Barbecue Brawl is the 104th one-reel animated short. Backgrounds by Robert Gentle and layouts by Richard Bickenbach.
Characters[]
- Main:
- Minor:
Plot[]
Spike takes Tyke to the backyard pool to have a Father-Son Barbecue. Putting a chef's hat on Tyke, Spike gets ready.
The first thing Spike does is light the grill. Taking out a match, he carefully lights up a pile of wood/newspaper strips on top of the grill to set it on fire. However, the fire explodes before disappearing, immediately leaving Spike's face being charred black and burning the entire wood/newspaper pile (along with Spike's chef hat).
After lighting the grill, Spike adds clumps of charcoal. The grill unleashes a billow of black smoke as Spike blows on it to create more light, causing him to suffocate and eyes to go watery. However, he assures to Tyke that having hickory smoke will add good flavor to the barbecue.
After applying charcoal, Spike then proceeds to add what he calls a "dog's best friend": a large juicy, tender steak. Spike leaves the steak on the grill, but it immediately shrivels up and instantly burned to a crisp.
Meanwhile, Tom and Jerry arrives on the scene and goes through their chase in the backyard pool. Jerry hides in Spike's bag of charcoal, causing Tom to rummage through the bag. Spike, having retrieved a new steak from the house, notices this and attempts to stop Tom by placing a pot on his head before whacking it with a cooking spoon. Tom, feeling dazed at first, notices Spike behind him and flees.
Grumbling on Tom's behavior, Spike then shovels more charcoal on the red hot grill, unknowingly putting Jerry (who is completely covered in black soot from charcoal) in it. This causes Jerry to scream and jump in pain, until he lands in a nearby swimming pool, much to the shock and confusion from Spike and Tyke.
After exiting the pool, Jerry almost made Tom fall in, but grabs the cat's tail just in time, before releasing it to make the cat fall into the pool. Jerry then hides in Spike's hat. Tom assures to Spike about Jerry hiding on his hat. But he accidentally whacks Spike's head with a charcoal shovel before chasing and attempting to whack Jerry on the ground, missing repeatedly. As Jerry immediately returns back to Spike's head, Spike angrily snatches the shovel and hits Tom with such force, causing the cat to be dragged, dazed back to the swimming pool.
Later, Spike then prepares a salad and begins to toss it. Unknown to Spike and Tyke, Jerry was hiding in their salad bowl, and thus get repeatedly tossed by Spike. Tom notices this from a tree above, and successfully catches Jerry, but not long before landing into Spike's salad bowl. Spike unknowingly tosses Tom in his salad bowl before immediately recognizing the cat was in it. Not wanting to stir anymore trouble in front of Tyke, Spike kindly asks Tom to do him a small favor, before loudly yelling to the cat to get out of his salad. However, Tom momentarily flees in the process. Now fed up with Tom, Spike hopes to assure Tyke on why cats are nothing but trouble to dogs.
Later, Spike and Tyke are grilling their steak, which appears to be nearly ready for their barbecue. As a final touch, Spike decides to add a little pepper to the steak. He grabs a nearby pepper shaker with Jerry hiding inside it. As he adds, Jerry suddenly sneezes repeatedly into the pepper shaker, scaring Spike and Tyke to the point they crouch under the table. Further away, Tom is on top of a tree with a swinging rope. Knowing Jerry is inside the shaker, he swings down and attempts to snatch it. Jerry however, noticing this, immediately escapes and hides inside a nearby loaf of bread. Just as Spike and Tyke come out from under the table, they see the loaf of bread (with Jerry inside) turning alive and acting like a snake, causing Spike to stab the bread with his charcoal folk, before Jerry attempts to snap at them. Tom, noticing Jerry's new hiding spot, swings again to grab the loaf of bread, with Jerry escaping once again. Finding the loaf of bread to be empty, Tom swings back at Spike and Tyke, with the loaf pointing at them, acting like he's going to charge at them. Spike notices this from a distance, and recognizes that Tom is challenging him to a jousting duel. Putting his son aside, the bulldog dons a nearby saucepan like a helmet and holds his charcoal fork and saucepan lid as a lance and shield respectively, charging right at Tom. The duel ends in Spike's victor, causing Tom to be flung around the backyard with enough force until he lands into the swimming pool once again.
After enough troubles from Tom and Jerry, Spike and Tyke have finally prepared their Father-Son Barbecue. Just as the father and son gets ready to dig in, an Ant Army spots their food and approaches the picnic table. Spike notices the Ants and grabs Tyke, along with the food by wrapping them up like a bag. He then flees to the diving board to escape from the Ant Army. However, the Ant Army still gives chase for their food, which leads both Spike and Tyke to fall into the swimming pool, as all of their barbecue is claimed by the Ant Army. Spike returns to the ground and grabs the steak (the main portion of the Barbecue) from the Ants. But at this time, the leader blows his trumpet to have the other Ants successfully retrieve it, much to Spike's dismay.
Notes[]
- This was the first short to contain new opening and ending cards; the opening depicts Tom standing in a pink square at the left and Jerry, a green square opposite.
- It is also the only time to use these credits with the fast theme playing.
- This was the first MGM cartoon recorded in Perspecta Stereo in its original release. All subsequent MGM cartoons (including reissues of earlier cartoons) would be recorded in this sound system from this point onward.
- The pan-and-scan version in the 1990s cropped out the left 1/3 portion of the panel throughout the cartoon. This caused some inconsistencies with characters and props not being shown on screen.
- These issues were later fixed in the 2010s.
- This cartoon is most likely a follow up of Pup on a Picnic, where it follows a similar format of Spike and Tyke having quality time together with an outdoor meal, only for Tom and Jerry to constantly interfere, before having their meal stolen by the ants in the end.
Gallery[]
