Mouse into Space is a 1962 Tom and Jerry cartoon released on April 13, 1962 (copyrighted 1961). It was the fifth of the thirteen cartoons in the series to be directed by Gene Deitch and produced by William L. Snyder in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
Plot[]
Jerry is reading a magazine, which announces "that life is much better in space for a mouse". At the same time, Tom stealthily places a revolver to Jerry's head and opens fire, but Jerry reacts quickly and avoids being shot. He gets angry and continues reading, despite Tom plants a bomb. The plan backfires as well, for just before Jerry could explode, the explosive charge does not work as intended.
Jerry reads that there are no cats in space, therefore he packs up to participate in the space program. Visibly saddened Tom does his best to convince Jerry to stay, by providing means of bodily harm to be used on himself: from a hammer to a revolver, and even a bomb placed on his head. Jerry ruthlessly ignores him and leaves home, saddening Tom further. Jerry enlists as an astro-mouse, and having passing the test he proceeds to the rocket ship.
Tom falls into depression. He is seen drinking alcohol on an evening walk. Being inebriated, he sleeps in a tube which is actually the gasoline hose of a rocket Jerry is about to fly into the space. By night, a fuel truck arrives and a man resembling Tom’s owner (from Down and Outing and High Steaks) gets down to connect the hose to the fuel tank of the truck and turns the crank, releasing gasoline into the hose. Tom wakes up from the noise but unfortunately, he has been nearly drowned by the fuel, so he tries to swim above. Unbeknownst to Tom, a moment later the launching center crewman hits the launch button, which causes the gasoline to be ignited into the fire. Tom desperately climbs above the fire before it reaches him. The rocket has started with the standard procedure, for the first launching module falls off once the rocket enters the space. Therefore, Tom manages to survive. When the crewman on Earth hits the number 2 button, another rocket module falls off, which causes to release fire upon falling off. From this reason, Tom repeats the leaping between modules procedure until only a small conical capsule remains from the main rocket.
When Tom opens the capsule, he is delighted to see Jerry inside. He immediately jumps into it and closes the hatch. Inside the crew module, Tom moves Jerry's chair, which makes it spin fast. While laughing incessantly, Tom accidentally presses a button that makes the entire capsule spin, which completely changes the space craft's track into a loopy zigzag. The force of the spinning capsule coupled with a loosely-hinged door easily pushes Tom outside the capsule, sending him slowly flying into the space due to the lack of gravity.
Another capsule manages to collide with Tom. When he opens it, he spots inside a French Bulldog wearing Soviet Vostok-type spacesuit, who resembles a small Spike. Tom flees in terror, but without knowing how to move fast in space he cannot defend himself from asteroids, one of which traps him inside. Meanwhile, Jerry navigates the capsule into the space, then he senses a falling stone. Jerry changes the capsule's course, so the pointed tip splits open the moonstone. As a result, Tom is released with a piece of asteroid stuck into his waist. Tom falls back to the Earth's gravity zone, but his rapid journey downwards causes his asteroid belt to heat up to such a point that Tom shoots out of the space rock, but not fast enough to escape the gravity zone. Tom reaches to the ground in pieces. Jerry laughs himself silly at Tom's predicament; as once he realizes that Tom was stuck in the asteroid, which cracked. Jerry's capsule safely lands in the space center, when its in-built parachute activates.
Tom barely reaches home seeing glorious Jerry. The cat leaps through the window with a hammer, a gun, and a bomb, but he drops those items when he notices that Jerry won a medal for his successful space trip. Tom merrily greets Jerry and the mouse returns the kindness. Tom is asking Jerry to light a cigar for him. Instead of the cigar, Tom treacherously lights Jerry's shiny medal to set him on fire, but it backfires since the medal turns out to function as a jetpack as well. With such a device, Jerry can make Tom flee, forcing him to pack up his belongings and move out of the house. Jerry cheerfully waves farewell to Tom and the cartoon ends.
Characters[]
Notes[]
- This is the third cartoon where Tom runs away from Jerry, the first time being Switchin' Kitten and the second being It's Greek to Me-ow!
- This is the first space themed cartoon in the Tom and Jerry series.
- This is the 119th short of the therical series overall.
- The rockets were modelled after the patterns from the period the cartoon was made - Jerry is travelling in Saturn V rocket, while the Soviet rocket was modelled after the Soyuz pattern space rockets. -- EDIT: This is obviously incorrect. This cartoon was released in 1962. The Saturn V rocket was in early design; it's first flight was in 1967. Same with the Soyuz space capsules - late 1960s. And, the Soviet capsules were spherical, not conical shaped.
- Jerry and the Soviet bulldog wear spacesuits from the era - Jerry's one seems to be modelled after Apollo missions pattern, while the Bulldog's one is apparently the Vostok-pattern.
Reception[]
In their book The Encyclopedia of Cartoon Superstars: From A to (almost) Z, authors John Calwey and Jim Korkis noted that while the Deitch shorts "were never as funny as the classics, they did have a quirky style all their own", believing that Deitch "was able to maintain the inner side of the characters by having them show occasional feelings". In Mouse into Space, as "one of the more bizarre examples", Tom becomes "so full of despair, that he takes to the bottle!"
Gallery[]
