Scat Cats

Scat Cats
Directed by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Produced by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Story by	Homer Brightman
Music by	Scott Bradley
Animation by	Kenneth Muse Carlo Vinci Lewis Marshall
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Released date	July 26, 1957
Color process	Technicolor
Preceded by	Give and Tyke

Scat Cats is the second and last Spike and Tyke cartoon, released in 1957.

Characters

Starring

• Spike Bulldog
• Tyke Bulldog

Featuring

• Lightning Cat
• Topsy Cat
• Meathead Cat
• Butch Cat
• George and Joan

Plot

Spike and Tyke are told by their owners George and Joan whom are leaving the house for the night to guard the place while they are gone and not let anyone in the house, but Butch calls his friends to visit. The minute the three cats started sneaking into the house, Spike scares them out of the house, followed by Tyke biting Lighting with him saying "Is this your kid?". Spike tells Tyke "What a watchdog!".

Meathead, Lightning and Topsy then attempt to sneak into the house past Spike and Tyke, all ending in failure:

1. Lightning is using the rope up a tree, but Spike pushes the chimney to the window and causes Lightning to crash into it.

2. Topsy tries to slingshot himself through a window, but Spike uses a baseball glove to catch him.

3. Meathead uses a ladder to climb to the chimney. Spike simply picks up the ladder and takes it away. Meathead clings to the roof, only for the entire thing to collapse.

4. Topsy rides on a paper airplane to the window but Spike uses a lighter to ignite the plane. As soon as Topsy reaches Butch, the plane disintegrates, causing Topsy to plummet to the ground hard as his parachute activates too soon.

5. Lightning launches Meathead to the window, and Butch uses the net to catch him. Spike cuts the net and Meathead ends up landing in a trashcan, also on a seesaw; Spike launches the trashcan to Lightning and they both fall inside, looking out with annoyed expression.

6. Butch uses the in the window to communicate with the other cats, telling them to dig. Lightning digs underground to the house, but Spike is underground as well, and bites his arm. Lightning nonchalantly exits the house, with Spike still chomping his arm.

7. The three cats ride their bike into the house; while they are successful, they end up going too fast and ultimately barrel through the whole house. When they try to brake, they are turned to dust, which Spike disposes of via a dustpan and broom.

Finally, Lightning and Meathead pose as Joan and George, with Topsy hidden in their luggage. While Spike falls for their tricks, Tyke is not fooled as he bites "George." Spike, thinking that Tyke is biting their master's butt, apologizes for his son's actions, claiming that Tyke is young, inexperienced, and doesn't know what he's doing. As Spike tries to remove Lightning's clothes, they rip off, foiling the disguise. Butch notices this from inside and flees up a tree along with the other cats as both Spike and Tyke chase them, followed by Tyke biting Lighting's butt again "This your kid?" he asks again, as Spike takes him off. As they run back to the tree, the cats eat enjoy their sandwiches as Lightning admits that Spike is a swell watch dog and Tyke is a chip off the old block, as the two dogs are proud of themselves, Spike says "that's my boy" to Tyke.

Notes

• Lightning Cat's voice in this cartoon is an imitation of Art Carney's character, Ed Norton from Cavalcade of Stars, The Jackie Gleason Show and The Honeymooners. He was voiced by Daws Butler (best known as the voice of the Hanna-Barbera Yogi Bear, whose voice is also based on Ed Norton).
• This is one of the only two MGM cartoons where Butch is not a stray cat. The other cartoon is A Mouse in the House (1947). This is also the only cartoon where George and Joan's pet cat is Butch instead of Tom.
• Meathead and Lightning appear side-by-side as two separate characters in this short, albeit recolored differently to tell apart from each other. They previously appeared together in Sleepy-Time Tom. Here, Meathead is colored light grey.
  • After the classic shorts, Meathead is restored to his original brown color from the early-1940s cartoons beginning with The Tom and Jerry Show (2014).
• This cartoon shows that Tyke is smarter than his father Spike and highlights that Spike lacks intelligence. When Lightning and Meathead appear at the house poorly disguised as George and Joan, Spike falls for their disguises, but his son Tyke, who sees through their disguises, is not fooled, as he proceeds to bite "George" (which actually, is Lightning in disguise), which causes Spike to think that Tyke is biting the real George until their cover is blown.
• This is the last appearance of Butch, Meathead and Topsy in the classic Hanna Barbera-era.
• An unreleased restored print of this cartoon (restored around the same time the CinemaScope era Tom and Jerry cartoons from 1954-1958 were restored for the Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection DVDs) airs on both MeTV and Turner Classic Movies, with the former network airing in pan-and-scan, and the latter network airing in its original CinemaScope widescreen version. The restored print was later released in pan-and-scan form on the Boomerang Streaming Service in 2017.

Gallery

Difference between versions

Spike's ear turns into a satellite. Unrestored Cinemascope version from The Art of Tom and Jerry Volume 2 laserdisc.

Restored Cinemascope version.

Pan and scan fullscreen version. (1995 Turner print, taken from an European PAL Cartoon Network airing circa 1993-2005)

Restored version in pan and scan fullscreen. (from MeTV airings)

Cartoon Gallery