- Not to be confused with Little Big Mouse, a Tom and Jerry Tales episode.
Little School Mouse is a 1954 American one-reel animated cartoon, and is the 83rd Tom and Jerry short.
Plot[]
Tuffy, a young mouse student, is in Jerry's classroom, all by himself. Seeing the materials he is expected to learn today from Jerry's blackboard, Tuffy eventually sees the clock as he notices his instructor is running later than usual.
The pupil mouse then overhears a commotion coming from outside: his teacher, Jerry, is being relentlessly chased by Tom, only to safely make it to the classroom. With the cat out of the way, Jerry begins his lessons.
Jerry teaches Tuffy the basics of outwitting a cat with a series of drawings on the chalkboard. The first one demonstrates how the cat chases the mouse and, if the cat catches the mouse, the mouse will get eaten. Tuffy begins to cry from this. However, Jerry directs his attention to an alternate picture sequence, which shows that if the mouse escapes by reaching its hole, there's nothing the cat can do, other than saying "bad words", amusing the pupil.
In the pre-lesson, Jerry shows Tuffy a mechanical cat's paw in front of a mousehole prop. He demonstrates the procedure on scanning the surroundings and immediately retreating back to the mousehole upon seeing the cat's paw. Jerry does a brief demonstration, then assigns Tuffy to do the same, while the instructor mouse approaches to the crank of the cat's paw. Tuffy does what he is taught: popping out of the mousehole to scan his surroundings. But as pupil walks out in the open, Jerry activates the paw, causing Tuffy's tail to get caught. Displeased, Jerry sternly assigns Tuffy to the cat's paw while he replays the same demonstration to help his pupil understand better. However, the moment Jerry comes out of the mousehole, Tuffy blindly winds the paw's crank multiple times, unknowingly smacking his instructor repeatedly. After a few more cranks, the pupil investigates on what happened to his instructor. He looks under the paw and upon seeing his instructor, flat as a pancake, twinges with embarrassment, before attempting to dismiss himself from class by placing a CLASS DISMISSED sign on Jerry's podium. However, as he about to leave the mousehole, a stern Jerry catches him by the diaper. With no questions asked, Tuffy immediately retreats to a stool in the corner and dons the dunce cap, embarassed by his performance.
Next, Jerry and Tuffy comes out of the house in the open. The instructor assigns his pupil his first lesson from his book: "REMOVE CAT'S WHISKERS WITHOUT WAKING CAT". Jerry then demonstrates. Using the furniture and the rug as cover, the mouse instructor approaches around a sleeping Tom, and stealthily plucks a whisker out without waking the cat up. He then returns to Tuffy and assigns the pupil to do the same thing he did. Initially hesitant, Tuffy then proceeds to do the first lesson he was assigned, while Jerry waits impatiently. Tuffy then returns momentarily with a whisker on his hands, only this time, unlike how Jerry did it, the whisker is still stuck to a bemused Tom. The mouse instructor, seeing the results, immediately reacts in horror. Jerry grabs Tuffy, who still has the cat's whisker tucked in his hands. However, Jerry immediately tears Tom's whisker out from his pupil's grip and pushes him forward to get back to the class. Tom, now completely awake, goes after the mice. Tuffy reaches the mousehole first, but accidentally locks his instructor out, who desperately bangs on the door to be let in to safety. As the pupil sees the door banging, brief crashes can be heard. After the crashes subsided, Tuffy opens the door and sees his instructor, all bruised and battered with a black eye with the lesson book torn around his neck, collapsing right next to him.
Jerry then assigns Tuffy his next lesson: "GET CHEESE FROM CUPBOARD WITHOUT WAKING CAT". As the two mice pop their heads out from the mousehole, they investigate to see Tom fast asleep once more. Jerry then performs a brief demonstration to show Tuffy how to do it. Using the blinds as an elevator, and cup and spoon as a rowboat, the instructor successfully climbs onto the countertop to reach a plate with some cheese on it. After taking a small piece of cheese, Jerry climbs back down with a broom, but accidentally has the cheese slide right off his hands, before it lands on Tom's head, causing the cat to briefly wake up. Acting quickly, the mouse instructor pulls Tom's eyes shut and soothes him back to sleep. Once back at the mousehole, Jerry shows his prize to Tuffy before eating it, then proceeds to ask his pupil to do the same. Tuffy goes out himself and looks up at the plate of cheese on the countertop. However, instead of sneaking past Tom as how Jerry did, the pupil wakes the cat up to kindly ask on helping him get the cheese. Tom, still half-asleep, accept's Tuffy's plea and hands the large piece of cheese down to pupil before falling back asleep. Tuffy returns with the whole cheese, happily shows it off to his instructor, and swallows the whole lot at once, causing his stomach to assume a large wedge shape. Jerry, however, apparently unthrilled by his pupil's performance, angrily reaches to his lesson book to move on to the final lesson.
Jerry assigns Tuffy his final test: "TIE A BELL ON THE CAT..." The mouse instructor gathers two bells: a golden one for his pupil, a blue one for himself. He then starts his demonstration on going out in the open. By now, Tom, who is aware of Jerry's antics, feigns sleeping. As the cat notices the mouse instructor approaching, he plays along by lifting his head to help Jerry tie the bell around the neck, before sticking out his finger to help him tie a knot. Jerry signals his thanks but immediately realizes at the last minute the cat is toying with him. The mouse instructor immediately flees but Tom catches him. Tuffy, who sees what is happening in the distance from the mousehole, hears crashes as his instructor makes it back with the string and bell tightly coiled around his neck. The pupil, now completely terrified from what he witnessed, gives out a nervous gulp, but proceeds to carry on with his lesson as he takes a package wrapped as a present. Tom, who is now fully awake and upset, sees the pupil mouse approaching and offering him the present. Tom opens it and finds it to be a golden bell on a string. Unlike Jerry's case, however, Tom seems to happily accept Tuffy's gift, even proudly tying the bell around his own neck before patting Tuffy on the head, delighting the pupil. This has proven to be the final straw for Jerry. Realizing his teaching ultimately failed, the mouse storms off in complete frustration to throw his own diploma in the garbage.
In the closing scene, Tuffy is teaching the class. He points to the board, which reads, "Cats And Mice Should Be Friends." Jerry, who is now the pupil and acting as the dunce of the class, indignantly shakes his head saying NO. Tom, happily sitting next to Jerry nods his head enthusiastically at the idea, ringing his bell while doing so. He removes the dunce cap from Jerry and kisses his head, then puts the cap back on covering his head, much to Jerry's chagrin, then jingles his own bell.
Characters[]
Availability[]
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Notes[]
- This is one of the cartoons where Tom wins; some of which are the ones where Jerry takes the lead. The others are Dog Trouble, The Million Dollar Cat, The Bodyguard, Jerry's Diary, Nit-Witty Kitty, Hic-cup Pup, Southbound Duckling, Mouse for Sale, That's My Mommy, Timid Tabby, The Vanishing Duck, The Year of the Mouse, Duel Personality, Love Me, Love My Mouse, Ah, Sweet Mouse-Story of Life, and Guided Mouse-ille, Beefcake Tom and Fight in the Museum
- Little School Mouse is essentially a follow up of Professor Tom with the roles reversed. Tom, in that cartoon, acts as the teacher, instructing Topsy on how to catch mice, only to disastrously backfire on the cat's end when his pupil decides to befriend Jerry instead.
- This is one of the only cartoons where Tuffy cries.
- This is one of the few shorts where Tom literally beats up Jerry, along with Fit To Be Tied.
- This is among the few cartoons where Tom befriends Tuffy.
- For an unknown reason, this cartoon from 1954 did not use the 1953 blue MGM cartoons intro and the Tom & Jerry blue titles from 1953. It used the 1952 MGM cartoons intro, and the 1949 Tom & Jerry red title.
- However, an alternative version exists in CTC - with the 1953 blue MGM cartoons intro and the Tom & Jerry blue titles from 1953.
- Out of all the Tom & Jerry cartoons from 1942's Fine Feathered Friend to 1958's Tot Watchers, this is the only cartoon Kenneth Muse was not involved in.
- The short was remade as part of the anime series episode "School Days".
Gallery[]
- Main article: Little School Mouse/Gallery
Video[]
