Barbecue Brawl is the 104th one-reel animated short. Backgrounds by Robert Gentle and layouts by Richard Bickenbach.
Characters[]
- Main:
- Minor:
Plot[]
Spike and Tyke walk into the backyard to have a barbecue; the opening attempts of which fail, as follows:
- Nice, hot fire: The charcoal blows up after Spike hesitates on lighting a fire.
- Charcoal: Spike puts on too much charcoal on the barbecue; it lets off a cloud of dark smoke when Spike blows into the charcoal to get the fire going (which results in the smoke literally making Spike's eyes red and watery). He, however, claims this to his son that a bit of Hickory smoke always keeps in good barbecue flavor.
- Dog's best friend: A juicy, tender, delicious steak: Spike leaves the steak on the barbecue, but it is instantly reduced to a crisp. He goes to get another.
But by this time, Tom and Jerry have appeared on the scene with another of their traditional chases. Jerry first hides in the bag of charcoal, which Tom digs through to catch Jerry. Spike, just gotten a new steak from the house, notices the commotion and slams Tom's head with a pan and hitting it with a spoon, causing his head to vibrate before Tom runs away. Spike then puts some charcoal on the grill, but one couldn't take the heat and cooled off in the swimming pool, revealing itself to be Jerry. After exiting the pool, Jerry almost made Tom fall in, but grabbed his tail just in time -- only to let go, making Tom go in the pool. Jerry then hides in Spike's hat, Tom points to it, and whacks Spike's head with a shovel. Jerry runs across the ground, Tom trying to splat him in the process, but Jerry runs back to Spike's head. Angry, Spike snatches the shovel and hits Tom with such a force that he spins all of the way to the pool. Spike then tosses the salad with Jerry inside, but Tom catches Jerry, floating for a few seconds before landing in the salad. Spike tosses Tom 2 times before saying, "Do me a little favor, would you... GET OUT OF MY SALAD!!!" Tom then spins the salad at Spike before running away, and Spike tells Tyke why dogs hate cats.
Then, Spike adds a little pepper, but Jerry hid in the pepper shaker and sneezed to make Spike duck under the table. Tom, with a swinging rope, snatched the shakers, causing Jerry to flee. Jerry hides in the bread, but when Spike and Tyke come back, Jerry and the bread make like a snake as Spike arms himself with the charcoal fork to stab the bread, before Jerry drops the game and exits the bread, just in time for it to be taken by a swinging-by Tom for searching for the mouse, but when he turns around and comes down while holding the bread under his arm pointing outwards, Spike recognizes this and dons his saucepan like a helmet and holds his charcoal fork and saucepan lid as a javelin and shield respectively, paying tribute to Ancient Roman Times, complete with the gladiator charge heading for Tom; Spike, despite his armor being damaged from the resultant collision, wins, as Tom gets to go back to the pool.
Spike finally manages to prepare the meal, and he and Tyke sit down to eat (The cat and mouse duo are no longer seen from this point). However, an Ant Army spots the food and approaches the picnic table. Spike grabs the food, putting it wrapped up like a bag and he also grabbed Tyke and flees to the diving board. The diving board Spike and Tyke are standing on gets shakier as the Ant Army gets closer. Then they push them into the pool while the food goes back to the ground where the Ant Army takes them off. Spike returns to the ground and grabs the steak from the ants before they get it back. But at this time, the lead ant blows his trumpet as the Ant Army does retrieve it.
Errors[]
- On the pan-and-scan version in the 1990s, a pile of charcoal on the grill is cropped out, showing Spike lighting a match at the grill. Also on the pan-and-scan version, it is unknown why the Ant blowing his trumpet near the end was cropped out, but showing Spike staring (appearing as if he is staring at nothing).
- These issues were later fixed, as they were re-pan-and-scanned in the 2010s due to massive negative attention with the previous cropping as the short was pan-and-scanned incorrectly.
Notes[]
- This was the first short to contain new opening and ending cards; the opening depicts Tom standing in a pink square at the left and Jerry, a green square opposite.
- It is also the only time to use these credits with the fast theme playing.
- This was the first MGM cartoon recorded in Perspecta Stereo in its original release. All subsequent MGM cartoons (including reissues of earlier cartoons) would be recorded in this sound system from this point onward.
- Quasi-moral: Spike abuses Tom for the stuff Jerry did. As a result, the ants steal his and Tyke's barbecue. However, it is rumored by some that Jerry orders the ants to steal barbecue dishes for him.