utgard14 Sylvester's masters are going to get rid of him because there are no mice around and his main job was as the mouse catcher. So Sylvester finds a scared little mouse to be his slave, catching him over and over in front of the masters so they will think he is valuable to the household. But the mouse gets wise to Sylvester's game and turns the tables on him. This is a funny short, thanks in large part to the little mouse. He's a hoot! The animation is bright and colorful with well-drawn characters and backgrounds. The music is lively and fun. Wonderful voice work from the incomparable Mel Blanc. An enjoyable cartoon with great characters and a cute story.

TheLittleSongbird Looney Tunes, Sylvester and Robert McKimson are a good mixture, the Looney Tunes cartoons are childhood favourites that a vast majority of the time hold up very well and are even better from an adult perspective, Sylvester is a great funny character who can work equally well with another character or on his own and Robert McKimson(while somewhat in the shadow of Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett and Fritz Freleng) has been responsible for lots of fun cartoons and some classics also. The Unexpected Pest doesn't see either of them at their best, with a predictable set-up and a few gags that while nice we've seen many times already and since(ie. throwing objects from a great height, getting hands caught in mouse-traps). The beginning sets the cartoon well but there isn't really anything that wows, it's really when the mouse comes on the scene when The Unexpected Pest comes to life. The animation is very good though, simple but colourful and careful in design, while the music score keeps the energy levels high and brings much character to the proceedings. While you have seen some of it before, that doesn't stop The Unexpected Pest from being strong amusing entertainment, with nicely timed gags and very witty dialogue(Sylvester gets the best lines). The set-up is predictable, but the execution of the actual story is neat and is paced well with some nice twists. The ending works especially well, with a turning-of-the-tables sort of situation. The mouse is a fun character as well as cute, Sylvester as ever is the one who steals the show. Mel Blanc's vocals are superb, every single character he voiced came to life and largely because of him. He was one of those few voice actors who could voice more than one character in the same cartoon and not only give them different personalities and such but also make them funny and memorable. To conclude, familiar but neat and amusing. 7/10 Bethany Cox

phantom_tollbooth Robert McKimson's 'The Unexpected Pest' is a neatly plotted little cartoon with some unusual twists and genuine laughs. When Sylvester's owners realise that they don't need him now that he's got rid of all the mice, the cat has to seek out a mouse to save himself from becoming homeless. Threatening him with being eaten unless he follows his instructions, Sylvester uses the mouse hundreds of times in order to convince his owners that they have an infestation. I won't spoil the fun by elaborating further but the final few plot twists make for some very funny moments indeed. 'The Unexpected Pest' moves at a fairly leisurely pace and isn't much to look at but the script is great and McKimson wisely throws the spotlight firmly on the story. It's best the first time you see it but, with the delicious knowledge of what's to come also enhancing the fun, 'The Unexpected Pest' stands up to repeated viewings too. It's a solid cartoon and it's always a pleasure to see Sylvester without either of the twin drag factors, Tweety or Speedy Gonzalez.

Lee Eisenberg I'm 99% sure that Robert McKimson intended "The Unexpected Pest" as purely wacky entertainment, and it certainly entertains. However, I noticed that the plot - Sylvester forces a mouse to be his slave, but then the mouse uses the predicament against Sylvester - is not unlike situations that we see in geopolitics. One example is US-Saudi relations: Saudi Arabia's government can't survive without US support (lest the people rise up against the government), and the US economy can't survive without Saudi Arabia's oil (if Saudi Arabia's government cut off oil shipments, what do you think would happen to our country?). Beyond that, the US government considers Sudan's government a terrorist government, but can't criticize them over atrocities in Darfur because Osama bin Laden once lived in Sudan, and so dictator Omar al-Bashir can give us information about him. At every turn, one country uses a tense situation to blackmail another country, and what the hell kind of neurosis would prompt anyone to relate this to a silly cartoon?!!!!!!!!! OK, I'll stop. The point is, this is a pretty funny cartoon. Far from the greatest cartoon, but I like how the mouse turns the situation on Sylvester. Is he just a doomed cat or something? Worth seeing.