Cats can be very deceptive creatures. They spend hours curled up quietly
on the couch, and it’s hard to imagine that these placid felines will
wake you up in the middle of the night by knocking a pan off the kitchen
stove. In the classic Little Golden Book Mickey Mouse: The Kitten Sitters,
Minnie Mouse’s kitten has her fooled entirely, and she’s sure he will
be a perfect little angel for Mickey and his nephews when they agree to
watch him while she is away.
I remember reading a book with a
similar storyline when I was a kid, though that one was a part of one of
Disney’s home libraries and had more of a warm and fuzzy conclusion. In
both stories, Pluto feels displaced by the special guest, but here,
Mickey sympathizes with Pluto from the beginning. While he wants his
lovable dog to be polite, he, Morty and Ferdie all notice that little
Figaro has a real knack for causing trouble and can’t blame the pooch
too much for being rather lacking in hospitality. Still, when the kitten
disappears in the middle of the night, Mickey wastes no time in
enlisting the sleepy Pluto’s aid. Can this old dog learn the new trick
of locating an unruly houseguest?
This is a mostly funny story
showing the disconnect between what Minnie believes and what Mickey
observes. It’s interesting to see Figaro transplanted into Mickey’s
world from the movie Pinocchio, though this isn’t the first time I
have encountered him there. He has a scampish streak in Geppetto’s
workshop too, but this book is as naughty as I’ve ever seen him. Of
course, there’s also something inherently odd about a mouse having a pet
cat, but Mickey and Minnie have always been more human than mouse.
This book has a rather drab color scheme that gives it a retro feel.
Because most pages depict domestic disasters, most of the facial
expressions on Mickey and his nephews are somewhere on the spectrum
between worried and panicked. Figaro is missing in action for much of
the book, with only the immediate aftermath of his activities visible,
but when he appears, he looks either smug or devilishly mischievous.
Minnie, meanwhile, spends a lot of time scolding others – everyone, it
seems, except her precious bundle of fur. In fact, she comes across as
quite obnoxious, and if Mickey seems to be happy to get a break from her
nagging, it’s easy to understand why.
The story is simple but
entertaining, with dialogue driving most of the action. The unnamed
author uses mild repetition to good effect, such as when Mickey tells
Pluto to be nice because he is a guest, prompting Morty’s later remark
that he is a messy guest and Ferdie’s that he is a fussy guest. Meanwhile, Pluto’s actions help readers get inside his head as he reacts to this adorable little troublemaker.
Whether you love cats or hate them, Mickey Mouse: The Kitten-Sitters is an amusing tale acknowledging that there might be more to these purring furballs than meets the eye.
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