The Brothers Carry-Mouse-Off is a 1965 Tom and Jerry cartoon and tenth cartoon produced by Chuck Jones.
Maurice Noble provided layouts, and Robert Gribbroek did the backgrounds.
Plot
Jerry is relaxing in a beach chair reading a book. Jerry has actually incorporated a radar system, a chair, a pool, and a tree. Jerry's radar twitches and detects Tom approaching his mouse hole. Jerry presses a red button next to the radio which folds the entire patio into the floor and he goes in his mouse hole.
Tom creeps up with a box and peers into Jerry's hole while Jerry exits his hole without being seen, though Tom feels something on his head when Jerry perches on it. Tom sets out various food items as traps, while Jerry sweeps up all the food with a fishing line with a plunger attached and dumps it back in the box without being spotted. Tom feels his head and Jerry dances out of the way. He deals out all the food a second time, and this time taps a nail into each one. Jerry merely attracts them all with a magnet. Jerry then dashes away as Tom is aghast to discover the food missing again. Then, he spots the mouse running away and shoots the plunger like an arrow at Jerry and he captures the mouse. Jerry pulls a diminutive hammer out of the food. Tom laughs and sits down without resistance, knowing this will not hurt him. However, the hammer extends and expands six sizes larger and Jerry whacks Tom.
Jerry prances past and soon Tom recovers enough to chase him. Tom leaps in front of Jerry's hole and rolls out his tongue. Jerry is caught, but fights against the tongue so hard that he escapes and Tom's tongue rolls back into his mouth, twisting the cat into a roll. Jerry pulls Tom's tail and uses him as a door mat. Tom glides and jumps over the ground in order to pursue the mouse because he is still flat. Tom spots a bellows and tries to inflate himself before Jerry turns up, disguised as a bearded doctor. He offers to do the job for him, and Tom accepts. Jerry pumps Tom up enough to launch him to crash into a bunch of furniture. Tom tiptoes out of the pile of broken furniture and removes a goldfish bowl from his head and the goldfish from his mouth. He kicks it away with his toe.
Tom chases Jerry upstairs. Jerry shuts himself in a doorway. Unable to open it, Tom charges at it. Jerry opens the door revealing nothing but empty air. Tom's shrieks and he just manages to brake before falling off, but Jerry snaps his fingers and Tom loses balance and plummets. Tom gets a bump forming on his head.
Tom then has an idea. He runs up to the attic, dresses up in a female pretty and beautiful female mouse costume suit, and squirts himself with perfume in order to lure Jerry. Tom plays a small guitar as he prances out to the living room. Jerry smells the perfume as he is relaxing in his indoor patio and dashes to Tom and starts kissing him. However, Tom ends up attracting a whole group of mice, who argue among each other over who should have him. As they fight, Tom runs outside. He hides behind a trash can and finds the zip of the mouse costume has jammed. He is spotted by several dumb but the hungry cats, who chase after Tom as Jerry the real mouse watches with a little disappointment from afar and a heart shaped iris irises in a heart shape in the tree saying "The End".
Characters
Main Characters
Minor Characters
- Mice Suitors
- Stray Cats
- Goldie
Notes
- This is the first MGM cartoon produced by Chuck Jones that was not directed by him.
- Despite being released in 1965.
- This is the first cartoon in the Chuck Jones era to use the famous Tom Scream and other vocal effects from the original Hanna-Barbera era cartoons by William Hanna via archive recordings.
- The scene where Tom hold a goldfish is where one of the rare instances in the Chuck Jones-era where Tom's neck is fully seen.
- The gag where Tom disguises himself with a female mouse suit to trick Jerry, only for it to backfire when other cats started to chase him, reused a similar gag in a Road Runner cartoon (also directed by Chuck Jones) in "Ready.._Set.._Zoom!" In that cartoon, Wile E. attempts to trick the Road Runner with a female counterpart, only to get chased by a hungry pack of other coyotes.
- A similar gag was used in the Garfield and Friends episode "Good Mousekeeping", where Garfield dresses up as a giant mouse to get rid of all of the mice in the house, but resulted in being chased by other cats.
- This is the 137th cartoon overall.
Errors
- On full screen prints as Tom flicks the goldfish away with his toe, his hand and foot are not attached to any sort of body.
- Jerry's disguise (which is a hat and beard) disappears at the fireplace before Tom rushes by.
Availability
Gallery
