Mice Follies

Not be confused with Catfish Follies, a cartoon from Tom and Jerry Tales.

Mice Follies is the 85th entry of the classic series.

Plot[]

Jerry and Tuffy flood the kitchen and freeze the water, turning the room into a skating rink. The two mice go about their own business, skating and sliding across the frozen floor - until Tom is woken up. He pursues the two mice, but is not as mobile on ice as he thought. As he skids across the "rink", he crashes into a closet and comes across a pair of ice skates. Equally matching the skating prowess of the mice, the chase resumes as Tom crashes into, bangs into, stumbles across and dodges many kitchen obstacles, including an ironing board, a door and some stools, before sliding up a table plank-turned-ramp made by the mice and falling down into the cellar.

Tom emerges from the cellar and just as he is about to catch Jerry after banging the shovel in his hand on the mouse's head, Tuffy wisely defrosts the ice, causing Tom to slip over on the watery floor and adjust to the changes. Using a seltzer water dispenser, Tom scares Jerry into climbing up a shelf, which leaves the mouse with nowhere else to run and hide. As the cat was ready to spray again, Tuffy sets the freezer to 'Quick Freeze', re-freezing the floor with Tom standing on it. Just as he sprays the seltzer water, Tom becomes nothing more but an icy display while the water makes a bridge for Jerry to skate across. Jerry gives Tom a satisfied look as the cat is now motionless. Jerry and Tuffy resume their ice dancing, skating around the frozen cat who can do nothing but move his eyes around and follow the mice as they skate across the floor.

Characters[]

• Jerry Mouse
• Tuffy Mouse
• Tom Cat

Notes[]

• This is the only cartoon where Tuffy does not do something wrong with Jerry getting mad at him for it.
• This was the last Tom & Jerry cartoon to use the 1952 red and blue MGM Cartoon title. It was one of the only two cartoons to use the first version of the 1954 blue Tom & Jerry title card, the other being Baby Butch.
• This cartoon is referenced in The Powerpuff Girls episode "Ice Sore" when Bubbles tells Blossom to make the floor all ice like in the show, and she does.
  • Bubbles mentions that Tom and Jerry is her favorite cartoon.
• When Jerry and Tuffy are skating, the music played is from Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty Waltz, which would later become the basis for "Once Upon A Dream" from Disney's Sleeping Beauty five years later.
• The only spotlight color seen on the bottom is the blue/indigo gelatin, as the yellow, green, and red gelatins show spotlights on the ice floor.
• The cartoon shares the same name as the 1960 Looney Tunes short.
• The title is a play on the Ice Follies, a touring ice show founded in 1936.

Errors[]

• When Tuffy accidentally pulls down Tom's right whiskers, they were thrown under a mat. For the rest of the cartoon, Tom has his whiskers intact.
  • In the same scene, Tom has six whiskers, while for the rest of the cartoon he has four whiskers.

Availability[]

Tom & Jerry Cartoon Festival: Volume 1 (VHS, Betamax, CED Videodisc, & LaserDisc)

Tom & Jerry's 50th Birthday Classics III (VHS)

The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume II (LaserDisc)

Tom & Jerry's Greatest Chases Vol. 1 (DVD only)

Tom and Jerry: Paws for a Holiday (VHS & DVD)

Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection: Volume 4 (DVD)

Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection, Vol. 1 (DVD)

Tom and Jerry: Merry Mice

Tom and Jerry: Pint-Sized Pals (DVD)

Tom and Jerry: Santa's Little Helpers (DVD)

Tom and Jerry: Winter Tails (DVD)

Gallery[]

Main article: Mice Follies/Gallery