Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse is a 1960 children's cartoon television show that was produced by Trans-Artists Productions and syndicated by Tele Features Inc. The characters were created by Bob Kane as a spoof of his earlier creations, Batman and Robin. In many ways, Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse presages the "campier" aspects of the later Batmanlive action series, which William Dozier and Howie Horwitz produced as a villain-driven action-comedy lampoon.
Plot
In the animated series, the pair are anthropomorphic animal superheroes without known secret identities who live in the Cat Cave. When summoned via the Cat Signal over their television set, Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse race to the scene of the crime in their sleekly feline red Cat Mobile which can convert into both the extendable-winged Cat Plane and submersible Cat Boat and thwart the criminal plots of various villains who threaten Empire City. Though they fought many miscreants, the duo's recurring arch-enemy was Chauncey "Flat-Face" Frog who appeared in nearly every episode. The five-minute length of the cartoons made the series suitable for use as interstitials or airtime fillers, especially to accommodate a movie or show that ended at an unusually early time, as well as animated content for local children's shows.
Characters
Heroes
Courageous Cat – The protector of Empire City. Whenever fighting bad guys, Courageous Cat would use his all-purpose Cat Gun or a vast variety of different deus ex machina "trick guns" he pulls out of his cape that fire whatever the situation requires like a rope, some water, a parachute, cages, boxing gloves, lightning-like magnetic rays, or even more bizarre ammunition, and even the occasional actual bullet. In case of emergency, Courageous also has extra pre-James Bond secret gadgets hidden in his belt buckle and the star emblem on his chest.
Minute Mouse – Courageous Cat's rodent sidekick.
Supporting characters
The Chief – A canine chief of police who calls in the "furry foes of felony" via the Cat Signal.
Marilyn Mouse – Minute Mouse's movie star girlfriend.
Sassy Bones – A blond mouse who is a chanteuse at nightclub called The Pad with whom Rodney Rodent is enamored.
Periscope Pete – A living, breathing periscope with a bush for a body.
Villains
Chauncey "Flat-Face" Frog – Chauncey is a chortling, cigar-smoking, derby-hatted criminal mastermind whose voice was based on Edward G. Robinson.
* Harry Gorilla – Chauncey "Flat-Face" Frog's hulking, half-witted henchman.
ProfessorShaggy Dog – A mad scientist with an Albert Einstein-like mop of white hair who is tall, thin, and bewhiskered in some episodes and short and bespectacled in others.
Big Shot and Little Shot – A burly bulldog and his short sidekick who are generic gruff gangsters that are Chauncey "Flat-Face" Frog's rivals in crime.
The Black Cat – A sinister thief. He is a "cat burglar" who is a caricature of Cary Grant.
Rodney Rodent – A French-accented rat artist gone bad.
Professor Von Noodle Stroudel/Strudel – A German-accented scientist who is not so much a villain as unconcerned about the effects of his experiments on the world around him.
Comrade and Commissar – Russian-accented, trench coat-clad foreign dogspies whom Courageous and Minute were never able to apprehend due to their "diplomatic immunity" – true Cold War villains.
The Unmentionables and The Unthinkables – Rival gangs headed by Chauncey "Flat-Face" Frog and Big Shot. Their names are a parody of The Untouchables.
Outrageous Cat – Courageous Cat's Wild West outlaw-style cousin who talks like Yosemite Sam.
released all 130 five-minute-long episodes on DVD in Region 1 on October 29, 2002.
Music
The memorable theme music by Johnny Holiday features a walking bass line and is fashioned after the theme for Peter Gunn. It has most notably been performed in concert by the New York Dolls.
Later appearances
Reruns of Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse were shown on Nickelodeon's Weinerville in the 1990s along with reruns of Batfink and both segments of The Alvin Show.
