- This article is about the Tom and Jerry short, for the Tom & Jerry Kids episode with the same name, click here.
Pent-House Mouse is a 1963 Tom and Jerry cartoon and the first of the 34 cartoons to be directed and produced by Chuck Jones with backgrounds by Philip DeGuard, after Gene Deitch directed the previous thirteen shorts.
Characters[]
Plot[]
Tom is living the high life in a penthouse, while Jerry is seen with an empty stomach looking for food. He is mad at it, trying to stop it from "eating" itself. He intentionally stops it using his tail by wrapping around it, tightens and ties it on his back. Jerry suddenly sees a lunchbox at a construction site, thinking about an "equation" with some food inside it. As his tail unwraps automatically from his stomach, he jumps into it to have a meal by opening the side, and automatically shuts itself as Jerry got inside.
But the steel beam on which the lunchbox sits is lifted into the air, then slides off. As Jerry is full from eating, he sees that he's falling. Scared, he runs back to the lunchbox. But it opens automatically, bursting the food out. Jerry tries to avoid harmfully falling by grabbing and stepping onto a margarine-spread loaf of bread, but slips onto it. Also, he climbs onto a banana, but peels one of its sides. As Tom is about to wake up, the lunchbox (with the side opened by Jerry) falls onto his head, leaving him a lunchbox-shaped head. He shakes it off as he sees Jerry falling with two slices of bread. Happily, he thinks an equation on making his "favorite" sandwich, the "Jerry sandwich". He then runs into a room and uses a baseball glove to make a Jerry sandwich (as it was processed in his mind).
He uses the glove as a plate and eats the sandwich, but notices that Jerry isn't inside him by feeling it with his tongue. He flips the top bread over, seeing Jerry formed into a curved body, surviving from Tom's bite. Tom eats the rest of the sandwich in order to make Jerry go inside him, but Jerry escapes on Tom's right middle finger, causing it to spring back and hit onto his right eye. Tom gives chase, but Jerry jumps onto the patio and slides down to a rain gutter as he slides his way (on backwards) into the construction site, while giving Tom several goodbyes. But it ends when he sees a crusher, turning himself into white and rapidly runs back to the way he came.
Leading himself onto Tom, he opens his mouth, getting himself inside as he closes both Tom's ears and eyes. But Tom automatically opens them up. Shaking Jerry out of his head. He grabs a flyswatter, swatting Jerry as he reforms and runs before him. But on the fourth time Tom swats onto him, he angrily stops him and asks him to hand over the flyswatter, which swats his head for a diversion to run away from him. Leaving Tom a flat-shaped head, he chases Jerry, entering him a dead-end onto a flagpole, which gives Tom a chance to get him. But Jerry then spins the pole counterclockwise, causing Tom to rumble from his feet as he sees that the pole is being "unscrewed" from its collar. He then convinces Jerry to stop it, which he did. Tom "promises" to be good to Jerry with the proof from a halo on his head. Jerry cheers, but then removes the ball, giving a goodbye to Tom, and faking to know that he still "loves" him which ultimately leads to Tom falling off the penthouse patio and tumbling across the construction site into a building hosting a dog show. The dogs in the building then attack Tom. Jerry is now in Tom's penthouse, enjoying the high life as Tom was at the start. Jerry drinks some juice after connecting 3 straws, but ends up swallowing a whole ice cube, so he just decides to take a nap.
Voice Actors[]
- Mel Blanc as Tom and Jerry
Gallery[]
Availability[]
Notes[]
- This is the first Tom and Jerry short to be directed and produced by Chuck Jones.
- This is the first Tom and Jerry short to have Tom meowing after Tanner roaring.
- This is the only Tom and Jerry short to be released in 1963, as the next one, The Cat Above and The Mouse Below, was released the following year.
- This marks the first appearance of Tanner the Lion since Tot Watchers. This time he takes Leo the lion's spot and he even used his encounter parts edited version of his roar.
- Prior to his relationship with Tom and Jerry for MGM, Jones was working on Gay Purr-ee before Warner Bros. fired him as Abe Levitow directed the film. After MGM terminated the contract for previous director, Gene Deitch, as his work was done overseas, Jones was hired to produce and direct a new batch of Tom and Jerry cartoons. This resulted in his input actually saving the series' reputation, as the Jones-era is considered more successful than the Deitch-era. Despite this, some classic cartoons fans feel that Chuck Jones' take on Tom and Jerry is not as entertaining as the Hanna-Barbera era (and Jones himself has said he felt that the Tom and Jerry cartoons he worked on were not as good as his other projects).
Errors[]
- In a part of the scene where Jerry demands the swatter from Tom, Tom's arm is briefly shown clear.
- In the scene where it looks like Jerry is running on the air, there was no pole when Jerry was running; in the next scene, he is running at the end of the pole.