Little School Mouse

Little School Mouse
Tom and Jerry series
The title card of Little School Mouse
Directed by William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Produced by Fred Quimby
Story by William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Music by Scott Bradley
Animation by Irven Spence
Ed Barge
Backgrounds by Robert Gentle
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) May 29, 1954
Color process Technicolor
Running time 7:11
Language English
Preceded by Hic-cup Pup
Followed by Baby Butch

Little School Mouse is a 1954 the 83rd one-reel animated Tom and Jerry short, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby with music by Scott Bradley. The cartoon was animated by Irven Spence and Ed Barge, with backgrounds by Robert Gentle, and released on May 29, 1954 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Little School Mouse features Jerry trying (and failing) to instruct Tuffy in cat evasion, with Tuffy befriending Tom in the end. It is the antithesis of an earlier short Professor Tom, and is one of the very few shorts in which Tom emerges victorious over Jerry.

Plot

Jerry decides to school Tuffy in the basics of outwitting a cat. After teaching him what will happen if a cat catches him and how mad a cat will be if a mouse escapes into its hole, Jerry teaches him how to look for danger when he is leaving his mousehole. Using a mousehole facade and a mechanical cat's paw operated by a crank, Jerry sees what Tuffy does, only for Tuffy to fail when the paw catches him, but soon regrets demonstrating the proper method after Tuffy enthusiastically smacks him several times with the paw.

On his next lesson, Tuffy is taught how to retrieve a cat's whisker without waking the cat, with Jerry plucking one successfully from Tom. However, Tuffy manages to drag Tom back with him by his whiskers, causing him to chase the pair; while Tuffy escapes into the pair's mousehole, but Jerry gets left outside and beaten up by Tom. For Tuffy's next lesson, Jerry teaches him to get cheese without waking the cat guarding it, and manages to get a small piece of it while ensuring Tom stays asleep in his nap, but becomes dumbfounded when Tuffy asks a somewhat sleepy Tom to give him a whole block of cheese, which he brings back with him.

Eventually, Jerry brings Tuffy on to his final lesson - to tie a bell around a cat's neck. However, Tom, fully aware of what Jerry is planning, fakes sleeping and plays along with letting him tie a bell around his neck; by the time Jerry realises Tom is actually awake, he is quickly beaten up and forced to return with the bell tied around his own neck. Tuffy, nervous at what happens, decides to bring his bell cautiously to Tom within a large present, who is delighted to be given it as a gift and happily puts it on. Jerry, utterly humiliated at what has happened, takes his diploma for evading cats and throws it out into the trash. A short while later, Tuffy begins teaching a new class on how cats and mice should be friends, much to Jerry's dislike, now as he is a student, only for Tom to agree to the idea and affectionately being nice to the mouse, much to his chagrin.

Availability

Laserdisc

  • The Art of Tom and Jerry Vol. 2, Disc One, Side One[1]

DVD

Production

  • Story and Direction by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
  • Animation: Irven Spence, Ed Barge
  • Backgrounds: Robert Gentle
  • Sequence Director: Jack Kinney
  • Music: Scott Bradley
  • Produced by Fred Quimby

References

  1. ↑ Ben Simon (July 14, 2003). "The Art Of Tom And Jerry: Volume Two - Animated Reviews". Retrieved October 17, 2016.
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