The Herman cartoons can be entertaining but they can also be very repetitive and formulaic. Despite the setting being different to usual Cat Carson is in the latter category. It's not a bad cartoon, just not a great one.
Cat Carson Rides Again does have some good things. The star of the cartoon is the music, which is outstanding. The orchestration is clever and full of mellow lushness and it has a lot of energetic character that does a great job adding much to the action. The gags are not very surprising and you know how the outcomes of them but they are amusing and do entertain, if more mildly than laugh-out-loud, which is what a cartoon should do. The characters are still entertaining at least and fit within the Wild West setting very well, the mice do bring a good deal of poignancy to the story and Katnip is great fun and does a great job in the bandit role, being funny and menacing. Herman doesn't do anything original, in fact his actions are rather repetitive, but what makes them tolerable is that he does it well here. The voice acting is very good, Arnold Stang doesn't disappoint, voicing with energy and charisma, Jack Mercer as ever is dependable though not with a huge amount to do and while Sid Raymond also doesn't have a lot to do he still brings menace to Katnip.
On the other hand, the budget was starting to get smaller and duller and sadly it is very noticeable in Cat Carson Rides Again. Katnip is animated fine and the only thing in the animation that's improving rather than worsening, but some of the character design here is a little stiff, the colours are flat if not as badly as the Herman and Henry cartoons and the backgrounds look as though they were drawn in a hurry. Famous Studios were also getting more repetitive with each cartoon and again Cat Carson Rides Again is pretty high in that, and even for a Herman cartoon it is very standard and predictable especially the ending, which is not much different from the endings of the previous Herman and Katnip cartoons. All in all, watchable but not particularly great, the music is the best thing about it and the only outstanding asset. 6/10 Bethany Cox