Royal Cat Nap

The Royal Cat Nap
Tom and Jerry series
Title Card
Directed by William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Produced by William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Story by William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Voices by Francoise Brun-Cottan
Daws Butler
Music by Scott Bradley
Animation by Carlo Vinci
Lewis Marshall
Kenneth Muse
Layouts by Richard Bickenbach
Backgrounds by Robert Gentle
Studio MGM Cartoons
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) March 7, 1958
Color process Technicolor
CinemaScope
Perspecta
Running time 6:45
Language English
French
Preceded by Happy Go Ducky
Followed by The Vanishing Duck

The Royal Cat Nap is the 111th one-reel animated Tom and Jerry released cartoon, created in 1958 directed and produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera,[1] with music by Scott Bradley. The animation was credited to Carlo Vinci, Lewis Marshall and Kenneth Muse, with backgrounds by Robert Gentle and layouts by Richard Bickenbach.

Royal Cat Nap was the last of four Mouseketeer shorts and also the only Mouseketeer short not produced by Fred Quimby, which were a send-up of the famous Three Musketeers novel and film(s), beginning with the Academy Award winning short The Two Mouseketeers in 1952. It was released on March 7, 1958 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is also one of the very last Tom and Jerry shorts in the Hanna-Barbera era.

Plot

The king is sleeping peacefully in his bed until Mouseketeers Jerry and Tuffy sneak into his bedroom to help themselves to several leftover treats. Tuffy accidentally causes a grape to fly into the king's mouth. The king starts to suffocate, but Jerry causes the grape to be swallowed safely. The Mouseketeers decide to retreat, but Tuffy runs into a teacup and breaks it, waking up the king. Before he can apprehend the mice, the king ends up being stabbed in the nose by Jerry and angrily calls for Tom, who answers the summons moments later. The king tasks Tom with guarding his sleep, warning him not to be disturbed again or else he will have him executed.

After the king has gone back to sleep, Jerry and Tuffy, who have overheard the king's instructions, sneak back into the room and begin to play various pranks with Tom. First they throw down a number of plates and dishes, forcing Tom to catch and precariously balance them out of the castle. As he rushes back in, Jerry scatters tacks across his path, driving Tom into exiting the castle yet again to release his scream of pain unhindered. Next, he confronts Jerry but is stabbed in the nose, making him cover the king's ears to prevent him from hearing his scream. In order to forestall waking up the king, Tom plugs the monarch's ears with champagne corks before confronting Jerry when he makes a suit of armor do a tap-dance. However, Tuffy closes up the king's nose and mouth with clothespins, and the pent-up breath makes the corks blow out. Tom hurriedly plays Brahms's Lullaby on a violin, and the king falls asleep again.

Tom chases the mice outside, then locks all the doors, swallowing the key so that they cannot get back in. However, Jerry and Tuffy shoot an arrow from a crossbow through the keyhole into Tom's backside. Tom tries to hold in his scream of pain until he can get outside, but with no way to get out, Tom can only with a shrug resign himself for the king's wrath and yell inside the room, causing the king to jerk awake. The king promptly threatens Tom with immediate execution, but Tuffy saves Tom's life by singing Frère Jacques and thus sending the king back to sleep. Tom, Jerry and Tuffy tip-toe outside the room, shake hands together, and then start their fight. Tuffy concludes "C'est la guerre." ("That's war.") and immediately resumes the fight.

Error

In the short film, there is an artistic error related to the Nibbles. In the scene in which he tries to wake up laying a red jar to the floor, instead of being painted blue is painted brown.

Availability

VHS

DVD

References

  1. ↑ The production/direction credits read "Joseph Barbera and William Hanna" rather than the usual "William Hanna and Joseph Barbera".
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