Mouse Cleaning
| Mouse Cleaning | |
|---|---|
| Tom and Jerry series | |
Title Card
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| Directed by |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Produced by | Fred Quimby |
| Story by | William Hanna Joseph Barbera (both uncredited) |
| Voices by |
Lillian Randolph Stepin Fetchit |
| Music by | Scott Bradley |
| Animation by |
Ray Patterson Irven Spence Kenneth Muse Ed Barge |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) |
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| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 7:08 |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Professor Tom |
| Followed by | Polka-Dot Puss |
Mouse Cleaning is a 1948 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 38th Tom and Jerry short. The title is a play on "house cleaning". It was produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on December 11, 1948 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer and again on February 17, 1956. It was animated by Ray Patterson, Irven Spence, Kenneth Muse and Ed Barge, who were the usual animators for the Tom and Jerry cartoons in the early 1940s up until the late 1950s. As per most Tom and Jerry cartoons, it was directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and produced by Fred Quimby; no writer has yet been credited. The music was scored by Scott Bradley and the backgrounds were created by Robert Gentle. This cartoon was Stepin Fetchit's only role in animation as the uncredited voice of Tom.
The cartoon opens with Mammy Two Shoes mopping the kitchen floor. After she finishes, she is happy to have cleaned the entire house and hopes that it will remain clean; unfortunately, it doesn't, as the camera cuts to Tom chasing Jerry outside, rounding a corner too wide and through a mud puddle, and then continuing the chase into the house. He runs into Mammy and she hits him with the mop, chastises him for making such a huge mess and forces him to mop the floor. As Tom finishes, Mammy prepares to go shopping. She warns Tom that he had better not make any more messes in the house, or the whole neighborhood will lose one cat around here: him.
Tom nods his head in fright and Jerry, hiding behind a broom, also nods his head, about to take stock of the situation for the purpose of sabotaging Tom's efforts. After Mammy closes the door, Tom sticks his tongue out at her and makes a face, but she opens the door and points her finger directly at Tom, giving him a final warning that the place has to be clean or else. Tom then nods again and kisses her finger, smiling politely, and satisfied, Mammy leaves. For the rest of the cartoon, Jerry takes advantage of this conditional to torment the cat and to get him into trouble once and for all.
Tom finishes the remainder of the cleaning. Feeling relieved, Tom wipes the sweat off his forehead, but he immediately has to clean this up in addition. A fly buzzes through the room and leaves dirt behind on one of the windows, so Tom has to wipe the window down to boot. When he turns around, he is shocked out of his wits to see Jerry deliberately scooping ashes from an ashtray onto the floor. Tom quickly grabs a broom and dustpan and cleans up the mess, but no sooner has he finished doing so when Jerry is on the floor, holding the ashtray like a parade drum, and tripping the switch to dump more ashes onto the ground. Shocked and fed up, Tom angrily hurls a tomato at Jerry, who ducks as the tomato splatters into the wall, which creates an even bigger mess for Tom to clean up.
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