The Unexpected Pest (1956)

The Unexpected Pest Review

The Unexpected Pest is a 1956 animated short film from the Merry Melodies series. It is a very good short.

Sylvester’s owners threaten to throw him out as he is lying around, doing nothing and no mice have been in the house recently. Then, he gets one mouse and he organizes everything so that he can catch it every single day. However, eventually the mouse turns on him and the cat is thrown out of the house. My main issue was the mouse’s agenda, which wasn’t explained properly and he seemed a bit too mean later on.

Still though, the ending itself was wonderful as the mouse showed his sweet side there in an amusing fashion. The whole premise was excellent for a Sylvester cartoon and it was executed superbly, especially in that excellent first half. I love these films where we can see Sylvester interacting at some capacity with his owners, as usually the results of that are very entertaining.

The Unexpected Pest certainly doesn’t have the greatest second half, but the ending itself is wonderful and the first half is so well executed.

My Rating – 4