The Lonesome Mouse is a 1943 American one-reel animated cartoon. It is the 10th Tom and Jerry short.
It contains the first speaking role of the cat and mouse duo, and the only one with significant dialogue between the two main characters. Both Tom and Jerry in this short were voiced by William Hanna. It was created and released in 1943, and was reissued to theaters on November 19, 1949.
Plot[]
Tom is napping by the fireplace. Above Jerry drops a vase on his head, framing Tom causes Mammy Two Shoes to throw Tom out of the house. He then crashes into a mop and wash crate, giving him the Great Sphinx of Giza look, with some pyramids. Jerry teases Tom from inside and puts a "For Rent" sign outside his mouse hole. Jerry has a lot of fun for some time without Tom, but soon enough becomes lonely. A disembodied voice asks Jerry, "You never thought you'd miss that cat, did you?" Jerry shakes his head. "Feelin' kind of lonesome?" the voice replies. Jerry nods. "Look at him. You can't live with him, but there's no fun without him. You know, you could get that guy back in here though, if you really wanted to. Couldn't ya?" the voice adds. Jerry thinks about it and then smiles.
Tom is sitting outside the house, feeling sorry for himself. Jerry whistles at him and waves a hanky of truce. Jerry makes a deal with Tom to get him back in the house.
Mammy is doing her dishes in the kitchen and singing. She continues working until Jerry pulls and snaps her sock. Jerry makes faces at her and she jumps on a stool, scared. Jerry continues by trying to shake her off the stool, but shakes off all sorts of accessories, an axe, and then Mammy's dress, which she promptly pulls back up.
Jerry then grabs the axe and cuts the leg off the stool, then yells "Timber!" Horrified, Mammy screams and falls with a big crash, and she calls to Tom. Tom grabs a curtain, using it as a cape, and chases Jerry behind another curtain. Fighting sounds are heard, but Tom and Jerry are playing patty-cake and both yelping in "pain" to make it sound convincing. Jerry emerges from the fake fight and runs back into the kitchen, passing the stove he spies Mammy cowering on top of the cooker. The mouse turns on the burner underneath Mammy, causing her to jump to the ceiling, shrieking. Jerry runs past the fridge and as Tom runs by, he rips a drumstick off of a chicken. He chases Jerry behind a wall with the drumstick in his hands, and together they take turns eating it. The fake chase continues with Jerry running into the cupboard and choking the cat. A lot of banging sounds are heard, but Tom and Jerry are using the pots and pans as a drum set. Tom and Jerry quickly close the cupboard again when they see the viewers watching them. They come out of the cupboard and stage a sword fight with a knife and a fork as weapons. Tom then grabs a meat cleaver and starts to chop at Jerry. Tom ends up chopping the leg of a table, the bottom of a curtain, slicing a table in half, and cutting an apple on top of Jerry's head in half. Jerry notices that the last cut was pretty close to his head, and ensures the fight is not for real. The chase returns to staged mode. Tom chases Jerry around Mammy, who is standing on a chair holding a broom and clumsily hitting the cat three times before an irate Tom takes the broom and snaps it over his knee. Tom then hands the broken broom back to the humiliated housemaid. Jerry then runs under the carpet and Mammy tries to swat the mouse. Jerry escapes and Tom puts a tomato under the carpet, traps it and pretends to Mammy that this is Jerry. Mammy hits the tomato and Tom looks under the carpet. He then reacts as if it's the worst thing he's ever seen, laying down flowers and crying in the process. Tom even blows his nose on the hem of Mammy's frilly apron. He then takes the flower pan and holds it down like a hat.
Soon, Tom has a napkin around his neck ready to receive his reward for taking care of Jerry: A lemon meringue flan. Jerry shows up with a napkin around his neck as well. Jerry takes a small bite of the pie and is about to dive in and enjoy it, but Tom pulls the pie away for himself. He pushes Jerry away and snaps his fingers at him, but before Tom can enjoy the entire flan, Jerry kicks him and Tom lands face first into it. Jerry, angry at his lack of gratitude, walks away saying "Why that dirty double-crossin', good-for-nothin', two-timin'...,"
Voice Actors[]
- William Hanna as Jerry Mouse
- Harry E. Lang as Jerry's Conscience and Tom Cat
- Lillian Randolph as Mammy Two Shoes (1943 original version)
- Thea Vidale as Mammy Two Shoes (1990 dubbed version)
Notes[]
- In the short's original nitrate release, the original opening theme used "Runnin' Wild" as heard in Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood and the Barney Bear cartoon Wild Honey. It was replaced by the proper Tom & Jerry theme, albeit the version used in Polka-Dot Puss, on its re-issue. It was the last of the only two Tom & Jerry cartoons (the first being "Sufferin' Cats") to use the "Runnin' Wild" theme in the original opening titles.
- Although the cartoon was released in '43, this cartoon was made the previous year in 1942.
- A redubbed version, produced in 1995 and featuring Thea Vidale instead of Lillian Randolph, while rarely shown on Cartoon Network and Boomerang USA, was aired on the Latin American Cartoon Network and Boomerang feeds, and then included on the DVD set Tom and Jerry: The Deluxe Anniversary Collection and on the first release of Tom and Jerry: Spotlight Collection - Vol. 2 (though later releases of that DVD replaced the soundtrack with the original one, due to the Thea Vidale redub on the latter DVD is confirmed to be an error).
- This short marks the first time that Tom & Jerry are heard properly speaking as opposed to just screaming and laughing, and it's one of the few times where they speak almost throughout the whole short, instead of being just a few words.
Censorship[]
- On the rare times this short aired on Cartoon Network and Boomerang in the USA and Canada, the scene where Jerry uses a dead match to draw a picture of Tom's face is cut because it made him look like Adolf Hitler. Surprisingly, the scene that was cut was used on the ToonHeads special about World War II cartoons in a montage showing how American cartoons caricatured their enemies (often in ways that are seen through modern eyes as being offensive and insensitive).
