Release Date:

August 25, 1951

Main Character(s):

Hubie and Bertie, Claude Cat

Summary:

Hubie and Bertie end up eating themselves sick after breaking into the “Hunka Cheese Co.” and eating too much. Assuming they’ve lived the average amount of a mouse’s lifespan, they decide to end it all by allowing Claude Cat to eat them. Claude thinks this is a sign he’s losing his mind, and refuses to eat them.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1169 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

The cartoon was given a Blue Ribbon reissue. When it was reissued, the original title card was inexplicably replaced with a new one. Thankfully, the music and credits are still intact.

This is the final Golden Age appearance of Hubie and Bertie.

The bulldog in this cartoon shares the same character design and fur color as Marc Anthony, who would debut six months later in “Feed the Kitty” (1952), also directed by Jones. This is a different bulldog, however, in that he speaks but Marc Anthony never did.

The cartoon uses the same plot as “Life with Feathers”.

Claude’s voice in this cartoon is similar to what was soon to become Marvin the Martian’s permanent voice (beginning in 1952’s “The Hasty Hare”).

The music that plays over the opening credits (a rendition of “Hickory Dickory Dock”) is also the music that plays over the main menu of the Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles The Chuck Jones Collection DVD set.

The bulldog’s line, “It just don’t add up!” is something I would often think to myself when trying to answer difficult math problems all throughout middle and high school.

Favorite Scene:

Without a doubt, the scene with the bulldog trying to make sense of everything with an adding machine. Claude’s facial expressions in this one are also a hoot.

What Happens in This One:

After a camera pan inside the factory shows that Hubie and Bertie have eaten their way through three different cheeses, they are in the middle of a fourth when hiccuping is heard. Hubie comes out green in the face, with a full stomach, and hiccuping while carrying a chunk before making a disgusted groan upon seeing the chunk. After he calls, “Hey, Bert”, Bertie is shown to also be green in the face and with a full stomach, “Yeah, yeah, Hubie. What is it, huh? What is it?” Hubie tells him, “Let’s quit” to which Bertie agrees, “Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure. I don’t feel so good” (animated by Ben Washam).

Hubie walks up to him while explaining, “Bert, an average mouse eats 12 pounds of cheese in a lifetime. I figure tonight we’ve lived 2,000 years”. Bertie admits, “Hubie, I’ll never be able to touch the stuff again”. Hubie agrees, “Me neither. So there’s nothing left to live for?” “You mean?”, Bertie asks sadly to which Hubie nods as they both walk sadly: “Come on, Bert. Let’s get it over with”. Bertie replies, “Yeah, yeah. Over” before gagging (animated by Washam).

After they have written out a suicide note, “Goodbye Cruel World. Hubie. Bertie. P.S. We’ve lived a full life”, they walk into the house where Claude lives and promptly enter the sleeping Claude’s mouth. After they hiccup from inside his mouth, Claude thinks it came from him and pats his mouth as if to say “excuse me”. He then makes a horrified take (the screenshot used in this post) and looks in the mirror while opening his mouth and sees Hubie and Bertie inside his mouth. His delight at this immediately turns into suspicion as he opens his mouth and sees Bertie waving from inside there. He then imagines a map that shows Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, with a sign reading, “Something Rotten in” pointing to the latter country (animated by Phil Monroe).

Claude spits them both out, but they run back in. He takes them out, but they hold onto his lower lip, which sends it smacking him in the face. Hubie pleads, “Please, Mr. Cat. Please eat us”. Bertie adds, “Yeah, yeah. Eat us up”. Claude thinks he’s lost his mind: “I must be dreaming. Yeah, that’s it. I’m dreaming”. He then walks into the living room, “Well, we can fix that. We’ll just wake ourselves up!”, to which he pricks himself in the behind with a hat pin, causing him to scream in pain and land on his pillow across the room. After landing on his pillow, Claude believes, “Gosh. What a terrible dream” before chuckling nervously and going back to sleep (animated by Monroe).

Hubie and Bertie then zoom back into Claude’s mouth and he hears Hubie say, “Please eat us, Mr. Cat. Chew us up, please”. Claude ejects them on his tongue like a cash register, and asks in bewilderment, “THIS is a dream!?” before screaming and telling them to leave him alone: “What did I ever do to you!?” When Hubie calmly tells him, “But all we want is that you should eat us up, Mr. Cat” and Bertie agrees, “Yeah, yeah. Eat us”, Claude cries, “But I don’t WANT to eat you! Now look, if I give ya something nice, WILL YA GO AWAY!?” He runs out and then returns with a wedge of cheese. Hubie and Bertie exclaim in disgust and rapidly tell him to take it away, causing Claude to give a hilarious confused look at the audience (animated by Monroe).

Claude puts the cheese down and dashes into the library to find a chapter in a book, “Mental Diseases Their Cause and Cure” (animated by Monroe). Upon finding “the very page I’ve been looking for”, Claude tears it out and folds it into a Napoleon hat to put on his head. Meanwhile, Hubie and Bertie are walking with a hammer, determined: “Come on, Bert. We gotta get tough with that cat!” “Yeah, yeah, Hubie. Tough!” Claude is seen building a ship in a bottle, only he’s in the bottle while the ship is outside: “They say that a hobby sometimes helps”. Hubie smashes the bottle with the hammer (animated by Ken Harris) and demands, “Come on out of there! Are you gonna eat us or not!?” When Claude refuses, Hubie snaps, “Alright, ya coward! Take this!” and bashes Claude’s foot with the hammer. This makes Claude so angry that he grabs them both and puts them into his mouth while laughing evilly. His thought then shows a railroad crossing wigwag labeled “Danger” causing him to realize he’s been tricked. After spitting them back out again, Claude runs out through the front door, shutting it behind him: “I’ll never be able to eat another mouse. So what is there left to live for?”

Shortly, Claude has left a suicide note of his own: “Goodbye, Cruel World. Claude. P.S. (No P.S.)” He walks up to a sleeping bulldog and punches him in the jaw. This causes the bulldog to wake up in anger and run while snarling. Upon seeing who was responsible, he skids to a stop and confronts a blindfolded Claude, “Hey, cat! What gives!? Why don’t ya run!? Don’t ya know I’m gonna massacre ya!?” (animated by Lloyd Vaughan) Claude answers, “Yes, I know. And I WANT you to massacre me! Go ahead, chew me up!” The bulldog cringes at this before telling him, “Now wait a minute! Don’t give me none of that guff!” After Claude pleads, “Please, Mr. Dog. Please chew me to bits!” (animated by Washam), the bulldog’s thought shows a fish bowl with a sign pointed towards it, “Something Decidedly Fishy Here” (animated by Vaughan).

Hubie and Bertie then run out having spotted Claude and go up to him, demanding, “Let us in! Let us in!” before Claude screams, “No, no, no! Go away!” Beyond confused, the bulldog tries to set everything straight: “Wait a minute, wait a minute! Now, uh, you’re a cat, right?” Claude: “Right”. Bulldog: “And, uh, cats eat mice, right?” Claude: “No!” The bulldog does a cringing take at this before he starts asking Hubie and Bertie, “Uh, you, (chuckles awkwardly), you’re mice, right?” Hubie answers, “Right”, before the bulldog continues, “And…and mice…, th- they eat cheese, right?” Hubie and Bertie’s expressions turn to horror before they scream in unison, “Cheese!? YAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! Don’t mention that word!” as the bulldog gives the audience a puzzled look and his ear falls onto his forehead with Bob Clampett’s “Bee-woop!” sound effect (animated by Washam).

With the wedge of cheese from earlier presented as “Exhibit A”, Hubie and Bertie presented as “Exhibit B”, and Claude presented as “Exhibit C”, the bulldog attempts to make sense of everything with the help of an adding machine, typing away at it after each sentence. “Let’s see now. Mice don’t like cheese”; “And mice want cat to eat them”; “Now, then, cat don’t want to eat mice”; “But cat wants dog to massacre him”. After reading over all four nonsensical cases he typed, he exclaims, “It just don’t add up!” Suddenly, the dogcatcher’s truck passes by with the bulldog chasing after it, having also lost his mind, “Hey! Wait for me! Wait for baby!” Claude runs after him, “Hey, wait for me! You got to massacre me!” and Hubie and Bertie also follow, “Wait, you cowardly cat!” (animated by Harris)

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕