naughty_but_nice)
- VHS Children's Favorites: Herman (Trans-Atlantic Video, 1986)
- DVD and Blu-ray Noveltoons Original Classics (Thunderbean Animation, 2012 and 2019)
- DVD 300 Cartoon Classics (Image Entertainment, 2011)
Quotes
Just leave it to your cousin Hoiman.
All's well that ends in the well.
It's that new cat in the barn, Herman. He's a killer.
