Mouse Trouble

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 for re-release.

Plot
A mailman delivers a box in the mailbox and Tom opens it to see 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, screaming in pain.

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 stupidly drinks it while Jerry activates the trap, sending the cat out to the tree himself. Tom's next attempt at catching Jerry is to guffaw 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!" - a cultural reference to the distinctive jingle on the 1940s radio show 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 ("Be scientific in your approach"), Tom uses a stethoscope to listen for Jerry within the walls of the house. Jerry screams into the microphone, which almost deafens Tom. Tom forces a double-barrelled shotgun into Jerry's mousehole. However, Jerry bends the barrels of the gun outwards and it points 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 female toy mouse (voiced by Sara Berner) which repeatedly says "come up and see me some time". Jerry, noticing the toy, walks with it. Tom attempts to lure Jerry into a mouse-sized pretend hotel which is named "cozy arms", the door of which leads into Tom's open mouth, but to Tom's dismay, Jerry ushers the toy mouse into the hotel first, which Tom swallows. He repeatedly hiccups, an angered Tom looks at his decrepit teeth in a mirror, and then destroys both the mirror and the book before going mad with revenge and attempting to blow away Jerry with dozens of explosives ( TNT, gunpowder, dynamite and a massive block buster that resembles the atom bomb Fat Man). When Tom lights a piece of dynamite, he blows the fuse much too hard, resulting in all the explosives erupting and killing Tom. Nothing at all remains of the house except Jerry (who remains unharmed after the explosion) and part of his mousehole, while Tom's spirit is on a cloud floating to heaven, with a harp and a halo repeatedly hiccuping "come up and see me some time".

Production

 * Directed by: William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
 * Animation: Ray Patterson, Irven Spence, Kenneth Muse, Pete Burness, Jim Tyer, William Henning, Ben Solomon
 * Story by: Joe Stultz
 * Sequence Director: Seymour Kneitel
 * Music: Scott Bradley
 * Produced by: Fred Quimby

Voice cast

 * Harry E. Lang as Tom (uncensored version)
 * Sara Berner as the female mouse toy

Censorship
On Boomerang in Ireland, after Tom is fought by Jerry, Tom saying "Don't you believe it" was removed. Jerry cutting the present in half where Tom is inside it was censored but Jerry holding a sign that says "Is there a doctor in the house" isn't cut.

Availability
DVD
 * Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases, Vol. 2
 * Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 1, Disc One
 * Tom and Jerry Golden Collection Volume One, Disc One