Busy Buddies is a 1956 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the 100th Tom and Jerry short, with backgrounds by Robert Gentle and layouts by Dick Bickenbach.
Characters[]
Main characters[]
Major characters[]
Minor characters[]
Plot[]
Joan and George are going out and tell the babysitter, Jeannie, to look after an unnamed baby. However, Tom appears from the wall and Jerry comes out from the mousehole and they listen, so Joan and George leave the house while Joan closes the door and Jeannie goes to phone and she answers the phone but she is more interested in talking on the telephone. At first, Tom and Jerry go to the kitchen and they take the opportunity to help themselves to some food, Jerry helps himself to some cookies, and as Tom helps himself to a watermelon and milk, they soon discover Baby crawling away while Jeannie continues to talk on the phone, unaware. Tom and Jerry rescue Baby from increasingly dangerous hazards, such as the cupboards, the sink, a curtain rod, the heating ducts, a flagpole, and a mailbox down the street. So Tom and Jerry listen through the mailbox and they did hear something so Tom and Jerry use the can opener to cut the hole of the mailbox, however, they hear the police siren but Tom and Jerry are going to rummage through the hole of the mailbox to look for Baby but the light flashes on Tom and Jerry while the baby appears but they duck down from the gun shot and Tom grabs the Baby and they run away. As Tom goes home with Baby and they hide behind the bush, Baby suddenly falls in the sky. Tom gets a stroller, but fails when Baby uses a diaper as a parachute, and floats to safety and Tom goes to Jerry and he gives the Baby to him, so Tom grabs the Baby and he puts the Baby in a crib so Tom proceeds to change the Baby diaper. However, when the door bell rings, Tom and Jerry hide behind the walls. Jeannie is unaware through all of this, and at one point even hits Tom with a book for "bothering the baby" when he returns Baby to the crib. At the end, Joan and George return and ask Jeannie how things went. She explains that she had a little trouble with Tom, but knows that Baby was "no trouble at all". Then the camera cuts to Baby on the crib, as he wakes up, winks at the audience, goes back to sleep as the cartoon closes.
Quotes[]
- Jeannie: "Yes Ma'am."
- Jeannie: "Good night Hi it's Jeannie. yeah yeah ah no I'm babysitting oh no oh no really you mean Mike well. Oh huh? oh yes me oh gosh no suppose Gary saw me. Oh It's a swell sharp you all gonna see it yeah oh wait a minute. I'll check out the Baby. The baby's okay who? Jane she got her hair you mean in the back with bangs oh no. Scat you, cat! Go on scat! Oh it's that darn cat bothering the baby. Oh, he said call on Monday."
- Joan: "And how was the baby, Jeannie?"
- Jeannie: "Oh, just fine. I have little trouble with Tom but the baby was an angel he was no trouble at all."
Notes[]
- This short was withheld from being televised until early 1998 due to its propaganda of satirizing child neglect and endangerment, including sequences of the baby crawling underwater and unseen cops shooting at the titular mute duo and the baby.[citation needed]
- However, it was released on The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume II Laserdisc box set in 1993, like several other collectable Laserdisc sets that would feature cartoons that have yet to be televised until further notice.
- This short is unavailable on British television and is exempt from the Complete Collector's Edition for the same reasons regarding its propaganda.
- This was one of only two shorts that was not included in the Complete Collector's Edition, the other being The Million Dollar Cat.
- This short is later continued in Tot Watchers (1958), which is considered a watered-down version of this short.
- George's head is visible onscreen for the first time, as in his previous appearance, Pet Peeve, his head appears to be off-camera.
- This is the first appearance of George and Joan's baby and Jeannie.
- This is the 100th short of Tom and Jerry.
- This is the only Tom and Jerry short where neither Tom nor Jerry go against each other, or have any negative interactions (not even a stare) with each other.
- This short was the first to use a second version of the 1956 green Tom and Jerry title card, removing the yellow backgrounds from the first two shorts.
Availability[]
.jpg "No Mice Allowed DVD (front side).jpg (1.58 MB)")
Gallery[]
- Main article: Busy Buddies/Gallery