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The Flying Cat is a 1952 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the 63rd Tom and Jerry cartoon. This cartoon counts as the sequel to Kitty Foiled (1948) directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, produced by Fred Quimby and animated by Kenneth Muse, Irven Spence, Ed Barge, and Ray Patterson. It was released to theatres on January 12, 1952 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The short was created in 1951, a year before it got released in theatres.
Characters[]
Starring[]
- Jerry Mouse
- Cuckoo
- Tom Cat (the main antagonist)
Plot[]
Tom sets out to capture and eat a sleeping Cuckoo. Jerry is walking out, preparing for a new day, when he spots the vulpine manner in which Tom is acting. As Tom steals Cuckoo in his cage, Jerry trips the cat and Tom loses Cuckoo. The cage rolls into the tree, jolting Cuckoo and waking him up. The first thing he sees is the ongoing chase; he helps Jerry out by tangling Tom in the power lines and sectioning him. Tom instead chases the canary with an axe, but misses and chops down a pole, which hits Tom on the head and comically bangs Tom on the head until he is rather short.
As Jerry is being pursued, Cuckoo motions for him to join him up in the birdhouse. Tom follows him up, but Cuckoo gives him a 2,000-lb weight and Tom plummets. The two shake hands, but the peace doesn't last long as Tom erects a ladder and starts to climb it. Before Tom can reach the top, Cuckoo lights a match to it. Tom and the ladder are left burned on fire and completely black. Tom now winds up on a swing and manages to hang on to the birdhouse with his fingers, but Cuckoo and Jerry crush them; Tom yells and lets go of the birdhouse. His head goes so low that it digs through the ground.
Tom tries to pole-vault to the birdhouse, but Cuckoo provides a roller-skate and Tom is sent out of control into a nearby house. He is sent flying through a window and through the entire second floor. Tom comes out the other side hanging from the window in a girdle, which snaps and falls with him. Tom soon discovers, though, that the girdle makes a pair of wings. He delights in his new ability until he fails to spot a mailbox in his path. Tom then flies around the birdhouse. Jerry then spots this and, after taking a moment to understand what he's seeing, quickly wakes Cuckoo from his nap. When Jerry frantically indicates what he has just seen, Cuckoo simply laughs. Jerry continues to gesture outside so Cuckoo goes to see for himself. He then screams in shock at the flying cat and there is a brief aerial chase which is interrupted when they both fly into a church bell.
Cuckoo then flies back to the birdhouse and begins pulling on one half of the roof. Jerry then does the same on the other half and the roof flips over, leaving the nails pointing upwards. Tom notices this and tries to brake midair but hits the nails and bounces into a pond. He steps out and water then pours out of several holes in his bottom onto some nearby flowers. Jerry slides down the pole, salutes to Cuckoo, and walks away, but is soon overtaken by Tom. Cuckoo unties Tom's wings and Tom falls 300 feet, falling through a tree and painfully slicing it in half because of his speed. Cuckoo then carries Jerry away, but Tom chases them into a nearby train tunnel. Unfortunately for Tom, a train is then shown coming out of the tunnel and it slams him into a wigwag in which he was suspended there as a railroad signal while Jerry shakes hands with Cuckoo one last time on the train heading to the city.
Voice actors[]
- William Hanna as Tom, Jerry
Notes[]
- The music that is heard when Tom flies around the birdhouse is a slower version of music later heard in the Chuck Jones short Snowbody Loves Me.
- This is one of three cartoons in which Tom gets run over by a train. The others are Blue Cat Blues and I'm Just Wild About Jerry. However, unlike the aforementioned cartoons, Tom is sent flying through the air once he is hit by the train.
- The music played while Tom is flying is Chopin's "Grand Valse Brillante".
- The cartoon was animated by Kenneth Muse, Irven Spence, Ed Barge, and Ray Patterson. Was not words like Kenneth Muse, Irven Spence, Ray Patterson, and Ed Barge.
Errors[]
- At one point, Tom's cheeks become rounded and the light grey fur between his eyes disappears.
Gallery[]
Main article: The Flying Cat/Gallery