TheLittleSongbird The Night Watchman is definitely notable and worth the watch for it being Chuck Jones' debut. It is not bad, far from it, but is not one of Jones' best by a long shot. There is definitely the sense that Jones was still finding his own feet. The animation is colourful and vivid. The music is wonderfully jazzy and characterful. The floor show is very exciting, with catchy music and very nicely choreographed. The funniest moment is the scene where you see the way the mice eat, very inventive and very funny. And the voice acting is great. The Night Watchman does suffer generally though from a lack of energy, which makes the rather dully thin story even more lacking. The ending is also rather tacked on as already mentioned, and the funny moments come only in spades rather than the laugh-a-minute quality that Jones was wholly capable of. While there definitely some cute moments, some parts of the cartoon come across as too cutesy that it's almost rather cloying, and the characters while also sweet are not very compelling enough to carry the story. In conclusion, The Night Watchman is interesting. But it is also a disappointment. Luckily after a shaky but worthwhile enough start with this Chuck Jones went on to much better things, the best of his work are masterpieces or close to that. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Neil Doyle This is a cute but undistinguished Chuck Jones cartoon (his first) and it falls far short of being truly funny. Another drawback is that the kitten is no match for Figaro in Disney's "Pinocchio," lacking the charm and humor of that kitten in the way it's animated.The whole situation is predictable from the start. The kitten's father is ill, so he has to hand over the job of night watchman to the kitty. Naturally, the mice take full advantage of the situation, which gets completely out of hand until the kitten's guardian angel (halo and all) gives him a serious pep talk which turns the kitten into a tiger who puts an end to all the boorish behavior of the mice.Unpretentious, but not a lot of fun. The style is too crude for the film to have the cuddly charm it aims for. In other words, it's a wobbly start for Chuck Jones.

phantom_tollbooth 'The Night Watchman' was the debut directional effort by that great master of animation, Chuck Jones. Typical of Jones's serviceable but rather dull Disney pastiches that characterised his early work, 'The Night Watchman' is an unbearably gooey little offering with a constant lack of energy that is sorely required to bolster the wafer thin plot. A young cat (a clear prototype for Jones's cloying early character Sniffles) takes over the post of night watchman when his father is too ill to carry out the job. Immediately, he falls foul of some tough guy rats who push him around and take advantage of the absence of any real threat to gorge themselves with food and have a big night out in the kitchen. Of course, the cat finally turns the tables when his conscience buoys him up for a big final showdown. Betraying none of the talent he would become famous for (and, let's be fair, this was his first film), Jones lays out the story in a straightforward, no-frills manner. The characters are all severely lacking in charisma, particularly the so-wet-you-almost-don't-feel-sorry-for-him cat, the animation is lumbering and predictable, the musical number is flat and the story doesn't build naturally, instead resorting to a tacked on and completely unsatisfying finale in which the cat does a too-sudden about face and metes out a workmanlike beating to each individual rat, a production line revenge that is less than thrilling to watch. Of course, Warner Bros. was still finding its feet as an animation studio and 'The Night Watchman' is not significantly worse than many of the lesser cartoons of the time but, other than its historical importance as Jones's debut, there's really nothing here that I'd recommend to the casual cartoon fan.

ccthemovieman-1 "Thos. Cat," the night watchman, is too sick to go to work so he gives his cap and flashlight to his little son.Soon, the mice (they look more like rats) see the little guy, find out he's subbing for his dad, and then go to work devouring all the food in the building's kitchen. How they eat the food, from bananas to olives to pretzels to watermelons, etc., is very funny.The mice even start cooking some steaks and the little tabby tells them, "Hey, fellas, please don't eat all the food. I'm supposed to protect this place." They tell him to scram, put on a quick floor show and then punch him out. The little mouse's guardian angel gives him a pep talk and things begin to change.Not bad: a cute little cartoon.