On a Roll is the first episode of Tom and Jerry Special Shorts.
Synopsis[]
When a sushi chef sees Jerry scurrying around his restaurant, he tells Tom to earn his keep by catching the sushi-stealing mouse.
Plot[]
In a Japanese sushi shop, a sushi chef is preparing sushi rolls at a cutting table when Jerry suddenly appears. He uses a fishing rod to snag the sushi rolls. Noticing the mouse stealing the rolls, the chef, annoyed by Jerry’s antics, approaches Tom, who is lazily lying in bed. The chef steps on Tom's tail and instructs him to catch Jerry or else he won't get any salmon. Tom reluctantly springs into action to pursue after mouse.
In a sneaky maneuver, Tom traps Jerry inside a hand roll and begins to slice it, leaving Jerry stuck on a piece of sushi. Just as Tom triumphantly grabs Jerry with chopsticks and prepares to swallow him, Jerry spots a bowl of wasabi and hurls it into Tom's mouth. The intense heat causes Tom to scream in agony, creating a hilarious scene.
Seizing the opportunity, Jerry quickly gives Tom a teapot filled with hot green tea, tricking him into swallowing it to ease the burn from the wasabi. Instead, the scorching tea exacerbates Tom's agony, causing him to explode his upper body.
Determined, Tom chases Jerry, who cleverly hides under plates on a conveyor belt. As Tom searches each plate, he inadvertently overlooks Jerry, who skillfully uses chopsticks to stop his plate from moving. A barrage of flying plates hits Tom, sending him crashing to the ground.
After pulling the switch to stop the conveyor, Tom goes after Jerry, who cleverly turns the conveyor back on. Tom struggles to keep up and is launched out of the shop.
In the next scene, Jerry stealthily navigates around a table adorned with lucky cats, unaware that Tom is disguised as one of them. In a sudden move, Tom hits Jerry with a Koban, knocking him flat. Seizing the opportunity, Tom strips Jerry of the Koban and transforms him into an origami bird. Infuriated, the origami bird Jerry pecks at Tom in retaliation. Undeterred, Tom grabs Jerry and throws him as if he were a paper crane, sending him soaring into a Gashapon machine. Curious, Tom approaches the machine, only to find Jerry trapped inside. In a fit of mischief, the cat shakes the machine, causing Jerry to lose his balance. Annoyed, Jerry fights back by launching plastic capsules at Tom's eyes. Taking advantage of the moment, seizes the opportunity to make his escape out the machine.
The scene transitions to a chaotic chase up a table, where Jerry pours soy sauce, causing Tom to slip and impale himself on a decorative swordfish statue. As Tom yelps in pain, a daruma doll falls onto his head.
The chase continues as Tom tries to hit Jerry, but the clever mouse jumps onto a plate containing a pufferfish that ends up stuck to Tom’s face. While Tom searches for Jerry in a tank, he's ambushed by octopus tentacles and struggles for escape, allowing Jerry to slip away unnoticed.
Taking a breath by the freezer boxes, Jerry hides inside one. However, Tom soon follows, reveling in evil laughter. Meanwhile, the sushi chef mistakenly grabs Tom's tail while searching the freezer, revealing both characters. They are then unwittingly rolled up in a hand roll.
As the chef prepares the sushi, Jerry and Tom start to wiggle their way out, creating a comical scene of confusion. With Jerry’s front half sticking out and Tom’s back half trailing behind, they suddenly break free and dash out of the sushi shop, creating chaos in the streets.
Characters[]
Main characters[]
Minor characters[]
- Sushi Chef
- Fishes
- Octopus
Censorship[]
- Two scenes in the Moroccan version were cut. These include when Tom's face is missing from the thorny fish and when toy balls are inserted into Tom's eyes.
Notes[]
- The short has a new animation style, which is the same as the one that is used in Looney Tunes Cartoons.
- This short is similar in concept to Posse Cat, which had come out 67 years earlier, as both cartoons center around Tom being told off by his chef owners that he won't be getting any more food unless he gets rid of Jerry.
- Coincidentally, both shorts even start off the exact same way with Jerry stealing food from the kitchen and Tom getting scolded by his chef owners for his laziness. Except here, the short takes place at a Japanese sushi restaurant instead of a Western cook shack, and the short ends with both Tom and Jerry losing instead of only Jerry winning in the end.
- The short takes place in Japan.
- The episode is four minutes long instead of the usual seven or eleven minutes.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
