Vimacone The 1939 World's Fair shaped many people's visions and expectations on what technology of tomorrow would be like. That same year Chuck Jones produced a short DOG GONE MODERN (1939) featuring his two Curious Puppies wandering in a House Of Tomorrow.A decade later, Jones remade the short with Hubie and Bertie. It follows the same plot, but with sharper dialogue and funnier gags. The jazzy up-beat rendition of Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" kept the pace going. The funniest parts are Hubie and Bertie trying to outsmart the cleaning robot with bizarrely ingenious strategies so they can enjoy the cheese dispenser.Hubie and Bertie were among Chuck Jones' many minor characters from the 1940's that for whatever reason had a short lived career. Thankfully their entire filmography is available on DVD/Bluray.

TheLittleSongbird While better was to come with the darker, grimmer and bolder, yet still deliciously and enormously entertaining, 'Cheese Chasers', 'The Hypo-Chondri Cat' and 'Mouse Wreckers', 'House Hunting Mice' is another great effort from them.In 'House Hunting Mice', there is characteristically terrific animation, very like with the rest of the Hubie and Bertie cartoons and Chuck Jones in general. Attention to detail is meticulous, the colours are rich and vibrant and the characters are designed in a way that's distinctively Chuck Jones. Music from Carl Stalling always elevates cartoons he composes for to a higher level, have always said that he's my favourite of the regular Looney Tunes composers and he rarely puts a foot wrong and I don't think any differently still.The orchestration is clever, rich and luscious, the energy, character and appropriately dark atmosphere are evident throughout and it not only fits with what's going on but adds to it.'House Hunting Mice' is still very funny and entertaining, even if having less of the darker and more daring edge of 'Cheese Chasers', 'Mouse Wreckers' and 'The Hypo-Chondri Cat' with the usual razor sharp wittiness and imaginative gags. Love the chemistry and battle between Hubie and Bertie and the robot that dominates much of 'House Hunting Mice'.Even with the Hubie and Bertie cartoons adopting a bold twist on the cat and mouse dynamic, with the mice being the antagonists and the cat the victims, Hubie and Bertie are colourful and appealing characters and the robot is a hugely effective foil to them. Nothing to complain about with the vocal characterisations of Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg either.Overall, another great Hubie and Bertie cartoon. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . and runs circles around Mickey Mouse's "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment in HOUSE HUNTING MICE. Two rodents (Hubie and Bertie, of course) prove no match here for a self-perpetuating "House of Tomorrow diabolically designed by . . . (who else?) "Frank Lloyd Wrong." As soon as the mice activate a robotic voice by crossing the "Welcome" mat into this House of Automated Horrors, things go from bad to worse. From the automaton's selection of Gay Wedding Reception Muzak to Hubie getting mangled, ironed, and stacked by the Laundry Machine, the rodents are edged toward an Endangered Species Listing. An Automated Cheese Dispenser fails to cooperate with Bertie, and earns him the active dislike of the Robotic Sweeper. After Bertie's swept into the trash can with the floor debris several times, the tiny home hunters launch a series of increasingly desperate assaults against this skeletal 'Bot. When they triumph briefly by blowing it up, a self-activating Repair Robot quickly reassembles it. Even after forcing The Grim Sweeper to quit the house by breaking the Automatic Phonograph's entire collection of 45-sized records, an ill-advised pressing of the "Spring Cleaning" button leaves the mice hung out to dry, clearly beaten. HOUSE HUNTING MICE illustrates exactly why the phrase "Mickey Mouse" has become synonymous with "lame" and "uninspired" in Today's Americanese.

ccthemovieman-1 This was a clever "Hubie and Bertie" animated short in which the two mice investigate a "House Of Tomorrow." There is an open house for anyone to see this futuristic home, designed by F. Lloyd Wrong (boy, these cartoonists love puns and corny jokes).Once inside, the two discover buttons which produce automated results on anything you want done such as cleaning, laundry, playing music, etc. One of the gags - the chief one of the story - involves a robot which comes out and cleans up any mess that is made on the floor. The poor robot winds up being tormented by the mice, all in an effort to get some cheese. "Hubie" also tends to be a little sadistic, at least in the three cartoons I've seen so far of these guys.The battle between the mice and the cleaning robot is very funny and very clever and has an ending in which justice is served. This is a fun cartoon to watch, by far the best of the three H&B 'toons I've seen so far.