Lighthouse Mouse
| Lighthouse Mouse | |
|---|---|
| Merrie Melodies (Sylvester) series | |
| Directed by | Robert McKimson |
| Produced by | Eddie Selzer |
| Story by | Sid Marcus |
| Voices by | Mel Blanc |
| Music by | Milt Franklyn |
| Animation by |
Phil DeLara Charles McKimson Herman Cohen Rod Scribner |
| Layouts by | Robert Givens |
| Backgrounds by | Richard H. Thomas |
| Studio | Warner Bros. Cartoons |
| Distributed by |
Warner Bros. Pictures The Vitaphone Corporation |
| Release date(s) | March 12, 1955 (USA) |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 7 minutes |
| Language | English |
Lighthouse Mouse is a Warner Brothers Merrie Melodies animated cartoon featuring Sylvester the Cat, Hippety Hopper, a lightkeeper who speaks with a pronounced Scottish brogue, a loquacious parrot named Polly, and a very restless and mischievous mouse. First presented in 1955, it was written by Sid Marcus and directed by Robert McKimson, with voice characterizations provided by Mel Blanc.
It is 11 o'clock at night at a lighthouse on a small island, and the clock's pendulum is intermittently deflecting the light from the beacon into a mousehole downstairs, keeping the resident mouse wide awake. The baggy-eyed rodent crawls out of bed, climbs the steps to the beacon, and yanks the plug out of the outlet to turn it off. Polly the parrot immediately flies into the lightkeeper's bedroom squawking "Lights out! Lights out!" The lightkeeper wakes up shouting, "Grrrreat Scott! It's that crrrrazy moose (mouse) again!" Consequently, a cargo carrier named Australia crashes into the rocks on the shore of the island, causing several wooden crates to spill overboard. The frustrated captain admonishes the lightkeeper to keep the beacon lit, and the lightkeeper and Polly apologize for the mishap. Hippety Hopper, a baby kangaroo intended for delivery to a city zoo, is inside one of the fallen crates, and after the ship departs, he hops off within the crate until it breaks apart against the rocks, setting him free.
While all this is going on, Sylvester is downstairs sleeping. The lightkeeper abruptly wakes him up, rebuking, "While you sleep, that crrrrazy moose is loose in the hoose!" (which Polly repeats), then orders him to go upstairs to catch him and to "Hurrrry up, now, hurrrry up, now" (which Polly also echoes). Sylvester tells Polly he can catch the mouse in a matter of seconds, and Polly starts counting the seconds.
Hippety then hops into the lighthouse and follows Sylvester up the stairs. Sylvester sets a mousetrap and attaches a string. When he hears a snap, he pulls on the string and sees he has caught Hippety, whom he thinks is a giant mouse, which makes his jaw drop to the floor. Sylvester then shoots like a bullet down the stairs as Polly keeps counting ("542...543..."), and dashes to the bathroom, thinking he must have "lighthouse eyes" or "stigmatism". He puts in eyedrops, then, grabbing a bottle of vitamins, gulps them down and showers himself with them.
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