Advance and Be Mechanized is a 1967 entry in the classic Tom and Jerry series and one of the Chuck Jones collection of entries, with backgrounds by Philip DeGuard alongside Thelma Winter (unc.) for archive footage backgrounds.
Characters[]
Starring[]
Plot[]
The cartoon starts on another planet. One day, Jerry wants to get some cheese from the other room. He uses his robotic counterpart (Robot-Jerry) to go over the room. The robot mouse dashes into the room, taking a pile of cheese before leaving.
Meanwhile, Tom is a policeman who, as he tries to look at the situation in a panoramic area, sees the mouse toy from the camera. He calls for his robotic counterpart (Robocat) to get rid of him, once and for all. The mouse robot returns to the hole, but Robot Cat grabs his tail, unscrews him bit by bit until destroyed, then he takes the cheese, while Jerry is sitting, with drooping ears, sad at how he had lost his meal. Tom is seen laughing at Jerry's misfortune as Robot Cat returns to his master, then he pats the robot as if to say: "Good job." In the next scene, Tom is starving as a lunch whistle starts to blow loudly. Tom runs to a line of robots, who are waiting at a machine to give them some oil. When Tom was fed, and realizes that it tastes bad, he punches the machine. He sets to kick it until it "grabs" him and kicks him.
Tom is back to work until he sees Jerry coming outside from his hole, he chases the mouse so that he can eat him as he enters the same machine Tom ate from. He goes over a coin slot, ends up stuttered in a hamburger, with an arm putting some spicy chili sauce on him. It explodes in hotness, Jerry puts it in the hamburger, Tom eats it and it explodes in spiciness. The machine then gives him water.
The same scene as Tom sees robot-Jerry again continues. After being spotted robot-Jerry rushes once again from the camera, Tom calls for his minion. Then, in a chase reminiscent to the Guided Mouse-Ille, Robot Cat chases robot-Jerry, but robot-Jerry levitates himself into the air. Robot Cat extends his legs up and tries again, but then robot-Jerry drops himself. Robot Cat continues his chase until he almost wrecked over some obstacles. Robot Cat crouches to avoid a large fixture and then extends himself high to avoid a second one. He chases robot-Jerry again until he hits over a doorjamb.
Later, both robots (having sustained injuries from their previous confrontations), become fed up with their own respective masters. They install robotic features into both Tom and Jerry, effectively turning them into their own minions. Now in complete control with their former leaders, the robots use the controlled Tom and Jerry to fight each other, maniacally over and over.
Availability[]
Notes[]
- This is the third and final time that a space composite has been shown, following Guided Mouse-ille and O-Solar-Meow.
- The end of this cartoon is similar to the end of Push-Button Kitty, except it makes Robocat and Robot Mouse turn Tom and Jerry into robots, while the previous cartoon was where Jerry made Tom a robot after the latter ate the cat machine.
- This is the last appearance of Robocat and Robot Mouse in the Chuck Jones era.
- This is the last cartoon in which Tom and Jerry both lose in the end.
- With only 4 minutes and 52 seconds of footage (not counting the credits and cards), Advance and Be Mechanized is the shortest Tom and Jerry short ever made in the Golden Age of American Animation, much shorter than Matinee Mouse.
- This is also the shortest Chuck Jones Tom and Jerry short to be made, and is much shorter than Hanna-Barbera's The Dog House and Gene Deitch's Landing Stripling.
- This is a unique cartoon for reusing footage from other entries, along with the compilation cartoons Matinee Mouse and Shutter Bugged Cat; coincidentally, the latter title precedes this entry.