Mouse and Garden

Mouse and Garden is a 1960 Looney Tunes short directed by Friz Freleng.
== Plot ==
Sylvester and his orange feline friend Sam are looking through trash cans for whatever food scraps they can find. Suddenly, Sylvester spots a mouse, runs after it, and catches it. When Sam comes to see what he's up to, Sylvester hides the mouse, holding it by the tail with his foot. Sam slyly engages Sylvester in conversation while surreptitiously feeling the mouse with his own foot. Sam swaps the mouse for a lit stick of dynamite without Sylvester knowing. Sylvester distracts Sam long enough to pop what he thinks is the mouse into his mouth. When it explodes, Sam retrieves the real mouse, but before he can eat it, Sylvester comes to investigate. Sam hides it in a dresser, but Sylvester finds it and tries to eat it. Eventually, they agree to keep the mouse in a jug and share it for breakfast in the morning.
Temptation soon overcomes Sam, and he opens the jug but is caught. Sylvester ties Sam to the bed, but then goes for the jug himself and is caught. They go back to bed, but Sylvester ties a string to Sam's toe, sneaks outside, and ties the other end to a motorboat. While he is trying to get the motor started, Sam wakes, unties the string from his toe, and ties it to Sylvester's tail. He grabs the jug and shakes Sylvester's hand goodbye, but the boat takes off and pulls both of them out into the lake, slamming them into a pole. They swim to a tiny island and kick each other as the mouse rows past them on the floating jug.
== Availability ==
lt vs8 uk.jpg|(1984) VHS The Looney Tunes Video Show Volume 8
Bumper01.jpg|(1994) VHS Special Bumper Collection (Vol. 1)
A1L-oj097sL. AC SL1500 .jpg|(2003) VHS Tweety & Sylvester (2003)
LTGC Vol.4.jpg|(2006) DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4, Disc Four
LTSC4.jpg|(2006) DVD Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 4 Disc 2
lt cas5.jpg|(2007) DVD Looney Tunes Collection All Stars Volume 5
LTPC Volume 3 Cover.png|(2014) Blu-ray Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc Two
LT Platinum Collection VOL 3 DVD Cover.png|(2014) DVD Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 3, Disc Two
lt spotlight df2.jpg|(2014) DVD Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection Volumes 4-5 Repack
=== Streaming ===
lt boomerang.jpg|Boomerang App (2017 - )
lt hbo max.jpg|HBO Max (2020 - 2022)
Lt max.jpg|Max (2024 - )
== Censorship ==
* Versions shown on ABC's The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show cut the sequence of Sam the Cat replacing the captured mouse under Sylvester's foot with a stick of dynamite, Sylvester swallowing the dynamite, and the requisite explosion, with Sam then saying to the unwell-looking Sylvester, "You'd better get that tooth fixed."http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-m.aspx
* Nickelodeon left in the dynamite sequence, but some versions that aired on the channel had two lines cut: Sylvester's "You never know where those little devils will hide, do you?" after Sam catches him trying to keep the mouse to himself and Sam's "Aw, geez! Now you made me feel bad!" as Sylvester ties his toe to Sam's and tells him he cannot trust him.
== Goofs ==
* The Warner Bros. shield does not zoom in all the way on the opening rings, missing the final frame of the zoom animation.
* When Sylvester and Sam are sleeping and dreaming about the mouse, Sylvester's tail has a white tip. Throughout the rest of the cartoon before and after, Sylvester's tail is plain black with no white tip.
== Notes ==
* Sylvester lacks the white tip on his tail, much like some of his appearances in the 1940s shorts and most of the pre-1955 Robert McKimson shorts. His tail's solid black appearance would be used consistently up until "The Jet Cage".
* This short was nominated for the 33rd Academy Awards for "Best Short Subject (Cartoon)" alongside "High Note", both losing to the Czechoslovak-American short "Munro".https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1961/
== Gallery ==
MouseandGardenCredits1.png
MouseandGardenCredits2.png
Mouse-and-garden-sylvester-600.jpg|Lobby card
== References ==
== External links ==
* "Mouse and Garden" at the SFX Resource
Category:Academy Award nominees
Category:Sylvester Cartoons
Category:Looney Tunes Shorts
Category:Shorts
Category:1960
Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng
Category:Cartoons with layouts by Hawley Pratt
Category:Cartoons with music by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Tom O'Loughlin
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Daws Butler
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons produced by John W. Burton