The Cat Came Back is a weirdly charming basement brawl

Is this worth watching today? Yes, mostly because it only takes seven minutes and it’s way more interesting than the stuff they put on TV for kids now.

If you like that bouncy, rubbery animation from the 30s where even the walls seem to be breathing, you'll love this. People who want a serious plot or logical physics will probably hate it though.

The whole thing happens in a basement. It feels like the animators never actually left their office that week.

We start with Momma cat teaching her kittens how to be mean. She's got this very serious face while she shows them how to catch mice.

Then the camera pans across the basement—which is huge for some reason—to the mouse family. Momma mouse is doing the exact same thing but in reverse.

It’s a bit like Great Expectations if everyone was a rodent and lived under a floorboard. Okay, not really, but the drama feels just as high for these little guys.

The best part is when the kitten and the mouse finally meet in the middle. They just stare at each other for a second.

I expected a chase, but no. The mouse just kicks the kitten right in the fanny.

It’s so fast and mean that I actually laughed out loud. The kitten doesn't even fight back; he just runs away crying to his mom.

I love how the moms handle it. They start arguing like neighbors over a fence.

Mrs. Cat is all offended, and Mrs. Mouse basically tells her to get lost. It's very suburban for a couple of animals living in the dark.

Then things get weirdly friendly. The mouse invites the kitten to go listen to a wind-up record player.

The music starts, and they just start dancing. The way they move is so fluid, like they don't have any bones at all.

The Great Drain Disaster

Everything is going great until the kitten falls into a drain. This part actually felt a little tense for a cartoon.

The water is swirling around and the kitten looks genuinely terrified. The mouse doesn't even hesitate, he just dives right in after him.

The rescue mission is where the logic really goes out the window. The mouse finds a guitar and uses it as a boat.

I don't know why there is a guitar in the drain, but it works. He rows it with his hands like a pro.

Then there’s this bit with a board stretched across a hole. The physics here make no sense, but it looks cool.

A whirlpool catches them and twists them together like a piece of licorice. When they untwist, the board starts spinning like a helicopter blade.

It literally flies them out of the hole. I wish real life worked like that whenever I got into trouble.

• The whirlpool animation is actually really detailed for 1936.
• The mouse is way braver than any human I know.
• The record player has a face for like two seconds? Maybe I imagined that.

The moms are so happy when the kids get back. For a second, you think it’s going to have a happy, peaceful ending.

But then Mrs. Cat remembers that Mrs. Mouse poked her in the eye earlier. She just can't let it go.

The movie ends with everyone just beating the crap out of each other. No lesson learned, no friendship saved.

It’s much more honest than modern cartoons. Sometimes you save someone's life and your moms still hate each other.

The music by The Rhythmettes is super catchy too. It’s got that tinny, old-radio sound that makes everything feel a bit more creepy and fun at the same time.

It reminded me a bit of the pacing in College Love, where things just happen because the script says so. No one asks questions.

One thing I noticed is how empty the basement feels even though it's full of junk. There’s a lot of negative space in the backgrounds.

The shadows are a bit heavy, which makes the whole thing feel a little bit like a horror movie for kids. Just a little bit.

I’ve seen better stuff from this era, like The Cricket on the Hearth, but this one has more energy. It doesn't try to be sweet for too long.

Overall—wait, I'm not supposed to say overall. Anyway, it's a good watch.

Go watch it if you want to see a mouse use a musical instrument as a life raft. You won't regret it.