This is a cartoon about an incredibly lazy cat who puts far more effort into avoiding work than he'd likely put into doing the work in the first place! I'm going to discuss specifics, so consider this a spoiler warning:
The short opens with a shot of a large, disinterested cat gorging itself on sardines while mice generally do as they please, one even taking a sardine and contemptuously snapping his fingers at the cat, whose name is Dodsworth.
Dodsworth has tried the patience of his owner to the point that she tells him that if he doesn't get rid of the mice, she'll get rid of him and find a cat that will. Dreading the idea of stooping to physical labor, Dodsworth hits on the idea of advertising for a pupil to whom he can teach the fine art of catching mice. The first (and only) interested party is a little kitten. Dodsworth, in his best imitation of a used-car salesman, launches into a spiel about experience, ties a fishing line around him and casts his "sucker-er, pupil" into the kitchen like a bass fisherman casting into a lake. The kitten chases a mouse around furniture and finally catches him using a piece of cheese as bait. When Doddsy sees he only caught one mouse, he scolds him and launches him back into the kitchen.
The kitten hits on the idea of filling a large hunk of cheese with metal bearings and leaving it in the open, where the mice eat it and scurry away. The kitten tugs on the line again and is retrieved by Dodsworth, who starts scolding-until the kitten pulls out a magnet and hauls in the mother-lode of mice, filling the cage. Hearing his mistress calling, he hastily gives the kitten his "diploma" (from "good old Acme) and hustles him out the door. Dodsworth takes credit for the capture of the mice and the kitten overhears him.
The kitten then goes back in the house to revive and release the mice, who raise havoc, tie up Dodsworth and terrify the lady of the house, when in comes the little kitten to save the day, routing the mice. Only the kitten has learned too much from Dodsworth and by the short's end he's behaving much like Dodsworth did.
This short is available on Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4 and it and the Collection are well worth having. Recommended.
The short opens with a shot of a large, disinterested cat gorging itself on sardines while mice generally do as they please, one even taking a sardine and contemptuously snapping his fingers at the cat, whose name is Dodsworth.
Dodsworth has tried the patience of his owner to the point that she tells him that if he doesn't get rid of the mice, she'll get rid of him and find a cat that will. Dreading the idea of stooping to physical labor, Dodsworth hits on the idea of advertising for a pupil to whom he can teach the fine art of catching mice. The first (and only) interested party is a little kitten. Dodsworth, in his best imitation of a used-car salesman, launches into a spiel about experience, ties a fishing line around him and casts his "sucker-er, pupil" into the kitchen like a bass fisherman casting into a lake. The kitten chases a mouse around furniture and finally catches him using a piece of cheese as bait. When Doddsy sees he only caught one mouse, he scolds him and launches him back into the kitchen.
The kitten hits on the idea of filling a large hunk of cheese with metal bearings and leaving it in the open, where the mice eat it and scurry away. The kitten tugs on the line again and is retrieved by Dodsworth, who starts scolding-until the kitten pulls out a magnet and hauls in the mother-lode of mice, filling the cage. Hearing his mistress calling, he hastily gives the kitten his "diploma" (from "good old Acme) and hustles him out the door. Dodsworth takes credit for the capture of the mice and the kitten overhears him.
The kitten then goes back in the house to revive and release the mice, who raise havoc, tie up Dodsworth and terrify the lady of the house, when in comes the little kitten to save the day, routing the mice. Only the kitten has learned too much from Dodsworth and by the short's end he's behaving much like Dodsworth did.
This short is available on Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 4 and it and the Collection are well worth having. Recommended.
