Free With Ads - Mouse Hunt

Episode Date: July 29, 2026

For our final July-brary film, we all went on Hoopla and watched "Mouse Hunt" the 1997 kids film starring Nathan Lane about a mouse who teaches coexistence through a series of slapstick Looney Toons gags. Next week we begin ANIMALS ATTACK AUGUST with... Congo. ----- Subscribe to Emily's new YouTube Channel The Anti-Craft. On August 20th, come to Minneapolis, MN and see Matt Lieb and his wife Francesca Fiorentini at the Parkway Theater for The Bitchuation Room Live! If you want a signed copy of the paperback version of Predator: Bloodshed go to bit.ly/bigdangfight Or just call your local library and make sure they start carrying Predator: Bloodshed. Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joinfreewithads

This is free with ads, the podcast that asks the question, why pay Disney plus 12 bucks a month for a bunch of cookie cutter family movies when you could go online with your library card for free and watch a kids movie with a very particular aesthetic that takes place in a generally old-timey but non-specific version of America? It's like a Cohen Brothers movie, but, you know, for kids. I'm Jordan Morris. And I'm Emily Fleming.

Today's movie is Mouse Hunt, your favorite kids movie if you were the kind of kid who hung out in antique stores wore bow ties to the playground and knew who Abbott and Costello were. With us as always is the super producer, the he freak Matt Lieb, hitting us with those slap sticky drops. I'm talking one mean pussy. Yeah. Yeah. They use that in all the commercials.

They use that in all the commercials. I knew you were going to use that one. You guys get the devil entendre? He was talking about a cat, people. Settled down. They were adopting a cat. Yeah. For the purposes of killing a mouse.

For the purposes of killing a mouse. Anyway, it's Jew Library, the last episode of Jew Library, our wonderful, wonderful month, where we watch movies using our library cards. Today's movie was watched on Hoopla. Also a good place to get audiobooks, comics, e-books, stuff like that. Yeah, we hope this has been fun for y'all. And if people haven't checked out these streaming services or gotten their library cards yet, do it. Do it, do it. Go do it.

Yeah. This has been a blast. You get some free stuff. It helps your library because it looks like more people are using the library. Everybody wins. And you don't have to hear ads. Yes. You don't have to hear ads.

Yeah, yeah. Which is nice. It's nice. You know, like why even get Netflix? Isn't there ads on there now? Or am I crazy? Cancel Netflix. Yeah.

Yeah. Cancel Disney Plus. Get library cards. You know what? Hoopla never did. Give Louis C.K. a stand-up special. That's God.

damn right. That's right. Hoopla never gave Louis C.K. shit. Yeah, exactly. Libraries are cool. Although. Libraries are cool. Can you can you check out mind-cunf? At libraries, probably. But that's fine,

though. That's right. Because they got books. That's the thing. Somebody's going to look it up on Hooplingo. Oh, the audio book is on you. Married it by Hitler. I was going to say read by Wallace, Sean. So, oh, God.

Speaking of, you know, speaking of Jews, I thought that, like, how do you guys say July? Jew, oh, July, yeah. I say July, but we've been saying Jew library all months. But for me. And everybody's been very cool about it, by the way. Everyone's been very cool. I'm giving you guys all of these saying July weird pass. Okay, cool.

Thank you. And I'll have that. We're going to talk about Mouse Hunt, which is, as of this recording, streaming free with your library card. But first, we're going to get to know one of our hosts in a segment we call Talk to Host. Talk to Host. Now, we watched this movie at a very opportune time because Emily, you're dealing with your own mouse hunt situation. Do you want to tell us exactly what's going on in your apartment at this moment?

So you guys, I've lived in this apartment for over five years. And throughout those five years, I have encountered mice. I have plenty of my stories I will be getting it to during this episode. I've had roaches forever. They were hilarious. I hope they were as hilarious as the instances in this movie. Okay. Well, there's, yeah, a little.

They're close. And then I had the roaches, which, you know, I feel like once you have roaches, you just have them. I have bug bombs that I've imported from Tennessee that are not legal in California that I set off in here. I love that. And that seems to help. No exterminator has ever been able. I have solved every problem. problem. But as of a couple weeks ago, I found a bedbug. Oh, okay. Nightmare. Nightmare.

I know. And as I know from living in this apartment, they do not know how to solve problems. Like this place, it's like, and I'm usually the only one. Being your landlord's, yeah. Yeah. The building manager. Like, does it take, I take things incredibly seriously. I've spent the past week and a half, um, shrink wrapping, like suction, plastic wrapping, all of my clothes. like washing every single thing I own. Oh, it's such a nightmare. And the bedbug guy came in. I mean, the one I found was like dead.

And it was on like, the bed bug guy was dead? I wish. I'm kidding. He was an asshole. He gave Louis C.K. a comedy. Yeah, exactly.

2026. The CEO of Netflix slash guy who runs a bed bug company. Yeah. So I lived in New York for five years. I've had friends that had them. I helped them like deal with the problems. I know what I'm supposed to do.

They had a bed bug guy come in. He checked everything and goes, I see no signs of them anywhere. It could be one that just hitchhiked onto your clothes and it's no big deal. And the landlord went, well, I don't think there's anything else you could do. But the bed bug guy goes, you could get a bed bug dog. And I was like, pray tell, what's that? And he goes, well, I can only see things like surface level or see if they might be a problem. but 99% of the time a bedbug sniffing dog will find a bed bug or two.

They're trained to smell them. I have to put away all of my cleaning supplies into plastic because you can't have things out that could be toxic to the dog. Okay. So I've been prepping forever, but I had to pay $500 because the building refused to pay it. Wow. But I'm going to pay for it because if there are bedbugs in here, I'm going to fuck these motherfuckers up.

I'm going to fuck them up. Like I'm going to get a lawyer. I'm going nuts because the five years of living in this apartment. I know what you're thinking. Emily, you should move. I love this apartment. Yes, and the rent's good. The rent's good.

I love the way this place looks. It's next to everything. I love my neighbors. I don't want to leave. But I want to make sure without a doubt that this apartment is good to go. And if this dog isn't fucking cute, I swear to God, I'm going to be so mad. What kind of dog do you think it's going to be? I think German Shepherd is probably what it's going to be.

I mean, yeah, what's the dog that with the best smell? I mean, Bloodhound is usually like the kind of the cop dog who's always smet-smell. Well, so are German shepherds often. That's true. Yeah, these are another type of cop dog. Fucking narc dogs. Yeah. He's narking on the bedbugs.

But it's like, you know, we're just trying to chill at Emily's bed. No loitering. Yeah. So, it's, this happens tomorrow. The bedbugs have a gun. Yeah. I saw you had one. He planted cocaine on these bedbugs?

He planted cocaine on the bedbugs. I mean, to be fair, the bed, like the dog is nice at this point. Yeah. My body cam malfunctioned. But it happens tomorrow, guys. Okay. Bug dog comes tomorrow, so I will report back in the next episode about how it goes. Wow.

Boy, this movie hit home hard. And crazy. Yeah, before we talk about the movie, after this discussion of Emily's potentially, I was going to say potentially vermin. infested apartment maximum fund.org slash join that's right please maximum fund dot org slash join that's how this podcast makes money uh help us afford a magic dog to get the bugs out of the house the um what y'all spending money with us is how i was able to afford this like truly so shout out to the freebies out there thank you thank you thank you thank you

to pay freebies listen just watch movies with your library card that's right to send the Netflix money to maximum fun.org. Yes. We have also never given Louis C.K. a stand-up. And we never will. And we never will. He wants to be on the show and we said,

no, sir. No, never. Yep. He keeps emailing us about that. Constantly. Yeah. Mel Gibson, too. Mel Gibson wants to be in.

He keeps emailing and he keeps FaceTiming us with his dick out. Yeah, he is. I was trying to think. The poll I was trying. You can say that. I jacked off in front of people. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, that's his thing. He deserves nothing less than to be made fun of for it. Yeah. I was trying to think of like, oh, what's the poll for the movie with public jacking off in it that like he would want to watch? Happiness. No, that's not. Is that in public jacking off?

Is that squid in the whale? Like when he like smears the cum on the like lockers? That's a big one. Oh, oh, I know what it is. It's Silence of the Lambs. Migs. Oh. There's a lot of movies.

Just pretend I said Louis C.K. wants to come. on and watch Silence of the Lambs. And laughing, laugh and laughing and think of it funny. Anyway, mouse hunt, yeah. I was stoked to get to watch this again. I saw this. This is a movie I watched multiple times in theaters. Wow.

And then I looked, I'm like, oh, this is like a probably movie we went to see as a family. I looked at when it came out. I was 15 when it came out. So I was maybe a little older than the Target audience. But I was like so into this movie. when it came out. Had y'all seen it? Never seen it.

I've always heard it was excellent. I saw it as a kid as well. And I was not 15, but I was still probably slightly too old to see it. And yeah, it's just one of those movies that stuck around in the back of my head forever, because it's like you'll see the title pop up every now and again and some streaming service. And you'll be like, oh, yeah, that movie. I've seen that. Was that a whole movie

just about trying to catch a mouse? No, that can't be. That's a dream I had. I thought maybe it was another Ouija, like, movie, you know, the movie, the Ouija one and two, those movies we saw before the game Mouse Trap, which was a board game that was around when we were kids

that I got and could not figure out how to set up and make work. A lot of little pieces, a lot of pieces. Yeah, and then there was part of me as I was watching it, rewatching it, where I wondered if this was like, another peanut butter solution where it feels like it's based off a children's book, but it's absolutely not based off a children's book.

And I'll tell you right now, spoiler alert, it is not based off a children's book. Well, yeah, Emily, is a reason you were curious about this movie because it's directed by Gore Vibinsky, the director of the ring? That blew my mind when I saw that because I was the credits pop up and I was like, oh, the guy who made the ring. Yeah. And then watching it, like, it looks like the quality of, like, it's beautiful. It's a beautiful movie.

I think all the movies he makes are very rich and dark and cool looking. He also did Pirates of the Caribbean. Yeah. What is it called? Rango. Oh, okay. I didn't know that. The one about the...

Lizard. The lizard. Yeah, animated lizard movie. Yeah, he's great. I've not seen that, but I'm... I get the impression that Rango is, like, big for a certain kid. There were like Rango kids who are now like, get to my core movie is Rango.

Yeah, I'm too old to be a Rango kid, but I have heard good things about it. It won an Academy Award. I think it won best animated feature. Oh, wow. Anyways. Rango Hive Rise Up. Yeah, exactly.

Ringo Hive. Well, yeah, Mousselts. So I think Gore Vibinsky got this movie off the strength of the Budweiser Frogs commercial that he directed. Yeah, straight-eyed. I know. I know. one of the Budweiser Frog. Oh, that's right. Yes. That's a very important piece of Emily lore. I found out like, so a friend of mine from high school who listens to the show, I guess,

said that his dad was a voice of one of the Budweiser frogs and he was lying. Oh, no. That's a really funny little kid lie. Yeah, that is. Well, it was high school, my dude. It was high school. But his dad was the voice of like tons of stuff. Like his dad was one of those voice actors who was in everything. But no, one of my children. church, like buddies, dads is one of the Budweiser frog. So that is true. I know one. I thought I knew two.

There was one like in your neighborhood. And this kid is like, well, I fucking want a little of this action. I'm just going to say my dad was a Budweiser frog. Well, he was in my high school theater. Like he was a theater kid. Theater kids are a liars. Well, yeah. I'm one of them.

What is what is the world but a stage to perform on? And what is a lie but a play you make up? That's, wow. To impress your friends. And that's why I told everyone, my dad was the coach of the Dodgers. So this movie starts with a quote. A world without string is chaos. We start at a funeral, pretty dour, pretty bleak.

Two brothers are moving their dad's coffin from the church to the hearse. This is Nathan Lane and Lee Evans. Lee Evans, wonderful, that guy from that thing. It's in all the Guillermo da Tora movies. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was trying to place where I'd seen him. He is that guy from that thing, but I couldn't even place the projects.

He was the guy who was pretending to need crutches and be British in the movie, something about Mary. I think he is British in real life, but he was pretending to be British in that scene when he was playing, when he was actually America. Anyways,

He's absolutely that guy from that thing. And fun to see him. You guys? What? So I looked. A third Budweiser frog is hit the Pentagon. I looked up what my friend's dad who is not a Budweiser frog, the voice of what he was. Okay.

I knew it was related to this. But go ahead. Five years is the voice of Miller Light. Five years is the voice of Coors beer. Seven years is the voice of bullseye barbecue sauce. Five years is the voice of KFC. Four years as the voice of Napa Auto Parts. four years as the voice of the Kool-Aid man.

Wow. Okay. Wow. Way cooler. That's a lot. Why do you need to fucking make shit up? You say my dad's the Kool-Aid man. Yeah, no shit.

That blows my fucking mind. I love that. You know, those frogs were hot. Those frogs were so hot. They were. I guess. If he was the one-up guy, that would be way better. Yeah, but you can see that guy.

You can prove that's not your dad. You might have been voiced overdubbed. That's true. You might be right. You might be right. So, yeah, we have the scene. Nathan Lane, so they're two mismatched brothers. Nathan Lane, he's kind of a, you know, grumpy high status guy.

Lee Evans, he's like a sweet kind of doe-eyed dumb guy. Yeah, bumbling. So they drop their dad's coffin and the dad's coffin, the coffin goes down the stairs, hits the hers, and the dad's body pops out, does a flip, and goes into the sewer. And that's just a movie letting you know. This is a cartoon. Yeah. This is, we are trying to just make a cartoon in real life with some CGI.

Not bad CGI, too. It's definitely like 90 CGI in a little bit. But I mean, I think it's that thing where it, that I think these movies do well is that like the thing we don't do anymore, which is have some practical stuff. We got some mice. We got some puppets. And then, you know, you augment it when you can. Yeah. Absolutely.

So yeah, still this movie is still very, very fun to look at. Yeah. You said it, you mentioned Abbott Costello in the. in the intro. Yes. But I feel like this movie is very Laurel and Hardy, which I'm a Laurel and Hardy diehard, like a man. My grandparents were in the Sons of the Desert fan club, which is the official.

Laurel and Hardy fan club? Yes. I've wanted to join a chapter, which there's not very many left. But they require blood sacrifice. Well, I'll do it. I got mice in here. I can bring. And bedbugs.

But no. So the Magic Castle, if you are a member of the Magic Castle, you can join the Sons of the Desert chapter within the Magic Castle. But I have to become a member of the Magic Castle in order to join. It's like a cable package. I know. So should I do it? If you get your Disney Plus through AT&T, we'll throw in a little bit of Magic Castle. Should I like pay for some classes at the Magic Castle become a member?

Magic Castle for people don't know, it's like a members only magic club in L.A. and you have to like know a magician to get in. Straight up. You know. It sounds like a secret fuckhouse. It is literally we're talking magicians. Like pick a card, any card. No, it is cool.

But when you describe it to people who haven't heard it, it does sound like eyes wide shut. Like it sounds like we're talking in code. We're not. It's truly it's magicians doing doing magic tricks. So yes. You know, body goes flying cartoon world. Dad, dad owned a story. string factory and we get to like see this string factory it's very rub goldberg it's very like

dun da da da da da da da da da da da da da da and like it just looks so cool it's just fun to watch the little string get made all these little devices pulling string out of stuff very neat i was also thinking about which they kind of Mario canton kind of brings this up in the movie where it's like what is the difference between string versus twine versus thread versus rope versus cord it's It's like, and they kind of answer it. Yeah. Like, it's really funny. Yeah.

So they're kind of getting the will read to them. You know, you get the sense that Lee Evans kind of stayed close to the dad. But Nathan Lane kind of went off and did his own thing and is kind of a strange. Doesn't care about the dad. He's a restaurant. He's a artist. Yeah. Oh, I think he's a regular artist and a creative.

And yes. He had a French accent in his restaurant. Okay. That's a good point. You're making a good point. So yes, what Nathan Lane has gone off and done has become a fancy restaurant guy. And yeah, he fakes a French accent to seem fancier because like in the world of this movie, fancy people have French accents. I love just a little kid.

Well, French restaurants are the fanciest of restaurants. That's a fanciest food for some reason, even though I'm like, have you ever had, I don't know, Mexican food's better than French food. I disagree. A lot of American food like is from like French food. cuisine like chef books are all they kind of come from french cuisine so if you go to bistro like the titanic was all french like cuisine so it's like filet mignon and then patte and then like green beans and stuff like a steak big deal they made steak have you ever had carne isada in a burrito i have fucking best shit in the world take that french you're very right um so yeah uh the uh the the and and wouldn't you know it the the mayor

come to this French restaurant. The fanciest guy in the city comes to the fanciest restaurant. And Nathan Lane has a box of old cigars. Yeah, Cuban cigars that he is bequeathed from his dad. And yes, that is there for some reason. Well, dad only left them the factory.

He doesn't want them to sell it. He left it to the brothers. He also left a magic piece of string to them. And then he left a... Baburget egg, half a box of Cuban cigars, and spoons. Yeah. So the roach gets out of this cigar box, crawls into the mayor's food. Mayor eats it.

We get a little CGI Roach going around. And also, the mayor is eating here, and everyone from the news media is here filming the mayor having dinner. There's just like 10 different news outlets filming the mayor having dinner. And Nathan Lane. gets blamed for the mayor the mayor dies because of the roach. He kills the mayor.

Kills the mayor. I can't stress that enough. This movie starts out with first his dad flying out of the coffin into a manhole. And then later on, he kills the mayor. Kills the mayor. Yes.

With a roach head. Kind of like chokes on it has a heart attack, which I wonder how many roaches I've eaten in my sleep. Yeah, a lot. Probably a lot. I'm never alone, though. You got to get a roach dog in their neck. Yeah.

Well, I was thinking the two of you have cats. Do your cats get any pest control going on? Nope. My cat is a lazy shit. Yeah. All she does is look at flies. She used to pounce. When she was younger, she would pounce on a fly and eat it.

And I was like, that's so badass. And now she just looks at it. It just lives. Yeah, I feel like they only have a small window of when they are kind of getting their predator instincts out and then it kind of goes away. Yeah, they become fancy and they start complaining and they go like, where's my food? I'm tired. But I'm like, maybe I get.

I know there's food in my bowl, but I want it to be in the middle of the bowl. It should be more in the middle. There's straight up toddlers, dude. It is crazy. It's touching the edge. Yeah. Ew. Can you mash it up a little bit?

You know I like it better mashed. Dude, I literally can't put in cat food that if it's out of a can and it comes out cubed, it'll be like, what are you doing? I have to mash it with a fork and then and then cute little shitty with it. My sister, like her cat, you put a little bit of warm water on top of it and then make it to a mash kind of soupy thing and he really likes it like that and only like that. It sticks to the plate less too by the way. Cats don't do shit. I know. I love them.

Oh, well. They're beautiful. Perfect. Well, not the one in this movie, which by the way, I suggested a the worst cat sting from the third man. Yeah. There was a shitty cat in the third man. And it wouldn't let anyone pet it. That's right.

It jumped out a window rather than let people pet it. But it's solved in the crime. It solved in a way. That's true. I don't care. In the way, it's the best cat. Maybe we'll do. Well, this is the worst cat.

All right. I want to sting. Well, yes, cat coming up. But yeah, so Lee Evans, he goes home to his wife. News Radio. Vicki Lewis. from news radio and that bad Godzilla movie. Always good to see her.

Love her. You know, she's kind of an insulting money hungry wife character, which is, you know, a little broad, but, you know, it's who I'd play. Okay. Oh. So we'd play.

Yeah. But she throws him out. He goes to like an all-night diner. It's like Christmas. They write Merry Christmas in capers on his sandwich. Turns out it's Nathan Lane working in the, working in the diner, working in the greasy spoon. They both have nowhere to go.

So they go, they're like, well, we're going to go live at the old house that dad willed us. Dad will them an old, an old house. They both have to sleep in the same bed. There's only one bed. That's fun. And they hear. Laurel and Hardy. Yeah, yeah.

And they hear, they slept in the same bed. Scratching. That's right. Hear us scratching in the attic. And they go up there. They look for what it is. Just a bunch of sight gags. Nathan Lane gets his face stuck in a painting.

They try to move stuff and whirl around and hit each other in the head. Their heads go up through the ceiling. I laughed more at this than I have at an entire season of the bear. I'm just kidding, of course. I've never seen the bear. But I assume this scene of them in the attic probably has more yucks. Yes. This is a funnier, this is a funnier piece of media about two brothers who are yelling

at each other. I guess they're cousins in the bear, but still. So mouse one, bear zero. Yeah. The bear, have more gags in the show. You want to wait some Emmys? Let me tell you what to do. Have an actual bear in it. How about? Yeah, where the fuck is the bear's face? Go through a

painting and it looks like his face is the painting face. Exactly. That's comedy. Yeah. But yeah, they they see the scratching in the attic was the mouse. The titular mouse from the mouse hunt. He's very, very cute and he just gets fucking cuter as it goes. We learn later that the house, not just a dusty old house, but it is a Charles

Leroux, a famous architect built the house. So of course, everybody fucking wants it. They're going to have a big auction to sell the house. There's this big crazy, rich guy who just wants it more than anything. There's a great gag. So the guy talks about he collects houses. He collects Lerouxs. And he goes, you see these shoes?

And they go, those were his shoes? And he goes, no, but he would have loved them. Yeah. It's so funny. I love that joke. It reminds me of this one joke real quick. I booked a commercial for this clothing store. It was like for denim. And we shot, I had to like dance in blue jeans. The store does not exist anymore.

But it was so hot in there because they had to turn off the air conditioning that I didn't realize I'd started my period and I bled through the jeans. Oh, huh? And I was so mortified. And I had to like, you know, go to the bathroom with the. like the costume lady or the wardrobe lady and I was like oh my god this is the worst thing that could happen and she goes no imagine if you were like doing a wedding dress shoot and I was like oh my god is that happen and she goes no but can you imagine I was like you know but I can

I love that that's a good way of making someone feel better and then just imagine what if you got shot yeah exactly that would be worse like while we're imagining imagine that this scenario hadn't happened yeah that'd be better So they know that this house is worth something. And they side the first thing to do, get rid of the mouse. We see, we see the mouse go in his little mouse hole. Dude. He gets in a little bed that's like a matchbook.

And he covers up with a little cotton. And he stares at a postcard from Hawaii. Like he wants to go to Hawaii. They don't do it. The mouse is dreaming about going to Hawaii. Well, they do send him to Cuba at one point. They do. They do.

We mail him to Cuba, which has a beach. It has a beach there. And so they're trying to just like imply that this mouse has this inner life. And he has a friend who sends him postcards. Right. Where did he get it? Like, how did he put it up? Probably the same place where that cardboard cutout was in the pond in a fucking bathtub.

Oh, yeah. That was like a Hawaiian kind of hula girl kind of thing. Yeah, the hot tub that Nathan Lane buys later. But yeah, so it's a good point. He's in, so the mouse is like in his little wall. And then this next segment is just from the mouse's perspective. Yeah. Of nails coming through the wall.

Yeah, trashing his home. Lee Evans is just shooting nails in the wall. And you could have see them going in. And this is more exciting than the last five Fast and Furious movies. Yes. So well done. Yes. I have seen those.

Yes. This rivaled like Indiana Jones level suspense. Oh, that's very true. Running and trying. Indiana Jones fighting on a tank. Yeah. But it's his mouse running away from these nails. Yes.

It was, it's, and also it immediately changes the movie. Um, you know, you've got these like two, um, you know,

kind of like bumbling brothers who are fighting over stuff. But they're your protagonist. So you're kind of looking for something. I don't know. Um, uh, something to, reasons to like them, let's say.

Uh, something redeeming about their personalities. Once they, destroy this mouse's home immediately they are the bad guys and you're like on the mouse's side you're like okay fuck these guys they can't come in here and try to ruin this mouse's life yeah he's got to get to hawaii yeah this guy's just living his fucking truth he's like sleeping in a cute little bed although this is like if stuart little was michael myers like yeah it kind of like there are points where you're just like damn this mouse really goes hard

Yeah, but yeah, I do love this mouse. Mouse is good. So, yeah, he, like, he fucks them up. They go to, they go to the pound to get a cat. Is it a pound or is it like a scientific experimental lab that breeds scary cats? This, everyone in this animal shelter or lab or whatever is wearing a hazmat suit. You see them take a little kitten in a cage and put it in a chamber that fills with gas. It's so, so grim.

It's so fucked up, dude. It's really fucked up. It's crazy. Yeah. And then later, when they're like, no, we want a real, not a kitten. I know everyone comes in here wants a kitten. We want like a grown cat, a cat that's seen some shit. Yeah.

A machine. And they're like, oh, there is one cat for you, you know. And you're lucky because he keeps surviving attempts at getting gassed. I forget how the line goes. It's like they've tried to gas him twice. twice apparently he survived. It's like serial killer cats or something that they're gassing. I don't know.

So, yeah, so they get this cat who you like, you know, you don't really see him for a while. He's in a box. He's just like, you know, screeching in this box. They take it home. It's like legs, those little legs come out of the box and then the box runs around. So then it just turns into Tom and Jerry for 15 minutes. It just turns into Tom and Jerry where this cat is chasing the mouse. They go on a piano and the piano plays.

That's like really funny. Yeah. It's funny. than anything that happens on the bear. I love all the strays the bears get it. It's like everyone's favorite comedy. Yeah, I don't get it either. And you know what?

I've never seen it. I've never watched it. Yeah. Yeah. I don't want to see it either. Everyone talks about how stressful it is. And it's like, I don't see safety movies for the same reason. The first two seasons are fine.

By the end of the second season, you're pretty much done with it. I think, yeah, I think I have, you know, and I think we're kind of, we're moving back a little bit. But I think we just had so many years of unfunny comedies. Yeah, I'm just done with it. And, you know, sometimes those, like, shows can be, you know, can be cool or they can be fun or kind of be clever. Anyway, but I'm just like, what, are you? Make me laugh. Give me a sitcom.

You laugh when you watch media anymore. Yeah, I know. It's just like, there's a lot of that stuff and not a lot of the other stuff. Fair, fair. Just this goofball shit. I'm just like, awesome. Great. Give me more.

Yeah. Anyway, I'm sure the bear's fine. So, you know, they do a little Tom Jerry. Oh, they hire. exterminator Christopher Walken who comes in and just fucking walkins it up for 10 minutes. Which is an incredible little cameo for him because he's there just for this like sequence of scenes in which he is bested by the mouse but he is also insane. And it's, uh, yeah, it's just, it's just wonderful. Like this movie really is firing on all cylinders, but it's just, it's just so confusing because you keep looking at the poster for it.

This is this is a kid's movie about mouse. Why they go so hard? Yeah. Also, he had a lot of like, you talk about those, is it rude Goldberg machine? Yeah, a lot of Rube Goldberg machines. Yeah, I mean,

he had like, there's this ultimate bug bomb thing, which is like what I ordered from Tennessee. Yeah, that's right. And then he had like all these little magnifying glasses things. It's just fun, all the little gadgets and gizmos. He's like a steampunk guy.

He's like a Jules Verne exterminator. It's very cool. It was hard for him to choose his weapon of choice. Mm-hmm. Oh, yes. Like the fat boy Slim song that he was in the video. That's right. That was good.

I know what things are. I remember. Thank you. Thank you. Very good. And yeah, this was at the height of like, and, you know, maybe at the time, this is the time everyone was doing Christopher Walk and impersonation. Yes.

And it kind of little old. Yeah. And this was kind of maybe them capitalizing off that a little bit of, oh, he's kind of a comedy guy now. Yeah, but it worked. He wasn't going to walk in, like, voice-wise in this, I don't think. No, yeah. He, I mean, I think, I think he does just have the one mode.

Yeah. And they, does he, does he kind of like Nicholas Cage? See, Nicholas Cage has multiple voices. I think he has multiple voices, yes. This is the ongoing argument. Is Nicholas Cage doing a voice in Spider-Nois or is that just his voice? I will take this to my grave. It is the hill.

slash join here our episode about it okay so yeah the mouse fucks up Christopher Walkin

so Nathan Lane decides he's going to like betray his brother and sell the factory to two two string gangsters

one of which is played by Mario Cantonone they're mafia guys who want to buy it and turn it into a cord factory

and then they have this argument about the difference between string and cord it's very funny so he gets together with these guys to like sell off the factory under his brother's nose, but he gets distracted by two babes.

Two babes. Belgian hair models. I love them. They're great. And they, and it's just, it's funny. It is just a little kid's idea of what a sexy woman is. It's a woman with a fur coat and lots of jewels. Yes.

They're just these rich and they're sitting on a, you know, a bench. They like wave to Nathan Lane and go like you who. It's very funny. And he's waving. with his tie and he's about to walk over there and his hat flies off. His hat? That's, come on.

Come on. You guys to get his hat. That's classic. When men used to wear hats, we could do hat gags. You could do hat bits and then get ready for the sting mat. He gets in the road and gets hit by a bus and you know what happens when that is in the movie.

There you go. Who the driver doesn't be. And he accidentally. is hit by a car. That's right. The bus in this situation. It might be my favorite sting. It's a great sting.

It's a great sting. If I don't say so myself. It's a great sting. So, yeah. He lives. He lives. The Belgian hair models follow him to the hospital. And his brother shows up too.

His brother shows up. And he, so the brother is having this. So Vicki Lewis now knows that the house is worth something. And so now she's kind of trying to get in on it. She gives them the money. They have a mortgage they need to pay off. So she gives them the money. There's this thing where she finds out when like a creditor guy comes to her house.

And she comes out in like a sexy nurse outfit and they don't mention it. I bet there was a gag where she's like role play sexing somebody in there. I thought she was just a nurse. Oh, you know? Maybe you're right. Maybe you're right. Because it's like, is this the 40s? Like, I don't know.

When does the movie take place very unclear? We don't know when the movie takes place. It's in its own universe. It takes place whenever Cruella Deville existed in a cartoon, I feel like. That's fair. But yeah, I thought that this was, you know, kind of playing off the previous scene with like a what a kid thinks sexuality is. Right.

Where there was just like, I mean, it is just a live action bugs bunny. I mean, sexy nurse is like, it's classic. She's like, oh, I need to re-siduce my husband. so I'm going to dress up as sexy nurse. And he's like, okay, he shows up to the hospital and he is wearing a dress? Well, no, because she comes to the string factory in a little, like, lingerie number with feathers and everything. Seduces him, babe bang, presumably. And then he's wearing her, like, feathered, sexy, like, outfit at the hospital because he had to rush out of there, I guess, like, to go.

So there's that gag too where he's trying to restart the string machine himself and he'll his clothes get caught on it. Oh, that's what it was. It unspools his clothes. It gets just a great, great little piece of physical comedy from him, really well directed, really funny. Amazing. So yeah, then he's, so he's nude. He has to wear the wife's thing. And now they're like on it.

We need to sell the house. They try all this shit to kill the mouse. Nothing works. And finally, Lee Evans hits it with an orange. He's throwing an orange at Nathan Lane. who he's mad at because of the betrayal. It knocks the mouse out and they can't kill it.

They, like us, the audience, have fallen in love with the mouse. And they love it. They put it inside the very same Cuban cigar box that caused the mayor to die early in the movie. Once again, he kills the mayor

of New York in the movie. This is the most like outlandish car. Watching this movie was a very strange experience for me. I was like, man, back then, you could just do whatever you wanted in movies. If it was a kid's movie, you could just kill political figures. It didn't matter. Yeah, I, you know what I think of as like the relative of this movie, the closest thing we have now is the Paddington movies. This really reminded me of those Paddington movies in a fun way. Those are kind of like, you know, they're a little dark, but they're live action and they're kind of cartoony and they're, anyway, yeah, I was like, you don't have Paddington if you don't have this movie. Yeah, for sure.

And Stuart Little is another good one that I love. I never saw the movie. I never saw that. Written by M. Night Shyamalan, though. Stuart Little was? Really? Yes, it was. That's the biggest twist of any movie I've ever heard. Yeah, Stuart Little, the movie, was written by M. Night Shyam Malone.

Does it have a crazy twist like he's in a zoo or something? He's dead the whole time. No, no, there's no twist in the movie, but it's like there's a couple of them. Gina Davis is in it. We had, we loved that movie so much that we had a little remote control car that had a Stuart Little in it that went around in our house. Oh, I love that. We love that movie.

So yeah, they, I love, we love the books as kids. I should totally watch the Stewartville. Yeah, yeah, we should watch that. Oh, so they mail them to Cuba. They just addressed the box to Fidel Castro in Cuba. They send it, but you see it go to Cuba and it had insufficient postage, so they mail it back to them. Meanwhile, they're having a big gala for the auction.

Oh, this is kind of where shit hits the fan and all the crazy stuff happens. Let's take a little break. We'll talk about the end when we come back. We're back. It's free with ads. We're talking about mouse hunt. So, big auction to try and sell this house. The mouse is back.

And it's just the most insane, high-octane, like, collection of gags. there's like, so the mouse is running around. Eats the twine, or the string, apologies. It's the lucky string. They, what's just some stuff that happens here? Okay, well, what thing that happens is the worst hat. The worst hat happens. Oh, it's on one of the hair models.

She's got a, oh, how dare you? She looks amazing. She does, but it's like, this is the most insane thing I've ever seen. It's, it's cool. It's very cool, but it's a shitty hat. Let's be real. It sets on fire. So yeah, so one of them has like a hair carousel.

And then the other one has a string-themed hairdo because she loves string. So she's obviously- Love spools. Yes. So yeah, a bunch of crazy stuff happens. There's like an olive that this rich guy chokes on that he spits into Vicky Lewis's mouth and she chokes on it. Then they fall in love somehow.

Yeah, they do fall in love. Yeah. They do fall in love. It's really beautiful. And at this auction, it is important to note that, Nathan Lane is given the opportunity to call off the auction and just sell the house to the main rich guy for $10 million. And he says no. And at this point in the movie, you are just like, okay, well, they deserve everything that happens from the mouse.

You know, because there comes a point in the movie where you start feeling genuinely bad for them because you're like, you know, man, they really are like fucking up this opportunity. It seems like they're going to be pretty destitute. It sounds like dad was a difficult man. Sounds like dad was, they still haven't fully mourned the loss of their dad. Sure. He was probably still down that manhole. He's probably in legal trouble because he killed the mayor. Oh, yeah.

You know, and now they're like, you know, playing with fire with all this like money troubles. And then he says no to $10 million. I was like, fuck him. This mouse deserves to do everything to these guys. 100%. The mouse was right. So to kind of get him, they put a hose in the wall, but they forget to turn it off. And yes, very cartoony.

The wall starts to bulge with water. And then there's a huge flood. All the rich people get swept out. And the house collapses. I have a story. Oh, sure. Oh, please. All right.

So I did have mice in here. We handled the mice. I got humane traps, like where they would just go into a little tube. And then I'd let them go at the elementary school across the street. Wait, what? I thought kids will like the little mice. They'll know. They can go on a little mouse hunt themselves.

Because like there's going to be like people's lunch. Like you know, there's going to be like little ziplock baggies full of carrots and things. Anyway, just get the fuck out of my house. But so I went outside. This is two weeks ago after all of the scary stuff happened. And our poor maintenance men are putting hose into these holes like around the front yard. And I watched one of the mice like, or it was a. rat, big rat, drowned to the top, and then he stomped on its head.

Oh, boy. Oh, shit. And I came out and went, oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God. And he goes, he curbs, stomped the mouse in front of you. He curbs stomped a mat, like, and there were bunches of rats, like, in there. So there's tons of holes, like, all over the front yard of this building. And then we have, like, vines that cover the front of the building. And they're now in the vines.

Yeah, I know that they can live, they can live in vines. They can live in trees. They're like, they're, they're, like, they're, they're, really good at surviving. And I'm like, we, as much as I love the, um, the exterior, like, aesthetic of the, of the vines, I think the vines have got to go. They got to go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's like eight holes that they've just stuck hoses down into and drowned up rats and stomped on them. But I love this apartment. I love this apartment. Please help me. Help me. Slash join. The utilities are included.

So the, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they, They have nowhere to live now. The house got demolished. They go to the string factory, and the mouse follows them there, and he puts a wheel of Nathan Lane's fine French cheese into the string machine. And it makes string cheese. We get a little wipe to the new version of the string factory, combining the loves of the two brothers, string and food. And they're making gourmet string cheeses. and the mouse is on Nathan Lane's shoulder,

and he's wearing a little chef's hat. That's right. That's right. Straight up. That's the best hat in the movie. He's ratatooeying. Yes, mouse hunt walked so that ratatooey could run. It's true.

It's like ratatooey if it was like Patrick Bateman. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's okay. There's something there. Yeah.

But yeah. If they were still funny or die. If they were still funny or die, you could get 300 bucks for that idea. That's right. 300 bucks. Yeah, I love. College credit for that idea. I love the melding.

They didn't pay anybody anything. The melding of like the two brothers like interest plus the mouses. Yeah. There was something at the end that I was just like, oh my God, this is about peace in the Middle East. Okay, okay. Sure. After a while I was seeing this and I was just like. like, man, this is, this really has hit me hard and I don't know why.

As soon as it ends with them all, you know, working together, I was like, this is beautiful. What a beautiful, neat ending for this movie that's about a mouse. Oh, yeah. It's really gorgeous. Well, yeah, that's Mouse Hunt. Let's do the Hunk Watch. It's Hunk Watch. Any thoughts on the Hunk's system?

It's Christopher Wacken for me. Okay. He was really, his is great. I just felt very like in the right hands when he came in in his little thing, which we weren't. He, you know, couldn't handle the mouse. He gets basically almost killed by a mouse, but he does. But he seemed like a man who was passionate about his work. And I was like, what other passions does he have?

That's important. You have to, if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. That's true. Until you die, by a mouse. Until you die. I'm going to go ahead and say it. I think we're, I think we're all kind of on the same page about this. Belgian hair models.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, double trouble. Yeah. Yeah. They're hot. They're Belgian.

They like spools. They like spools. They love decadent, beautiful, like clothing and jewels. They're not afraid to, um, to approach a man who they're attracted to. Yes. I love that. They're the ones waving at Nathan Lane. and, you know, of course, through a series of events,

he did end up getting hit by a bus because of them. But still, I thought that was nice. But the other brother does end up with our spool hat. I know. Yeah. Yeah. Which is perfect. My hunk is, I am split.

Is it the fucking mouse? Yeah. We love the mouse. God damn it. The mouse was my first hunk, but I think my ultimate hunk is, the practical effects puppet cat. Okay. When the evil cat who's supposed to destroy the mouse,

spoiler alert, he does not destroy the mouse, is revealed once he comes out of his cage, it is clearly this puppet, this live action puppet. And I just love a good bit of puppetry. And I was like, you know what, that puppet cat looks like a gentleman.

Hi-fired. Yeah. Okay. That's my hung. He's a good boy. Puppet cat. Okay. But also the worst cat.

Oh. You know? You might be right. Give me, give me, give me. Sting. All right. You got it. You got it.

The worst cat. He did it live, folks. He did it live. Yay. Did it live. Okay. We're going to tell you what we thought about mouse hunt when we come back. Hey, we're back.

It's free with ads. We're going to tell you what we thought about mouse hunt. But first, some very important free with ads. announcements. First of all, our bonus episodes. We've talked about them on this episode so far, but we want to remind you to listen to all our stuff. You got to go to maximum fun.org slash join.

We have a new show called We like shows. We like shows. And yeah, so we're going around the horn. We're each picking a TV pilot, something we're into now, an all-time favorite. Emily's pick next month, it's going to be good. We're going to, well, maybe let's save the reveal. But Emily's got a pilot for us to watch.

It's going to happen next month. So make sure you're all joined up. Maximumfun.org slash join. This has been a very, very fun theme month. Let's roll right into the next one. Everybody, next month is August. That means like we did last year, we're doing it again. Animals Attack August.

Triple A, all animal attack movie. for the entire month. I have the sting. Animals attack, August. Yeah. There it is. All the animals. You guys remember that from last year?

Well, we're doing it again. I forgot about it, but it's really good. I like the earth. Bears, sharks, skaters, who knows what kind of animals are going to attack us. You got to stay tuned to find out. And, hey, we've had a lot of fun doing these movies for Jew Library. So I think we're going to open up the world of our show to movies on the library apps. So moving forward, we love the free section of YouTube.

We love all your tubis and your Zumo plays. But yeah, Can't It Be and Hoopla? Fair game. So, yeah, we might be watching movies on these apps. That's right. Maybe we'll put a little question mark at the end of ads. We with ads? Don't complain about the name of the show.

That's dumb. Nobody wants to hear that. We know. So, okay, maximum fun.org, slash join, bonus episodes, animals, attack, August. Okay, good, good, good. Ratings.

Yeah, I'll go first. Very fun to revisit this movie. Loved it as a, I was going to say, loved it as a kid, but I loved as a teenager, I guess. You were still a kid. It still counts. Yeah, this is so much fun to watch.

It's so funny. It's so weird. It's got such a very, just kind of weird, specific world it's in. Yeah, I think I'm going to give it an eight. I had a blast rewatching it, very funny, lots of laughs. And yeah, I don't know if this movie will work for every kid.

I do think you have to have a weird kid on your hands. But if you have a weird kid, this might be their favorite movie ever. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know in a, you know, in a world full of Euphinius and Ferbzes and cocoa melons, if this would still hit with its intended audience. But I like to think that there's, you know, some little goobers out there who would love all this stuff. Emily, what did you think? I agree with you.

An eight is what I'm going to give it. It feels like the kids who would like this are kids who would one day like Jackass, which now that I think about it, Laurel and Hardy and the Three Stooges and everything, Jackass wouldn't exist if it were for those guys. I'd be like it is kind of a distant cousin to them. I, of course, watching people's lives fall apart is sometimes hard to watch. Like there's this kind of like, oh, like your word.

But then once you just kind of let it go and go, that's what this is. This is about just everything going wrong. Just let it go wrong. It's a blast. And God, the amount of like physical gags, it's hard,

like what movies have this many physical gags anymore? Like, it is like an Olympic level physical gag movie. Totally. And they're so funny. Nathan Lane and the Evans are so funny in this. And just like pure, pure comedy,

they're just working hard and it's all going great. It's a blast. Matt, what did you think? I really love this movie. I'll be honest, when it started, I was watching it, and I was like, oh, right, you know, I saw this movie as a kid, and it really is a kid's movie. So, you know, immediately I started tuning out, you know, not fully paying attention to it. And then as the movie went on, more and more jokes started getting more and more. I don't know advanced I guess like more and more for adults and and it piqued my interest as it went on by the end of the movie I was just

completely wrapped up in the metaphor of this movie about like this movie about coexistence and this movie about greed and I was just like god this is uh I think this movie could heal the world uh and so by the end of it I was I was completely emotionally attached to it so I'm going to give it an eight as well. I think it's a really, a really great movie, better than a kid's movie. Yeah, eight's across the board for Mouse Hunt. All right.

Anybody got any plugs? I am going to go ahead and say, look out for my YouTube channel. There will at least be a promo up by now. Cool. So I will have Matt add the link in the show notes. And the channel is called the Anticraft. Okay, subscribe up everybody.

It's arts and crafts, but I don't, it's for people who suck at arts and crafts like me. Hey, subscribe, ring that bell maybe, right? Is that something people? Yeah, bring the bell. Ring the bell. And yeah. Matt, you got anything? Thursday, August 20th, I'm going to be in Minneapolis with my wife at the Parkway Theater.

We're going to be doing a live version of her podcast, The Bituation Room. Please come to that. It's going to be a really fun time. So come and see us do some jokes together. It's going to be great. Parkway Theater. Excellent. I've got a little Joe Library themed plug for everybody.

I've talked about my Marvel comic series with Rory Coleman and Roland Boshi, Predator Bloodshed, all five issues have come out. But that means the trade paperback collection is on its way. If you want a signed copy of that Predator Adventure written by me, you go to bit.l.ly slash big dang fight, bit.l.ly slash big dang fight. And that's a, I can personalize it because it's a book. So if you want to me to write, you know, worst hat or something in it, I'll do it. Re references to the podcast. But also, I, this dawned on me, since it is a collection of books sold through what we call the book market, you can request it at your library. I feel like your library needs a copy of predator bloodshed for your entire community to enjoy. So if you're hard up, if you already got the single issues, if you don't want to go to bit.ly slash big dang fight, you can just call your local library say, hey, make sure we we get predator bloodshed, helps the book, helps your community to be more educated as to what to

do if the predator should attack. All right. Next week, Animals Attack August begins with our first movie, Congo. Maximum Fun. A worker-owned network. Of artists-owned shows. Supported directly by you.