Buddies Thicker Than Water is a 1962 Tom and Jerry short film.
Plot
On a snowy night in Expensive Arms Apartments from New York City, Jerry is comfortably asleep in his hole inside a penthouse, while Tom tries to keep from freezing to death below in the alley. He whistles to Jerry but there was no reply. He writes a note, slips it into a bottle, and throws it up to hit the penthouse window. However, the bottle lands back down and covers Tom's head, so he blows it back up and this time it reaches the top floor with success. Jerry, awakened by the noise, goes out to the balcony and finds both this note and a second one sent up by Tom:
"Help! I'm freezing. Your old pal, Tom.”
“P.S. I'm also starving. Tom."
Rushing to the alley, Jerry finds the frozen-solid Tom and drags him back upstairs on a trash can lid. He then sets Tom inside the hot-air vent, thaws him out with an electric blanket. Tom thanks Jerry by kissing him on the cheek. Jerry then provides him with an "Instant Gourmet" dehydrated meal, which magically transforms into a full-course steak and fish dinner when hydrated with a glass of water.
Tom and Jerry lounge about the penthouse, listening to music and drinking everything in the owner's liquor cabinet while laughing themselves silly. Her return startles the inebriated pair, and Jerry dives into his hole as she grabs Tom and prepares to throw him out again. Tom grabs Jerry and shows him to the owner, throwing her into a panic until he pitches the mouse off the balcony, betraying him. While Tom enjoys the owner's favor, Jerry angrily digs himself out of the snow and sneaks back in, using some of the owner's face powder to disguise himself as a ghost for revenge.
When Jerry puts an album of spooky music on the stereo and switches off the lights, Tom believes that the mouse's ghost has come to haunt him. Tom hides in a garbage can and he sees Jerry coming. Tom shook and shivered and popped out and hid under a couch with a pillow over his head. Jerry then used a fishing pole’s string and tied it around his waist and moaned and groaned like a ghost and hid above Tom, who looked up and saw Jerry’s ghost disguise and hid in the winery. Jerry went inside. Tom struggled and crashed through the rectangular wall and was in pieces. He flees through the penthouse and out onto the balcony's edge, where the snow washes off part of Jerry's makeup and exposes the ruse. Tom now aware becomes menacingly furious and retracts his claws out preparing to strike. Despite this, Jerry stands his ground as if he is accepting his fate but before the cat can do so, the snowdrift under his feet gives way and Tom falls down to the alley. He quickly writes a new note and throws it up to Jerry:
"Help! It's freezing down here! Your Old Pal, Tom."
Furious with Tom's earlier ungrateful betrayal, Jerry outright ignores Tom's note, responds by throwing a pair of ice skates and a hockey stick down to him, then goes back to his hole to finish sleeping.
Characters
Starring
Featuring
Gallery
- Main Article: Buddies Thicker Than Water/Gallery
Reception
Although most of the Gene Deitch shorts were negatively received from many fans, this particular short is considered one of the more well-received ones, having been chosen for a volume of the Bumper Collection VHS series.
Notes
- The title is a pun on the proverb "Blood is thicker than water".
- This was one of three Deitch Tom and Jerry cartoons to bear the then-logo of the Motion Picture Association of America in the opening titles (the others were Tall in the Trap and Deitch's last, Carmen Get It!).
- The thin female owner is considered a replacement for Tom's notorious owner, who was consequently dropped from the series after Sorry Safari since his role was considered too controversial among fans.
- The thin female owner is the only character in the Gene Deitch-era to only be shown from the neck down.
- The thin female owner's screaming of mouse when encountering Jerry, as well as Tom's screams of fear when encountering Jerry disguised as a ghost, are both re-used in the next cartoon Carmen Get It!, with the former scream used for when the singer playing Carmen encounters Jerry dressed as a matador, and the latter scream used every time when the conductor is angry at Tom.
- Gene Deitch provided the voices of the drunk laughter for Tom and Jerry.[1]
- This is the 126th entry of the series.
- This was the last short to use the classic Scott Bradley version of the Tom and Jerry theme. The next short, Carmen Get It!, used a one-time version that combined the theme with part of the overture from Carmen, before the Chuck Jones shorts used a new version by Eugene Poddany.
- This is the first time Jerry was recolored white since Mouse for Sale.
Availability
.jpg "Tom And Jerry Classic Collection Vol 5 (UK cover).jpg (248 KB)")
Censorship
- In the Arabic world, the children's channel Spacetoon, MBC3, and Cartoon Network had the scene of Tom and Jerry drinking alcohol censored out. However, airings on other Cartoon Network and Boomerang feeds, MeTV, and MeTV Toons have kept this scene intact.