Generally, this viewer enjoys the Sylvester and Hippety Hopper better than some, though admittedly the one-joke concept (Sylvester mistaking a baby kangaroo for a giant mouse) started wearing thin after Bell Hoppy. Apart from the rather pointless and waste of potential Freudy Cat, very few of their cartoons are bad. Mouse-Taken Identity is not among the strongest in the series (one of the weaker ones) but several things make it worth a look.
The best thing about Mouse-Taken Identity is the interaction between Sylvester and Sylvester Jr, which is hilariously written (some of the best lines come from Sylvester Jr, and Sylvester reactions are every bit as funny), and certainly more memorable than most of the gags. Sylvester is still the funny and interesting character he is known and loved for, he's cunning but also easy to root for. Sylvester Jr is very cute, without being too much so, and is also a lot of fun. Mel Blanc does a stellar job with both character's voices. As said, the dialogue between Sylvester and Sylvester Jr is very enjoyable to watch. The music score doesn't disappoint, it's lush and cleverly orchestrated, fits well within the cartoon and is suitably energetic and bouncy, if not quite enhancing the action as much as it could have done.
Wasn't crazy about the animation however. Sure there are much uglier-looking cartoons in the Looney Tunes cartoons (look to the Daffy and Speedy series and a good deal of the 60s output), Sylvester and Sylvester Jr are at least well known, but colours are flat, backgrounds are a little sparse and limited, Hippety is rather basically drawn compared to his earlier outings and one does miss the imaginative, big, wonderfully over-animated visuals and expressions demonstrated in the series up to Bell Hoppy (as a result of lower budgets and fewer animators). Hippety is cute and it is hard to resist his enthusiastic smile, but he has been funnier and better used, for me there wasn't enough of his interaction with Sylvester and when it did happen it lacked the energy and visual imagination that it had before.
Mouse-Taken Identity's story is also rather tired and routine this time round, this would have been forgiven with strong gags, but the dialogue is much funnier and memorable than the gags here . The gags are still very amusing with good use of the museum exhibit attractions, but there was a strong hint of seen it all before and timing's not always as sharp as it could have been. The Native Indian gag could, strong emphasis on could, rub people up the wrong way, and the ending seemed rather rushed and abrupt, but that's probably just me.
Overall, worth a look but not one of the best by any stretch in the Sylvester and Hippety Hopper cartoons, the dialogue and chemistry between Sylvester and Sylvester Jr rise it above mediocre. 6/10 Bethany Cox
