After the short speech, the mouse stabs and beats the cat several times, leaving the cat on the moon with a broken oxygen tank suit, thus making it impossible to live, however, later on in the clip, the audience finds out the cat doesn’t die. This clip is humorous due to the ‘reverse stereotype’ of cats usually being stronger. This brings up a strong contextual issue of animals being misjudged. This cleverly made scene makes the audience subconsciously change views of animals, making the audience think twice before petting cats and mice, Personally, I think the director constructed this scene perfectly, but being very similar to the ‘Tom and Jerry’ cartoon show they should not receive all the credit.
In the next scene, after leaving the cat to die, the mouse stows away in the cat’s shuttle back to earth. Headlines glorifying the mouse are shown stating:
“He tried to save the cat”
“Hero”
Although he was the exact opposite. But only a small headline for:
“Wife mourns over loss”
This just shows the cover-ups of the government once again and the lies of the media. This also shows how ignorant, economical and money-saving the government and people are too even spend money on investigating the issue. This scene is wisely made to only increase public awareness in the audience, but to convince them too step up against governmental cover-ups and evil things going on around the world. The newspaper is also cleverly named as the ‘Washingtoon Times’. This clever pun adds humour to the cartoon. Without this newspaper scene the ‘evil government’ conspiracy would never be successful.
Following on from this scene the mouse’s name is revealed to be Itchy. A diagetic patriotic tune is played and scenes are shown with mice lining up on sides of roads, holding banners stating ‘Itchy for president’ as his black ‘politician-like’ car drove by. Mice are shown parading and protesting for Itchy to become president. Once again the director cleverly twists the short video to make the public of America all mice, this also meant that Russia were probably all cats. The only sign of humans in the cartoon is Hillary Clinton who is also running for president. Being the only human in the cartoon, makes this cartoon subconsciously make the audience think more of Hillary Clinton, for at that time Obama was not running for president. The aural symbolism and stereotypes used by the director leads the audience to believe Itchy becomes a politician after the space issue, and runs for president of America. In my view, the patriotic tune and mice parades are vital to this scene to show the sudden change of position for Itchy, but the scene is too fast for some of the audience to take in.
Eventually, Itchy becomes president and a medium long-shot zooms slowly onto the white house. Then a medium shot is shown of Itchy in his presidential room. The mise-en-scene in his office is very important. It shows he has more than enough boxes of rich cheese, which is laid out on his desk and chairs, while others out there voted a lot for him and get nothing in return. This stereotype states that presidents are lazy, greedy, corrupt, power consuming and do nothing but sit down in there office all day. If you also look closely the small framed pictures on both left and right in the scene are supposed to be Abraham Lincoln and George Jefferson, but the pictures are of mice, implying that all previous elections were of mice, and America’s famous history was lead by mice. This also states that since the previous presidents were mice, they were all corrupt like Itchy. This makes the audience think more of Hillary Clinton since she was different from them. The audience is given both humour and understanding of the scene, however subconsciously the audience is told to vote for Hillary Clinton. The mise-en-scene was important to make sense of the existing footage of the short-video.
However happy Itchy’s life is, in the next scene the mood gets tense, and the tune turns to a slow and silent ambience which raises suspicion in the audience. A small squeaky voice is heard and Itchy looks towards the window with binoculars. A fish eye shot zooms onto Scratchy on the moon. Scratchy is shown alive; he survives and holds up a board stating “I am going to tell!” Although not much is said, the audience knows immediately about the situation, and Itchy is shown in panic, which adds humour to the scene. This scene instantly brings up the issue of governmental cover ups, and also gives a moral to the audience. No matter how good you are at lying and covering up, the truth will always come out. It also implies that politics has a lot of cover-ups and lies involved. This scene also has comedy involved, due to the president being able to see all the way too the moon with binoculars. In my opinion Scratchy in the moon is important to build suspense and tension. Also the non-diagetic sounds are very important to emphasise points and keep the audience’s attention. I think the political tunes are also important in showing the mood of the film.
In the next scene, the world turns dull, appearing in black and white. This shows the significance of the scene to history because of the inability of having TVs that produced coloured picture and cameras which were unable to take coloured photos back then. The non-diagetic tune changes to a military strategic tune specifically aimed to America’s history. Itchy the mouse is shown wearing old black politicians clothing. This reminds the audience of Abraham Lincoln. At first Itchy is shown walking back and forth in the courtyard, then sitting down on a chair, while two little mice are playing with on the floor with dice. This emphasises how deep he is in thought, and how difference the mood is between him and others. It shows the contrast between Itchy and the others, both by colour and by intention. Then a medium camera shot zooms into a close up shot onto him when he is by himself in a room full of scrolls. He is brought into colour and the non-diagetic tune suddenly turns to a fast and excited tune. This makes the audience think Itchy has an idea, and builds up excitement and suspense. The non-diagetic soundtrack lightens up and the mood turns lighter. This scene works extremely well with contrast and refers a lot to history. Without historical context this short-movie would not be as successful.
When Itchy has this ‘epiphany’ he goes straight to a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and presses a button, his then opens up to become a nuclear missile control panel. Without further information, the audience knows who the target is. The control panel had three options for reasons of launch:
- First Strike
- Retaliation
- Accidental Launch
Even though these launch options are ridiculous and very childish, they show how corrupt nuclear missile facilities are, in general. Also, being behind Abraham Lincoln’s portrait, brings up a conspiracy suggesting nuclear power is old, and was possibly started in Abraham Lincoln’s time. I think this scene is made to be both humorous, and make the audience more aware of the corrupt and government cover-ups.
Then when selecting ‘3.Accidental Launch’, Itchy covers his eyes in guilt and presses the launch button. Immediately masses of missiles are launched at Scratchy. This shows that America has too many nuclear missiles, and makes the audience of ‘power hungry’ America. Too add humour to the scene, Scratchy swallows all the missiles but a last missile opens up and a metal leg comes out and kicks his stomach. A huge explosion takes place, which surrounds the moon and sends a shockwave around space. This shows also how dangerously active a nuclear missile is, it responds to a kick. Also the hatch of the missile coming off symbolises the devastating event in Russia, where the top of a missile blew off and killed those inhabitants of Chernobyl.
As this scene finishes, Homer Simpson stands up and an extreme close up of his upper body is taken. People mumble for him to sit down, and Lisa tells him to sit down, however he points at the camera and shouts out ‘all the people who are watching this movie are suckers especially you’. This connects with the audience cleverly by approaching every person in the audience separately, stating they wasted there money and including some final humour for the viewer.
The director uses humour in that way to incorporate other messages into the film. This is the overall context and meaning to the short video ‘Itchy and Scratchy’, deeply analysed. But was this all humour, or was some of it, in fact, true?