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Overview


Puss Gets the Boot is a 1940 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the first animated cartoon of the Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts. It was released to Technicolor theaters by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer, and was nominated for an Academy Award.

Synopsis[]

A cat and mouse by the names Jasper and Jinx fight around the house before the cat is threatened to be thrown out if he breaks another item.

Plot[]

Pussgetsboot

A screenshot from Puss Gets the Boot.

The camera shows a mouse called Jinx attempting to run, but getting nowhere, then zooms out and reveals a smug, superior cat named Jasper who is holding Jinx's tail so that he cannot move. The cat pulls back Jinx's tail, opens his mouth, and releases him such that he will run into Jasper's mouth. Jinx spots the trap, brakes in time, and runs toward his mouse hole, but Jasper catches him with his tail. Jasper tosses the mouse into the air, who lands on the cat's tail, then runs down the cat's body until he has to stop once again just in front of the cat's mouth. Jinx dashes off and Jasper waltzes behind him innocently, hops in front of the door and opens his mouth. Jinx runs in this time, but rolls out of the cat's mouth on his tongue. Jasper begins a chase and then sees a better idea: he runs down an adjacent hallway and sets up a quick trap. The cat dips his finger in ink, paints a fake mouse hole on the wall, and pulls down a sign that says "HOME SWEET HOME". Jinx spots this and attempts to enter the hole, but to no avail, inadvertently knocking himself out. Jasper then revives the poor mouse with a dash of water from a goldfish bowl with a small Goldfish in it.

Jinx recovers and soon notices that something is next to him. He feels the cat's head and grabs an eyelid; promptly, Jasper opens his eye and hoists him up. Jinx then jabs the cat in the eye; Jasper shrieks in pain and retaliates by giving chase. However, by chasing Jinx around a corner, he runs into a Greek pillar which has a flower pot on top of it and breaks them both. His owner, a black woman named Mammy Two Shoes, quickly arrives and scolds Jasper for his unacceptable behavior ("Jasper! Jasper! Hmm, that no-good cat!"). Jasper attempts to tiptoe away, but is soon nabbed under Mammy's broom. ("Just a minute, you good-for-nothin', cheap fur-coat! Now would you just look, just look at that mess you made.") She shows Jasper the mess he has made and subsequently makes one last threat that forms the basis for the cartoon: "Now, understand this, Jasper: if you breaks one more thing, you is goin' out, O-W-T, out! That's clear, ain't it? One more breakin', and you're goin' out! Now, get outta my sight before I gets mad!"

Punctuating her last line, Mammy pushes the cat away with her broom. Jasper creeps away, but soon runs into a table. The cat sees a vase falling from it and rushes over to save it; although he succeeds, he soon spots the mouse laughing at him. Jasper crawls over the floor malevolently, and Jinx gets out of the candlestick as Jasper runs up onto the table. Before the cat can catch him, the mouse holds out a wineglass from the table and threatens to break it. Jasper skids to a stop to avoid serious trouble, retreats. The mouse nods in delight, but soon sees Jasper running after him once again and renews the threat. This time, Jinx adds a taunt for good measure: he whacks the cat with the glass, who once again is forced to retreat, and meanwhile hears Mammy, prancing around the house with the swept-up mess: "Anymore breakin' and that cat's goin' outta here." Jasper gulps from hearing this, chuckles nervously and walks off. The mouse then decides to try a different method; with a wink at the camera, he throws the glass down and whistles for the cat, who sees Jinx pointing towards the ground, panics and dashes at the glass, narrowly saving it. With another whistle, more glasses and a tray is thrown by Jinx; Jasper is lastly hit on the head with a decorated plate of flowers thrown by the mouse. Jasper sees Jinx taunting him with one more glass in his hand, and Jasper attempts to throw the plate to the ground in frustration, but realizes this would probably break it and hits himself over the head. Jasper then spots pillows of all sorts on a nearby couch and lays them out, determined to end this threat. As Jinx is marching along the table, Jasper pops his head up next to him, and Jinx's threat fails to affect the cat. The mouse then twists his tail at the cat as if to say "Have it your way", and throws the glass to the floor in total arrogance. Not hearing the crash he expected, he looks down to the ground and sees that the glass fell on one of the pillows, followed by a smug grin from the cat.

Jinx is now forced to flee himself, but Jasper holds down Jinx's tail. After Jinx says a quick prayer (Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I hope and hope my soul He'll take. Amen.), Jasper gets back at the mouse with a taunt of his own – he lets Jinx go, only to grab a hold of him again seconds later with his own tail. Jasper then tosses the mouse into the air and opens his mouth, expecting to eat the mouse when he falls back down. However, Jinx grabs a china plate on his way down. The plate then drops down onto Jasper instead of himself. Jasper is momentarily stunned, but still catches the plate; however, his troubles only begin as Jinx proceeds to run across the shelf of plates, knocking every one of them down. Jasper sweats increasingly more as he lugs around the stack of plates, then finally manages to stow it against the wall and pants from the weight of the dishes. Jasper is briefly safe, but he soon spots the mouse waving at him from the top of the stack. Jasper can only watch in terror as the mouse throws one more plate down to the ground, and it breaks.

Mammy hears it from upstairs and storms down the steps, proclaiming that she will evict the cat as soon as she gets down ("Jasper! Jasper! Man, you is practically out now!"). To multiply Jasper's humiliation, the mouse leaps in triumph, then runs down the stack of plates, stomps on Jasper's nose, rolls the cat's eyelids, squirts Jasper's milk on Jasper's back, and even cleans himself with Jasper's tail. The mouse spots Mammy approaching with the broom in hand and knows he must get the job done soon or else he will be seen. The mouse kicks the cat in the rear, which causes him to drop all the crockery and take the entire blame. Jinx flees the scene and dives into his hole just before Mammy hits. Jasper is dragged across the floor by Mammy and before evicting him from the house, she says: "MMM... And when I says out, Jasper, I means out. O-U-W-T, out!".

The triumphant Jinx watches his opponent get thrown out, and then spots the "Home Sweet Home" sign used to trick him earlier. The mouse posts the sign by his real mouse hole and nods in confidence that this is the real one as he marches in.

Characters[]

Starring[]

Featuring[]

Censorship[]

  • In the redubbed version (in America and the UK), Mammy Two Shoes (whose voice was changed as it was too stereo typically African-American) correctly spells "Out" as "O-U-T" instead of misspelling it twice as "O-W-T" and "O-U-W-T".
  • Boomerang UK banned this short as part of its 2006 purge of cartoons that have cigarette smoking in them, even though there are no scenes of cigarette smoking in this short.[1]

Availability[]

Notes[]

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A young William Hanna and Joseph Barbera overlooking production of the short (circa 1939).

  • The only screen credit on this film was a "Rudolf Ising Production"; Ising at the time previously worked on MGM Cartoon's Happy Harmonies series and Captain and the Kids.
  • This is the first Tom and Jerry short to be nominated for an Academy Award.
  • Fred Quimby nearly rejected the cartoon, as he viewed it to it being too similar to other previous cat-and-mouse chase cartoons, and thought of it as being too unoriginal. The cartoon being nominated for an Academy Award, as well as some positive reviews from critics, allowed additional cartoons starring the duo to be produced.
    • As the short was intended to be a one-shot cartoon, and being a regular cat and mouse short like all the other similarly-made shorts, it ends in the regular M-G-M title card, before "AN M-G-M TOM AND JERRY CARTOON" was established.
    • The Night Before Christmas also ends with a normal but christmas-themed MGM end title card.
  • Being produced in 1939, it was the only Tom and Jerry short produced in the 1930s.
  • Tom and Jerry were originally intended to be a dog and a fox. Coincidentally, a Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Tex Avery by the name of "Of Fox and Hounds" about a fox and a dog would also be released later on in 1940, with the fox (named George) having a personality similar to Bugs Bunny (also made in 1940), and a dog named Willoughby that has the personality of Lennie from the book "Of Mice and Men". Avery parodied the book again when he created George and Junior.
  • This was the only short produced before World War II.
  • This is the first cartoon Jinx (Jerry) wins and the first cartoon Jasper (Tom) loses.
  • The un-restored Turner print is the original theatrical version. The remastered version by Warner Bros. is a 1960s reissue print with a recreated MGM Cartoon logo without the Technicolor reference, which then jump-cuts to the rest of the original opening titles.
  • Though Rudolf Ising took sole credit for producing the cartoon, it was later discovered by co-producer Fred Quimby that Ising had little or nothing to do with the production, and that it was entirely done by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
  • At a little over nine minutes, this is the longest Golden Age Tom and Jerry short.
  • After the short, the cat was renamed Tom and the mouse was renamed Jerry at the suggestion of animator John Carr, following a studio contest when MGM greenlit the series.
  • Jinx is referred to as 'Pee-wee' in the MGM Newsletter.
  • This is the only short to be released in 1940.
  • This short, like Pent-House Mouse, is the only short to be released in the year their respective eras of Tom and Jerry began.

References[]

  1. "Smoke's no joke for Tom and Jerry", BBC News, August 21, 2006
Tom and Jerry Cartoons
1940 Puss Gets the Boot
1941 The Midnight SnackThe Night Before Christmas
1942 Fraidy CatDog TroublePuss n' TootsThe Bowling Alley-CatFine Feathered Friend
1943 Sufferin' Cats!The Lonesome MouseThe Yankee Doodle MouseBaby Puss
1944 The Zoot CatThe Million Dollar CatThe BodyguardPuttin' on the DogMouse Trouble
1945 The Mouse Comes to DinnerMouse in ManhattanTee for TwoFlirty BirdyQuiet Please!
1946 Springtime for ThomasThe Milky WaifTrap HappySolid Serenade
1947 Cat Fishin'Part Time PalThe Cat ConcertoDr. Jekyll and Mr. MouseSalt Water TabbyA Mouse in the HouseThe Invisible Mouse
1948 Kitty FoiledThe Truce HurtsOld Rockin' Chair TomProfessor TomMouse Cleaning
1949 Polka-Dot PussThe Little OrphanHatch Up Your TroublesHeavenly PussThe Cat and the MermouseLove That PupJerry's DiaryTennis Chumps
1950 Little QuackerSaturday Evening Puss • Texas TomJerry and the LionSafety SecondThe Hollywood BowlThe Framed CatCue Ball Cat
1951 Casanova CatJerry and the GoldfishJerry's CousinSleepy-Time TomHis Mouse FridaySlicked-up PupNit-Witty KittyCat Napping
1952 The Flying CatThe Duck DoctorThe Two MouseketeersSmitten KittenTriplet TroubleLittle RunawayFit To Be TiedPush-Button KittyCruise CatThe Dog House
1953 The Missing Mouse • Jerry and JumboJohann MouseThat's My Pup!Just DuckyTwo Little IndiansLife with Tom
1954 Puppy TalePosse CatHic-cup PupLittle School MouseBaby ButchMice FolliesNeapolitan MouseDownhearted DucklingPet PeeveTouché, Pussy Cat!
1955 Southbound DucklingPup on a PicnicMouse for SaleDesigns on JerryTom and ChérieSmarty CatPecos PestThat's My Mommy
1956 The Flying SorceressThe Egg and JerryBusy BuddiesMuscle Beach TomDown Beat BearBlue Cat BluesBarbecue Brawl
1957 Tops with PopsTimid TabbyFeedin' the KiddieMucho MouseTom's Photo Finish
1958 Happy Go DuckyRoyal Cat NapThe Vanishing DuckRobin HoodwinkedTot Watchers
1961 Switchin' KittenDown and OutingIt's Greek to Me-ow!
1962 High SteaksMouse into SpaceLanding StriplingCalypso CatDicky MoeThe Tom and Jerry Cartoon KitTall in the TrapSorry SafariBuddies Thicker Than WaterCarmen Get It!
1963 Pent-House Mouse
1964 The Cat Above and The Mouse BelowIs There a Doctor in the Mouse?Much Ado About MousingSnowbody Loves MeThe Unshrinkable Jerry Mouse
1965 Ah, Sweet Mouse-Story of LifeTom-ic EnergyBad Day at Cat RockThe Brothers Carry-Mouse-OffHaunted MouseI'm Just Wild About JerryOf Feline BondageThe Year of the MouseThe Cat's Me-Ouch
1966 Duel PersonalityJerry, Jerry, Quite ContraryJerry-Go-RoundLove Me, Love My MousePuss 'n' BoatsFilet MeowMatinee MouseThe A-Tom-Inable SnowmanCatty-Cornered
1967 Cat and Dupli-catO-Solar-MeowGuided Mouse-illeRock 'n' RodentCannery RodentThe Mouse from H.U.N.G.E.R.Surf-Bored CatShutter Bugged CatAdvance and Be MechanizedPurr-Chance to Dream
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