Cheese Burglar

First, I hope everyone has noticed I've changed the title of my blog to something a little shorter (admittedly I never thought this thing would actually last longer than a week). David Gerstein suggested the name to me last night. He claims you can read it either as "I.D." or for my "unbridled criticism". Wiseass.

Secondly, today's breakdown is probably a Famous cartoon everybody here has seen before, seeing as it's on millions of public domain compilations. Milton Knight deserves full credit for breaking this down. He says: "Some people confuse Henning's work for Tyer's in this one; I'm attempting to set that record straight."

"Cheese Burglar"

Interestingly enough, all three animators are credited for this short.

- All scenes from opening to cat saying "The mouse was right!" and
jumping up with knife: Ben Solomon

- Cat stalks dog, dog pulls knife, and they attack each other: William Henning

- All scenes from Herman watching to cat falling and hitting head on the radiator: Jim Tyer

- Herman gloating ("The cat's death rattle!"), then walking out of hole: Solomon

- All scenes from Herman walking over "dead" cat and dog to Herman getting roped out of wine bottle: Henning

- Final shot of drunken trio: Solomon

This short is also interesting because it catches the animators at a transitional stage between traditional Fleischer-type models and the more modern Famous design. For the record, the model of the cat also appears in "Chick and Double Chick" (1946) and "The Stupidstitious Cat" (1947).