Baby Puss | |
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Tom and Jerry series | |
Re-release poster for Baby Puss
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Directed by |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
Produced by | Fred Quimby (unc. on original issue) |
Voices by |
Sara Berner (unc.) Jack Mather (unc.) Harry E. Lang (unc.) The King's Men |
Music by | Scott Bradley |
Animation by |
Kenneth Muse Ray Patterson Irven Spence Pete Burness |
Studio | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Cartoon |
Distributed by |
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Loew's Inc. |
Release date(s) |
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Color process | Technicolor |
Running time | 7:51 |
Language | English |
Preceded by | The Yankee Doodle Mouse |
Followed by | The Zoot Cat |
Baby Puss is a 1943 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 12th Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. It was released to theaters on Christmas Day, 1943 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.
This is the first Tom and Jerry short to be animated by Ray Patterson, who arrived from Walt Disney Productions after working on The Old Army Game, a Donald Duck cartoon also released in 1943. Except some time spent at Walter Lantz Productions in the 1950s, Patterson would continue to work for Hanna and Barbera until the 1980s.
A little girl named Nancy is playing dollhouse, and pretending to be the mother and has also dressed Tom, apparently the family pet, up to be her baby. She scolds Tom, who is hiding under some furniture. She drags Tom out by his tail and threatens to spank him. Tom is resentful over his treatment and feels humiliated. She carries him to the bassinet, tucks him in, and shoves a bottle of milk in his mouth. She warns him, under threat of more spanking, to stay in bed while she goes downtown to buy a new girdle. Indignant at first, Tom gets a taste of milk and quickly accepts his lot, cooing like a baby and drinking from his baby bottle.
Jerry peeks from behind a dollhouse and sees Tom. Incredulous at first, Jerry proceeds to mock him by playing "Rock-a-bye Baby" on the phonograph and pretends to be a baby himself. Tom is furious and chases Jerry into the dollhouse and puts a sign that reads "Measles". Tom looks in the window to see that Jerry is in the bathtub, pretending he is bathing and brushing himself and humming the melody of "How About You?". Seeing Tom, he screams, hits him with the brush, runs downstairs to the bedroom and hides in a bed, causing a doll to turn up and shout "Mama!" Jerry uses the doll's clothes to disguise himself as a girl holding an umbrella, but his shirt falls off of him leaving his shoes on his feet and white pants that goes under it. Tom opens the dollhouse roof until Nancy returns and scolds him again. Tucking Tom back in bed, she threatens to feed him castor oil should he go out again.