Mouse Trouble is a 1944 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the 17th Tom and Jerry short produced by Fred Quimby and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, with music by Scott Bradley (the music is actually based on the popular jazz song "All God's Children Got Rhythm"). The cartoon was animated by Ray Patterson, Irven Spence, Ken Muse and Pete Burness. The cartoon won the 1944 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, the second consecutive award bestowed upon the series. It was released in theatres on November 23, 1944 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer and reissued on December 12, 1951.
Plot
Tom acquires a book on how to catch mice and for the rest of the cartoon, takes its advice to attempt to catch the mouse.
The first thing the book suggests is to locate the mouse. Tom "locates" the mouse, but when Tom tries to grab Jerry, the rodent steps off the book and slams Tom's nose in it.
Tom sets out the trap and tests it by snapping it by touching it with a feather. Jerry, however, succeeds in freeing the cheese from it. Shocked at the trap's failure, Tom tests it before the trap snaps as soon as he touches it, irritating him greatly.
Tom soon sets a snare trap around a piece of cheese, ready to pull the string but Jerry sneakily replaces the trap with a bowl of cream. When Tom peeks back at the trap, he sees the cream and drinks it while Jerry activates the trap, sending the cat out to the tree himself.
Tom's next attempt at catching Jerry is to laugh noisily while reading the book. A curious Jerry ventures out of his hole and Tom captures Jerry by shutting him into the book. But when Tom grabs him, Jerry pulls the same trick on him with his fists. Tom inspects them only to get punched in the eye and leaving Jerry to escape. (This trick was pulled again in Safety Second.) After reading in the book the fact that A Cornered Mouse NEVER FIGHTS, Tom pounces onto Jerry. But Jerry fights back and beats Tom offscreen, after this, Tom drones "Don't you believe it!".(Voiced by William Hanna.)
At this point, Tom stops reading from chapter-to-chapter and skims the book, trying suggestions that he likes or thinks will work. Upon reading Chapter VII, Tom uses a stethoscope to listen for Jerry within the walls of the house. Jerry screams into the microphone, which is almost deafening Tom. Tom forces a shotgun into Jerry's mousehole. However, the barrel of the gun bends outwards, pointing straight at Tom's head as the cat fires and ends up shooting himself in the head, rendering himself bald. In the next scene (and every scene after that until the end), Tom wears a dodgy, orange toupée.
Tom sets a bear trap and sticks it inside Jerry's hole. Just then, Jerry walks outside from another hole behind Tom and puts it behind him. Just as Tom sits down, the trap triggers, causing pain and sending him up into the roof.
Tom then tries to use a mallet to flatten Jerry. Jerry then pops out of a hole behind a picture right above Tom, grabs the mallet, and hits him, knocking him unconscious.
Tom then attempts to hide inside a large gift box before knocking on Jerry's wall. Jerry, seeing the box, knocks on it. With no response, he returns with a bunch of pins before sawing the box in half. Hearing nothing inside, Jerry looks inside the box, and in horror, he gulps and displays a sign reading "IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?"
Tom, now covered in bandages (including one wrapped around his bisected torso), reads the twelfth chapter of the book, Mice are Suckers for Dames, which makes him wind up a toy mouse. Jerry, noticing the toy, walks with it. Tom attempts to lure Jerry into a mouse-sized "hotel," the door of which leads into Tom's open mouth, but to Tom's dismay, Jerry ushers the mechanical mouse into the hotel first, which Tom swallows. He repeatedly hiccups, an enraged Tom looks at his ruined teeth in a mirror, and then destroys both the mirror and the book before Tom goes insane and gets revenge and attempts to blow away Jerry with dozens of explosives. When Tom lights a piece of dynamite, he blows the fuse much too hard, resulting in all the explosives erupting and leaving Tom dead. Nothing at all remains of the house except Jerry, who is not blown in the explosion and still alive, and his door, while Tom's spirit is in heaven, with a harp and an halo repeatedly hiccupping "come up and see me some time"(The doll was voiced by Sara Berner).
Things to do for Tom
| Name | Catching Jerry | Animation |
| Reading | Tom reads his book, but Jerry unreads. | |
| Mouse Trap | Tom uses a mouse trap and cheese to catch Jerry so that he will get trapped, but fails. | |
| Snare Trap | Tom gets a snare trap and drinks milk, and Jerry catches Tom to the tree. | |
| Showing a Mouse | Same as the first rule (Reading). | |
| Fighting | Tom fights and Jerry beats him, Tom says "Don't you believe it!" | |
| Doctors | He tries to heal Jerry, but wears an orange toupée, and tries to do 2 things. | |
| Gifts | Tom disguises as a gift, Jerry knocks at it and then kills it up. | |
| Winding up a Toy |
He winds a female mouse toy, who just says "Come up and see me some time" a lot. 2 things to do, and a massive explosion kills him, and all of the house except Jerry. |
Trivia
- This is the second Tom and Jerry short to win an award.
- When Tom winds the female mouse toy, he has multiple bandages covering him. But when he accidentally eats the toy, all his bandages are gone.
Gallery
Videos
Tom and Jerry, 17 Episode - Mouse Trouble (1944)