- Not to be confused with Jerry's Country Cousin, an episode from The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show.
Jerry's Cousin is a 1951 Tom and Jerry cartoon, and the 57th overall.
Plot[]
Inside Hogan's Alley, cats are seen being flung and beaten to a pulp by a lone mouse, Muscles. Before finishing off one of his feline victims, Muscles hears the mail arriving in his mailbox. He retrieves his mail, which reveals a letter from his cousin Jerry, begging for help in dealing with Tom.
Angered in shock by Jerry's predicament, Muscles quickly packs his bag and storms off, accepting his cousin's plea for help. As the rogue mouse makes his way to Jerry's, the other cats in the alley nearby immediately cower in fear as he approaches. Butch even attempts to hide by digging his own grave before burying himself.
At Tom and Jerry's house, the mouse is being mercilessly terrorized by Tom, who repeatedly throws sticks of firecrackers into Jerry's mouse hole. Muscles suddenly arrives in the nick of time and picks up a live firecracker before returning it back to Tom to let it explode inside the cat's mouth. Angered by Muscle's actions, the cat picks up the mouse in an attempt to threaten him. However, Muscles easily lets go of the cat's grip and grabs him by the fur of his neck, warning the cat on terrorizing Jerry "Listen, pussycat. Don't let me catch you picking on my little cousin while I'm around, you understand? Now beat it!", before hurling him into a vase on the other end of the room. Muscles adds insult to Tom's injury by spitting on the vase, which cracks to reveal that the cat has conformed into the vase's shape.
Later, Tom tries weight training to get even on Muscles. After some training and building up enough muscles, he approaches the kitchen where the two mice are enjoying crackers as snacks. Jerry flees in terror the moment he sees Tom. As Muscles was about to get a bite from his snack, Tom approaches and slams the tough mouse with his fist. Muscles, quickly recovering from Tom's blow, retaliates by inflating his own fist to a massive size, before landing a much more powerful punch back at the cat. Tom is flung back to the far end of the living room, before having his head crash into a cuckoo clock, with the cuckoo coming out of his mouth.
Tom's next plan against Muscles is to take him out by surprise. Sawing off a floorboard of the attic, the cat catches the two mice from up above, resting on his own bed basket, with Muscles calmly relaxing while Jerry cautiously looking around the room. Tom then drops a bowling ball right on top of Muscles. Just as Muscles assures Jerry that everything is okay, "Relax, cousin. Nothing's gonna happen." BOOM!!! The bowling ball crashes down on him to the basement, scaring Jerry in the process. Confident that his plan works, Tom quickly rushes back down and approaches Jerry, ready to capture the helpless mouse. Muscles, however, immediately emerges from the basement door and send the bowling ball back to Tom, turning the cat into 10 bowling pins. Muscles, not wanting to waste his time with Tom anymore, ruthlessly charges at the cat. Tom, extremely terrified, quickly recovers and attempts to flee through the halls, with the tough mouse in pursuit. Muscles is then greeted by a double-barreled shotgun pointed right at him from Tom. Muscles responds by blowing the barrels with his mouth, causing two shells to be lodged into Tom's eyes. Muscles then climbs up to the cat's shoulder and with a hammer, strikes Tom back on the head! BOOM!!! The shells go off, impairing the cat's vision.
Tom, now wearing sunglasses, quietly uses a telephone to make a call to Dirty Work Inc. With Muscles being way too tough to take out himself, the cat decides to find someone else more suitable instead. He hires a trio of thug cats to finish Muscles off. The Dirty Work Inc. accepts Tom's offer and makes their way to the house.
As the Dirty Work Inc. arrive, Tom points them to where Muscles is. The thugs make their way to locate Muscles and immediately ambush him, briefly causing a series of crashes and thuds, before the tough mouse is flung back at the front door where Tom was standing. Muscles, however, quickly recovers, and retaliates with a much more powerful beating, even causing furnitures to be thrown out of the house. As Tom wonders what the outcome of that last beating was, he notices a fully intact Muscles making his way to the kitchen, before immediately coming back with a broom and dustpan on his hands. Covering his mouth in shock, Tom quickly cowers into the corner. The cat's worst fear has been realized when he sees the Dirty Work Inc., completely defeated and knocked out, being dragged away with a dustpan by Muscles. Muscles then disposes the cat thugs outside the front door, before facing towards Tom and calling him out by whistling. The cat, finally admitting defeat at his adversary, begins to repeatedly bow his head in respect and grovel at Muscles' feet.
Before Muscles returns home, he gives Jerry an outfit which is identical to his own, and reminds Jerry to whistle. Jerry gets himself dressed and toughens himself up to look more like Muscles. While Jerry steps out of his mousehole and whistles, Tom believes that Jerry is Muscles, rushes there to bow to him, and kisses his feet, much to the mouse's delight.
Characters[]
Main Characters[]
(In order of appearance)[]
- Muscles Mouse (debut)
- Jerry Mouse
- Tom Cat
Supporting Characters[]
- Muscle Cats (debut)
Minor Characters[]
- Butch Cat (cameo)
- Lightning Cat (cameo)
- Others cats
- Unnamed brown cat
- Unnamed grey cat
- Unnamed tan cat
- Unnamed black cat
- Unnamed yellow cat
Notes[]
- This is the fifth Tom and Jerry short to be nominated for an Oscar.
- The opening theme music for this cartoon would later be reused in most cartoons of the Gene Deitch era; therefore, this version is associated with the Gene Deitch era. The opening theme music for His Mouse Friday and Slicked-up Pup were similar to this.
- This cartoon marks the first appearance of Muscles Mouse, and his only appearance in the "classic" era. A similar-looking character to Muscles named Freddie appears in the direct-to-video film Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring (2001). Unlike Muscles, who cares deeply for Jerry despite his tough-guy demeanor, Freddie, on the other hand, is a mean tough-guy bully who is hostile towards Jerry and Nibbles. Muscles would later reappear as a recurring character in the 2014 series The Tom and Jerry Show, beginning with the third season episode Frown and Country.
- During Tom's workout, the tune plays "The Irish Washerwoman" while ending tune plays as "Hail to the Chief".
- Tom making a call with glasses on and him pointing the hired thugs on Muscles' whereabouts became internet memes.
- Timid Tabby, which would be released in 1957, would act as a follow up to this cartoon with the roles reversed. The cousin of one of the main characters, who acts as a complete foil to their respective species (in this case, Tom's cousin George, who is musophobic) would be visiting, only to deal with the mishaps of the opposite main character, before they overcome them in the end.
- Muscles blowing up the shotgun shells lodged in Tom's eyes is redone from Texas Tom, where Jerry blows the barrel from Tom's revolver to lodge all of the bullets into the cat's mouth, before the mouse takes the empty revolver to smack Tom on the back of the head to make the shots go off.
- Like most of the reissues at the time of this cartoon's re-release, Irven Spence is credited as Irvin Spence in the opening credits; he was also credited as Irv Spence in other credits.
- Muscles' threat to Tom in the beginning about leaving Jerry alone is very similar to the one from Love That Pup, where Spike threatens to pulverize Tom if he catches him messing with Tyke, followed by telling Tom to get lost.
- Muscles beating up Tom knowing he's harming Jerry is similar to the ending scene of The Milky Waif with Jerry beating up Tom for hitting Nibbles Mouse with a flyswatter.
Errors[]
- When Tom grabs the bowling ball, it disappears only to reappear.
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