Neon Mouse

Through the 1930s, directors of Merrie Melodies were forced to spotlight a Warner Bros.-owned song in a cartoon. I can’t help but wonder if Tex Avery was distracted by trying to figure out a way to incorporate a song into The Mice Will Play (1938). The short is earth-bound by some pretty weak material (though the ending is good).

Here’s an example. A mouse living in an experimental lab drinks some neon liquid.



Yeah. That’s the gag. Not even the mouse spelling out “Eat at Joe’s” while flashing like a neon sign. This might have been considered high comedy for the weak-sister Hardaway-Dalton unit, but Tex liked adding something extra, something odd that came out of nowhere. This gag is obvious. What else could happen in a cartoon after drinking that stuff?

As for the music, Avery and the writing crew settled on turning things in the lab into big band/boogie woogie musical instruments, with Johnny, Susie and the preacher all playing solos instead of speaking the usual wedding dialogue.

Jack Miller is the credited story man, with Sid Sutherland handed the rotating animation credit.