Cheese Chasers

Cheese Chasers is a 1951 Merrie Melodies short directed by Charles M. Jones.
== Plot ==
At the end of a raid on a cheese factory, Hubie steps out of a wheel of cheese and nauseated. Bertie stumbles out after. Hubie determines that, based on the amount of cheese the average mouse eats in their lifetime, 12 pounds, they've eaten enough to have lived two thousand years. Determining that they can no longer stomach cheese, and with nothing else to live for, they determine their only course of action: suicide. They return home, where they write a suicide note, "Goodbye, cruel world!" and introduce themselves to the gullet of a sleeping Claude Cat.
Claude immediately wakes up and spits the mice out. Believing that "something's rotten in Denmark", he figures the mice are poisoned, and refuses to eat them. After several attempts to refuse to eat them, and attempting in vain to convince himself it's all a bad dream due to Hubie and Bertie getting increasingly aggressive in their attempts at forcing themselves to get eaten by him, he determines he can no longer eat mice and also decides to commit suicide. 
Leaving an equal suicide note, "P.S., no P.S.", Claude heads outside and punches a bulldog. The bulldog sees Claude standing there with a blindfold and a cigarette, and asks what's going on. When Claude begs the bulldog to "massacre" him, the bulldog thinks "something's decidedly fishy here". It gets worse when Hubie and Bertie run out, trying to get Claude to eat them, leaving the bulldog confused.
The bulldog figures out that Claude is no longer wants to eat mice, and the mice now hate cheese, but after using an adding machine to figure it out, concludes, "It just don't add up!" He runs after a dog catcher wanting to get committed "Hey, wait for me! Wait for baby!" Claude, "Hey, wait for me! You gotta massacre me!" and the mice, "Wait, you cowardly cat!" are in hot pursuit, still bent on ending their own lives.
== Quotes ==
* Hubie: "Hey, Boit." 
* Bertie: "Yeah-yeah, Hubie. What is it, huh? What is it?" 
* Hubie: "Let's quit." 
* Bertie: "Yeah-yeah, sure-sure. I don't feel so good." 
* Hubie: "Boit, an average mouse eats twelve pounds of cheese in its lifetime. I figure tonight we've lived two thousand years." 
* Bertie: "Hubie, I'll never be able to touch the stuff again." 
* Hubie: "Me neither. So there's nothing left to live for."
* Bertie: "You mean?!" :Hubie: [nods solemnly] "Come on, Boit, let's get it over with." 
* Bertie: "Yeah yeah. Over." *hic* ----
* Marc Anthony: "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Now, uh, you're a cat, right?"
* Claude: "Right." 
* Marc Anthony: "And cats eat mice, right?"
* Claude: [shaking head] "NO!!"
* Marc Anthony: [looking confused] "And you... you're mice, right?" [Hubie and Bertie nod]
* Marc Anthony: "And mice, they eat cheese, right?"
* Hubie and Bertie: "Cheese?! YAAAAAAAHHH! Don't mention that word!"
* Marc Anthony: [the dog is at an adding machine] "Let's see now. Mice don't like cheese... [types on machine, pulls lever] ...and mice want cat to eat them. [types on machine, pulls lever again] Now then, cat don't wanna eat mice... [types on machine, pulls lever again] ...but cat wants dog to massacre him. [types on machine, pulls lever again, and looks at results] It just don't add up! [ Marc Anthony then hears a dog pound driving by and runs to it, and runs away from Claude, Hubie and Bertie] Hey, wait for me! Wait for baby!"
*Claude: [while running up to runaway Marc Anthony] "Hey, wait for me! You gotta massacre me!" 
*Hubie and Bertie: [while running up to Claude Cat and Marc Anthony] "Wait, you cowardly cat!" [the closing credits start]
== Availability ==
Lt vs12.jpg|(1984) VHS The Looney Tunes Video Show Volume 12
Lt cheese chasers vcd.jpg|(1998) VCD Cheese Chasers
Golden Collection box 2.jpg|(2004) DVD Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2, Disc Two (restored)
Lt cbrr1.jpg|(2005) DVD Looney Tunes Collection Best of Road Runner Volume 1
Lt cbrr1 vcd.jpg|(2005) VCD Looney Tunes Collection Best of Road Runner Volume 1
Lt bbot wc.jpg|(2011) DVD Wile E. Coyote
Lt mouse chronicles blu.jpg|(2012) Blu-ray Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles: The Chuck Jones Collection, Disc Two (restored)
L.T.M.C..jpg|(2012) DVD Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles: The Chuck Jones Collection, Disc Two (restored)
Lt 3fcbo.jpg|(2012) DVD Looney Tunes 3 Feature Collection Best Of
LooneyTunesSpotlightVol8-210x300.jpg|(2014) DVD Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Volume 8, Disc 2
=== Streaming ===
Lt hbo max.jpg|HBO Max (2020 - 2022) (restored)
Lt max.jpg|Max (2024 - ) (restored)
Lt itunes.jpg|iTunes (-) (restored)
== Censorship ==
* When this short aired on The WB, the part where Hubie and Bertie hit Claude's foot with a hammer in an attempt to be eaten by him was cut.http://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-c.aspx
== Goofs ==
* When Claude closes the door after running out the house, the back of his cheeks are completely yellow when they are supposed to be white.
* Claude had a pocket in his torso, but in other shorts he doesn't.
== Notes ==
* This is the final Hubie and Bertie short.
* This short is similar in concept to the Sylvester short "Life with Feathers", where both feature suicidal animals wanting themselves to get eaten by cats.
* The bulldog in this short resembles Marc Anthony, who would later be paired with Pussyfoot beginning with "Feed the Kitty" the following year.
* This is the third time Claude speaks. The first was "The Aristo-cat" and "The Hypo-Chondri-Cat". Claude Cat sounds like Marvin the Martian and Clarence Cat.
* This is the second and last time Claude says "Gosh, what a terrible dream", the first was "The Aristo-cat".
* The original title to the cartoon was replaced with a new title card when it was reissued in the 1959–64 season. The original title card is believed to be lost.
* This cartoon was used in the intro for Looney Tunes on Nick at Nite.
== Gallery ==
CheeseChasersCredits1.png
CheeseChasersCredits2.png
Extra131.jpg|Lobby card
== References ==
es:Cheese Chasers
Category:Blue Ribbon reissues
Category:Cartoons directed by Chuck Jones
Category:Shorts
Category:1951
Category:Looney Tunes Shorts
Category:Hubie and Bertie Cartoons
Category:Claude Cat Cartoons
Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts
Category:Re-released cartoons whose original titles are known to exist
Category:Cartoons written by Michael Maltese
Category:Cartoons with music by Carl W. Stalling
Category:Cartoons with layouts by Robert Gribbroek
Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Philip DeGuard
Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc
Category:Cartoons with orchestrations by Milt Franklyn
Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown
Category:Cartoons produced by Eddie Selzer