12 oz. Mouse

The show revolves around a mouse named Mouse Fitzgerald (voiced by Matt Maiellaro), nicknamed "Fitz", who is fond of beer and caught in a world of espionage, love, and the delights of odd jobs. The show employs a serial format, and its ongoing storyline developed from absurdist comedy to include mystery and thriller elements. Fitz begins to recover suppressed memories that he once had a wife and a child who have now vanished. This leads him to seek answers about his past and the shadowy forces that seem to be manipulating his world. Fitz suspects there is a sinister conspiracy involving fields of "asprind" pills beneath the city, and Shark (Adam Reed), Clock, and Rectangular Businessman's (Kurt Soccolich) attempt to control the nature of time and reality. Fitz and Skillet receive help from Liquor (Matt Harrigan), Roostre (Scott Luallen), Peanut Cop (Nick Weidenfeld) and others as they engage in gun battles, blow things up, and try to understand cryptic hints. The show also sometimes contains surreal "subliminal" images that flash across the screen during key plot moments, including skulls, mustached snake beasts and people screaming. The series concludes with the revelation that Fitz has been kidnapped and placed into a simulation by the Shadowy Figure. He is about to be killed by Shark and the Rectangular Businessman, in their true forms outside the simulation, when he is rescued by the true form of Peanut Cop and a nurse who works in the simulation chamber. They kill Shark and Rectangle Businessman, but it is unknown if they are truly dead because the simulation in which most of the show takes place is probably taking place in another simulation. One of the purposes of the simulation seen in most of the show was to extract information from Fitz. The conclusion to episode 20 is ambiguous as to whether or not it is actually the end of the series, as some aspects of the plot remain unresolved – Golden Joe says "I thought this was done," to which Fitz replies, "I thought so too. I guess we're not." One webisode was made in 2007, showing Fitz and his friends escaping the city to live in a desert. Golden Joe is carried away by birds, while later one night, Peanut Cop mysteriously disappears. Fitz and Skillet later meet a woman, Lee, who turns out to be a werewolf. Their fate at the end of the episode was unknown. In 2018, a half-hour special episode aired, which continued the story. Fitz, now with a mustache and suffering from amnesia, is shown to be living in a new city during an unspecified amount of time after the original finale. Shark and Square Guy have returned somehow, and are trying to kidnap Fitz so they can return to the "real" world with the help of exterminator bee, Buzby (Dana Snyder). Skillet, Roostre, Peanut Cop, Golden Joe, and The New Guy (Mike Lazzo) must find and escape the simulation with Fitz before Shark and Square Guy do. ==Characters==

Main • Mouse "Fitz" Fitzgerald (voiced by Matt Maiellaro) is an alcoholic green mouse who suffers from amnesia. • Shark (voiced by Adam Reed) is a blue shark who is the president of Cardboard City and Fitz's former employer. • Skillet was Fitz's best friend and sidekick. • Rectangular Businessman (voiced by Kurt Sccolish) was a businessman who owns a bank. ==Development==

Production According to Maiellaro, the series was pitched as a table read to the network. He jokingly stated that they accepted it after claiming that production costs would total "five dollars and will take some of the paper sitting in the copier." He intended for the series to lack continuity starting from the pilot, but established a serial format after starting to work on the second episode. He had constructed an ending for the series as well as a detailed map of characters; however, the series finale concluded differently from planned. but finally, he only produced one webisode, entitled "Enter the Sandmouse". Radical Axis provided animation for the series using Final Cut Pro. Described as "lo-fi animation", Rhoda, a character from the series, was drawn on the back of a script page for Perfect Hair Forever. A scan of the paper revealed the textual contents behind it, which Maiellaro decided to leave in. third season which aired in late July 2020. On March 31, 2020, the third-season premiere aired unannounced at 2:45 am EST with many other new episodes from Adult Swim shows as part of Adult Swim's annual April Fools Prank. The whole third season premiered on July 20, 2020, and ended on July 31. In February 2021, Maiellaro confirmed that the series was not picked up for a fourth season, citing management changes at Adult Swim. ==Episodes==

The pilot episode for 12 oz. Mouse, "Hired", premiered in June 2005 and became a regular series in the Adult Swim lineup in October 2005. An Adult Swim bumper shown with the sixth installment claimed that twenty additional episodes were being produced and taunted viewers who had complained they couldn't understand the absurdist presentation. On December 31, 2005, a marathon of the series aired, replaying all six episodes followed by the premiere of the then-unfinished seventh episode "Adventure Mouse". The second season aired on Adult Swim on Monday mornings at 12:45 a.m. EST from September 24, 2006, to December 17, 2006. On October 14, 2018, a half-hour special titled "Invictus" premiered on TV after having been released online two days earlier. Simultaneously, Adult Swim announced the series would be returning for a third season. The third season premiered unexpectedly on March 31, 2020, as part of that year's Adult Swim's April Fools Prank. == International broadcast ==

In Canada, 12 oz. Mouse previously aired on Teletoon's Teletoon at Night block, and formerly aired on the Canadian version of Adult Swim. The INVICTUS special aired on E4 on August 28, 2020. ==Reception==

Ratings The season two episodes "Auraphull" and "Meat Warrior" were respectively seen by 460,000 and 431,000 viewers upon broadcast. In addition, the episodes ranked as the thirteenth and twelfth most-watched episodes aired by the network for the week of October 23, 2006, also respectively. Critical reception The series has received generally positive critical reception; About.com's Nancy Basile gave the series four out of five stars, opining that the series is "what Adult Swim should be ... experimental, but in a cheap, simple, not-trying-to-be-cool way." She found the crude animation "refreshing" but joked that the series "can kill" viewers not used to the slow pace. He contrasted it with other Williams Street productions, finding it "instead unravels slowly, revealing a little bit more of what's underneath the surface while also piling on more and more questions." Justin Heckert of Atlanta magazine opined that "the animation and art look like they were done by daycare students". ==Other appearances==

The hip hop duo Danger Doom have produced a song inspired by 12 oz. Mouse entitled "Korn Dogz" from their EP Occult Hymn. The song uses audio clips from the episode "Rooster", with the line "Corn dogs for the pickin'" being recited by Danger Doom's MC MF Doom and Mouse Fitzgerald. A scene from the episode "Sharktasm" is visible in Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. ==Home media==

A DVD release of the first 2 seasons was released on February 29, 2008 by Warner Home Video, exclusively on the Williams Street shop. The DVD cover depicts Leonardo's The Last Supper with the series' characters replacing Christ and the twelve apostles. However, under a black light, the cover depicts the skeletons of the characters, as well as letters and symbols which make out an email address. The series is presented as a single, continuous movie, with newly produced footage bridging the gaps between episodes. It also features production footage, new music, the episode "Auraphull" in its entirety, and collected fan art. ==References==