The Royal Cat Nap | |
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Tom and Jerry series | |
Title Card
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Directed by |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
Produced by | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
Story by | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
Voices by | Francoise Brun-Cottan |
Music by | Scott Bradley |
Animation by |
Carlo Vinci Lewis Marshall Kenneth Muse |
Layouts by | Richard Bickenbach |
Backgrounds by | Robert Gentle |
Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date(s) | 7 March 1958 |
Color process | Technicolor, CinemaScope, Perspecta |
Running time | 6:45 |
Language | English, French |
Preceded by | Happy Go Ducky |
Followed by | The Vanishing Duck |
The Royal Cat Nap is the 114th one-reel animated Tom and Jerry released cartoon, created in 1958 directed and produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, with music by Scott Bradley. The animation was credited to Carlo Vinci, Lewis Marshall and Kenneth Muse, with backgrounds by Robert Gentle and layouts by Richard Bickenbach.
Royal Cat Nap was the last of four Mouseketeer shorts and also the only Mouseketeer short not produced by Fred Quimby, which were a send-up of the famous Three Musketeers novel and film(s), beginning with the Academy Award winning short The Two Mouseketeers in 1952. The cartoon's plot has a striking similarity to that of 1945's Oscar winner Quiet Please!, except this cartoon features a French king who does not wish to be disturbed, rather than the former's Spike the bulldog. It was released on 7 March 1958 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
This is another one of the cartoons set in Paris. The king is sleeping peacefully in his bed, then Jerry and Tuffy climb a nearby table. However, Tuffy loses his balance and grabs Jerry's outfit, but cannot keep from falling. Jerry looks at where Tuffy fell, but then Tuffy pops up behind Jerry and scares him. Jerry is miffed, but Tuffy explains in French what happened. Jerry shushes him and motions for the little mouse to follow. Jerry jumps into a wedge of cheese and looks through the holes. He keeps stealthy as he spears a bit of cheese on his sword. Then, he sees Tuffy has speared a grape, which bounces into the king's mouth. The king's mouth starts to inflate as he suffocates, but Jerry causes the grape to be swallowed safely down his throat. Jerry runs away and motions again for Tuffy to follow, but Tuffy runs into a teacup and breaks it, waking up the king with a start. The king glares at Tuffy, and then Jerry stabs him in the nose. He angrily calls for "a cat". Tom answers the call moments later, and is chastised by the king in French about his doing something else when he needs help. The king then warns Tom not to let the mice disturb his nap again or else he will have the cat beheaded. He then goes to sleep and Tom marches around the king's bed; then he sticks his tongue out at him and is bopped by him on the head. Tom resumes marching until he hears Jerry eating cheese. Tom gets ready to skewer the mouse, and then Jerry points to Tuffy dropping a vase. Tom catches it on his sword-blade.