Heavenly Puss is a 1949 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the 42nd Tom and Jerry short.
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Plot[]
The cartoon begins with Tom resting by the fireplace as Jerry peeks through his mousehole and runs under the chair then continues on as Tom opens his one eye. Jerry climbs up the table and hides behind the candle and while he was checking the coast is clear, Tom picks up a knife getting ready to strike. Jerry puts his hand to pinch a biscuit when Tom hits his hand with a knife. Jerry sees Tom and ducks down as Tom chops the candle in half and dashes off. Now a typically violent chase begins, Jerry climbs the stairs, and Tom loosens the carpet which is on the stairs, along with a large piano. Tom tries to run away from the piano, but fails when he only runs into a dead end, then ends up being squashed by the piano, which kills him.
The golden escalator of Heaven appears which takes Tom's soul up into the sky to the golden gates of the railroad station where the "Heavenly Express" train is waiting that carries the souls of dead cats to heaven and has a steam engine up on the front and hauling lots of coaches. A few cats are in the queue. The gatekeeper calls out Butch's name who had died in a fight with a bulldog. He lets the injured Butch onboard, then the gatekeeper lets Frankie, who was struck on the head with a flat iron while caterwauling on a backyard fence, board the train and then Aloysius who got ran over by a steamroller. He calls out Fluff, Muff and Puff, three kittens who suffocated and drowned in a bag of water ("What some people won't do", as the gatekeeper remarked), though the gatekeeper only has enough time to say their names, then they go quickly though the gate to the train. The gatekeeper allows the kittens through as their deaths were untimely.
Tom tries to sneak past the gatekeeper, who catches him and says, "Thomas, just a minute." He is forced to stand in line as the gatekeeper looks through his past life. He reveals that because he has persecuted Jerry all his life instead of befriending him, and this is a bad deed he has refused to let Tom board the train. But despite warnings, the Heavenly Express doesn't depart for an hour, so Tom is given a "Certificate of Forgiveness" for Jerry to sign and if he can get Jerry's signature stating his forgiveness within one hour, he will be allowed to board, but if he fails to accomplish this, will know that he will be banished to Hell where Spike the Bulldog, personified as the devil, awaits. Tom is horrified while the gatekeeper reminds him he only has an hour.
Tom comes back to life, thinking it was all a dream. However, he realizes it is real when he sees he is holding the certificate of forgiveness that Jerry has to sign. A golden clock appears showing how long Tom has left before the Heavenly Express departs. The ghostly voice of the gatekeeper says "Hurry, Tom! Hurry!" Tom gives a cake saying "To my pal" on the side of the cake. He knocks on the door, Jerry comes out and asks if the cake is for him. Tom nods yes. Jerry digs into the cake, leaving only the candles and crumbs. Tom grabs Jerry out, gives him a pen, and tells him to sign the certificate, but is angry when Jerry squirts him with the pen with blue ink! The golden clock appears, showing there is only half an hour left for Jerry to sign the certificate of forgiveness. Tom tries to forge Jerry's signature, but is warned when the ghostly voice of the gatekeeper prevents him and reminds him that Jerry must sign it. He then tries to get Jerry to sign it by bribing him with cheese. Thinking that Tom is tricking him, Jerry angrily rips up the certificate as the last straw. Frightened and enraged, Tom attempts to smash Jerry, but then, this to his horror, stops when Spike (or the devil) pops in and reminds Tom of the consequence of doing so: "Attaboy, Tom! Hit him and let's go! Come on!" Tom doesn't want to go to hell, so he kisses Jerry and Spike disappears.
He hears the voice of the bell for the golden clock informing him that the Heavenly Express is about to depart, and means that when the conductor shouts for everyone to get on board the train, Tom now realizes that he is short of time. Tom puts all the pieces of the certificate back together and desperately pleads with Jerry to sign the paper by gesturing the fate that awaits him. He also mimes an apology for how he has treated Jerry. Still skeptical but understanding Tom's predicament, Jerry finally decides to sign the certificate, but has no idea that there is no ink in the pen. Tom shakes the pen and squirts it on the wall and hears the bell of the golden clock meaning time is up. Jerry manages to sign the paper as Tom races up the stairway to heaven, and tries to reach the train, but fails when the stairs vanish and send him falling backward, just as a hole, which leads to Hell, appears on the floor.
It leads to Hell directly, and then as Tom waves a goodbye sign, he falls through it into the cauldron in Hell where Spike is going to torture Tom eternally. Tom is stuck there forever for his crimes, until the scenes of Hell changes to the fireplace where Tom was seen sleeping earlier.
As Tom desperately tries to escape, a burning piece of wood from the fireplace wakes him up, making him scream in pain. Tom awakens and is relieved when he realizes that it was all just a terrible nightmare. He runs over to Jerry and kisses him and hugs him profusely. Utterly perplexed, Jerry shrugs in confusion as the cartoon iris out and ends.
Notes[]
- The Conductor who grants the passengers to enter the Heavenly Express resembles Tom Cat.
- He would later appear in Tom and Jerry Chase under the name "Cooper."
- This is the first cartoon where Butch is officially named "Butch". In his earlier appearances, he was an unnamed cat character.
- This is one of the few shorts where Tom had been redeemed and becomes Jerry's friend.
- This short was shown in the 1987 movie Prince of Darkness and the 2013 movie Escape from Tomorrow.
- The Devil Dog appears in Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers, but used for Spike as an alternative costume.
- The Devil Dog also appears in Tom and Jerry in Infurnal Escape as the main antagonist.
- This is the first appearances of the triplet kittens Fluff, Muff and Puff and the first of their two appearances in the classic Golden-era.
- Some scenes from this short were used in Shutter Bugged Cat.
- This short marks the final performance of Billy Bletcher as Spike Bulldog before he was replaced by Daws Butler starting with 1949's Love That Pup.
Availability[]
Censorship[]
- This short is banned in the Middle East and Brazil for its frightening depictions of death, eternal damnation in Hell, and a brief scene implying animal abuse (the scene of Fluff, Muff, and Puff entering Heaven in a wet sack, implying that they were drowned). The short does air in some other countries like in the United States and the United Kingdom.