The Lyin' Mouse: A tiny trickster's masterpiece

Is it worth your ten minutes?

Honestly, yes. If you like classic cartoons that aren't afraid to be a little bit nasty, you'll love The Lyin' Mouse. It’s for anyone who misses that specific, punchy brand of animation where the protagonist is just as likely to be a jerk as they are a hero. If you’re the type who needs a heartwarming moral or a tidy lesson at the end, you’ll probably hate it. This isn't exactly The Crow's Nest in terms of ambition, but it hits harder.

The whole thing starts with a mouse in a trap, which is a stressful way to begin a short, right? He’s staring down a cat, and instead of just giving up, he starts talking. He tells this whole long story about a lion and a horn. It’s a total stalling tactic. You can practically see the mouse sweating, trying to make the story sound interesting enough to keep the cat from biting his head off.

The flashback stuff is pure, unfiltered chaos. There's this horn that makes the mouse sound like a lion, and the way he uses it to mess with the other animals is just petty in the best way possible. It’s funny because it’s so useless. He’s just a mouse with a horn, causing problems for the sake of causing problems. The lion, of course, isn't having any of it.

I caught myself noticing how weirdly specific the Frank Cluck expedition parts were. It felt like a random detail thrown in to pad the runtime, but it works because the movie doesn't care if you're following the logic. The lion falling into a circus act? That’s peak slapstick. It’s the kind of visual gag that you only get in these older shorts, where someone just decides that a lion needs to put his head in a tamer’s mouth for no reason other than the absurdity of it.

When the mouse finally gnaws that lion-shaped hole in the cage, you know he’s being a hero, but you also know he’s just doing it to get back to his own story. It feels like he’s performing a play for an audience of one. The cat actually buys it, which is the funniest part. That look on the cat’s face when the mouse finally yells "Sucker!" is perfect. It’s the most honest moment in the whole film.

• The voice work by Mel Blanc is, as always, doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
• The pacing is frantic, which keeps you from thinking too hard about how a mouse actually holds a horn that size.
• I’m still thinking about that wooden cage. Why was it lion-shaped? It doesn't matter.

It reminds me a little of the spirit in Artist and Models, where the performance matters more than the actual sense of the plot. You’re watching it for the attitude. It’s a mean little short, but it’s my kind of mean.