The Cat and the Mermouse

The Cat and the Mermouse
Tom and Jerry series
Reissue title card
Directed by William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Produced by Fred Quimby
Story by William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Music by Scott Bradley
Animation by Kenneth Muse
Ed Barge
Ray Patterson
Irvin Spence
Effects Animation:
Al Grandmain
Layouts by Richard Bickenbach (unc.)
Backgrounds by Robert Gentle (unc.)
Studio MGM Cartoons
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) September 3, 1949
Color process Technicolor
Running time 7:36
Language none
Preceded by Heavenly Puss
Followed by Love That Pup

The Cat and the Mermouse is a 1949 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the 43rd Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. It was animated by Kenneth Muse, Ed Barge, Ray Patterson, Irven Spence and Al Grandmain, scored by Scott Bradley, and released on September 3, 1949.

Summary

Tom's relaxation at the beach is interrupted by Jerry who inadvertently walks over the sunbathing Tom going fishing. Jerry goes out to the pier and casts his favorite bait: cheese. Tom pulls on the line and makes Jerry reel him in. Jerry lets go of the line and Tom struggles to stay afloat, losing the string. Tom barely catches the pier, but Jerry swings the pole at him. After a few misses, Jerry whistles and then lands a direct hit. He runs to the end of the pier and pulls off the end board. Tom can't stop, and walks the plank until Jerry pulls it out, causing Tom to fall into the sea. Unable to swim, Tom struggles and drowns futilely for a few seconds to reach the surface before passing out from lack of air.

Tom wakes up on the sea bed, where he finds himself still alive. He starts imitating the majestic sea creatures until he spots a Jerry mouse named Mermouse. Mermouse swims in circles until Tom's head has done a 360, and is then grabbed again. Mermouse slaps Tom's face with his tail, then twists his ears in to the shape of a wrench. The cat gives chase through shipwreck windows until Tom hangs back to swallow the mouse. Mermouse breaks out through Tom's left eardrum. Mermouse hides and disguises himself as a seahorse to join a father seahorse leading his babies, fooling the cat for only a while. Mermouse then gets lassoed and captured, but Tom gets tricked into holding a fishing line and is caught. Tom escapes and chases Mermouse into another shipwreck, but Mermouse closes the door on him. The anchor of the ship lands on Tom. He emerges with chain rings on his ears and neck.

Mermouse steals away, but cannot brake in time to avoid a swordfish. Mermouse swims back the way he came, and sees Tom with a spade ready to strike. Tom misses Mermouse and whacks the swordfish's bill (which inadvertently saves Jerry). Tom returns it to its proper shape, before he is pursued. Tom hides in a barrel until Mermouse signals the swordfish with two red circles in form of a target around the hole in the barrel. Tom is pursued again after being impaled in the rear. He ducks and narrowly missed being struck on the head as the swordfish thrusts its bill into a pole. Thinking quickly, Tom hammers down the bill with a nearby lead pipe on the other side of the pole so that the swordfish cannot escape. Free of this worry, Tom returns to chasing Mermouse, who has woken up an octopus. Mermouse hides and Tom stands vigil. As Mermouse sets out, he gets poked in the back and captured (again). Soon, Tom's stung on the backside. Tom attempts to run from the octopus, but he was not quick enough to evade the octopus's reach and is held fast by first 1, then 2, then 3 tentacles. Realizing this wasn't a gag, but a matter of Tom's life, Mermouse returns to save him. He seizes Tom first by the paws and then, when his grip slips, the whiskers in a deadly tug-of-war against the octopus. Tom is tugged helplessly back and forth as the tussle goes first one way then the other. Tom wakes and finds that he is back on the jetty, revealing the whole thing to be a dream. Jerry rescued Tom from the water after he fell in and is applying artificial respiration in the same rhythm as in the struggle during the final moments of Tom's dream. Tom coughs after a number of Jerry's struggles. Then he thankfully shakes Jerry's hand and happily submits to further removal of the water from his lungs.

Voice cast

Availability

VHS

DVD

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