We, the Animals, Squeak! is a 1941 Looney Tunes short starring Porky Pig. It was directed by Bob Clampett. In 1967, it was redone in color.
Porky hosts the radio show "We, the Animals, Squeak", in which animals tell their unusual stories. His next guest, Kansas City Kitty, the famous mouser, tells the story of her life and how her career almost came to an end.
Tropes featured in this short:
- Big Shadow, Little Creature: Kitty's flashback begins with her large shadow approaching a bunch of rats, causing them to run for it. After they're gone, Kitty comes onscreen to reveal she was still a kitten at the time.
- The Dreaded: As a sign of her being a champion mouser, rodents were scared of her even when she was a kitten.
- Eek, a Mouse!!: At the end, Porky gives Kitty a mouse as a gift. The so-called champion mouser jumps up on the chair screaming.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When one of the mice hears the lead mouse's plan for Patrick, he cries in shock, "Why, THAT'S MURDER!" The other mice have to muzzle him because he's being loud.
- Fighting Irish: Kansas City Kitty has a thick brogue and is quite the scrapper.
- Framing Device: The radio show serves as one for Kansas City Kitty's story.
- I Have Your Daughter: The mice kidnap Kitty's son Patrick, and threaten to hurt him unless she leaves them alone.
- Mama Bear: Kitty makes it clear that no mouse threatens her son and gets away with it.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Upon seeing Patrick free, Kitty wastes no time in letting the mice have it.
- "Oh, Crap!" Smile: The lead mouse when he realizes Patrick is not their hostage any more and their leverage against Kitty is gone.
- Out of Focus: Porky only appears at the beginning and end of the cartoon. This was actually quite common in the late thirties: Warner Bros. insisted that Porky be in every Looney Tunes title, and eventually the animators got tired of him and began giving him a bare minimum of screen time.
- Pity the Kidnapper: Little Patrick turns the tables on his kidnappers pretty quickly.
- That Came Out Wrong: At one point, Kitty got mixed up and said that Patrick came along before she and Tom were married. Realizing this made it sound like she got married due to having a child out of wedlock, she quickly corrected herself.
