The Cat Above and the Mouse Below is a 1964 musical cartoon directed and produced by Chuck Jones with backgrounds by Philip DeGuard. It is the second of the 34 cartoons from the Chuck Jones era, and is the 129th Tom and Jerry short overall.
Characters[]
Plot[]
This cartoon is a musical. Tom is a baritone opera singer who is apart of the "Signor Thomasino Catti-Cazzaza Baritone" concert, who is set to sing "Largo al Factotum" from The Barber of Seville. He arrives at the auditorium via a limousine and walks into the auditorium, singing for his audience. Jerry, sleeping under the stage, is awakened by Tom's annoying singing. Jerry gestures Tom to stop with a toothbrush, but in return, Tom continues to sing and stomp on the stage, causing Jerry's underground room to shake.
Jerry gets enraged by this and takes a hammer and wacks a floorboard with Tom on it, causing Tom to go flying out of his suit and landing back into it the opposite way. Embarrassed by this, Tom goes backstage to change.
After the incident, Tom continues to sing and stomp on the stage. Jerry's room still continues to shake, so violently that Jerry's bed breaks! Jerry decides to declare war on Tom and tries all he can to stop Tom's concert. Jerry goes to a vent and holds up a sign saying "PSST!" When Tom takes a look at, Jerry ties his mouth shut with a rubber band. In retaliation, Tom shoots a staple into the vent, stapling Jerry to the wall.
In the middle of the performance, Jerry manages to get free from his staple and licks a lemon so that Tom would get sick. Tom ends up getting frustrated by this and screws the lemon on top of Jerry's head. Tom returns to the concert, but Jerry ends up drilling a hole in the floor and pulls off Tom's front garments off with a wire. Tom pulls the wire up and down and ends up pulling the wire from Jerry's grip. During the Figaro part of the performance, Jerry aims a plunger at Tom's mouth and succeeds in hitting him. Tom then uses the same plunger to shoot at Jerry's mouth. shooting Jerry to the wall.
Jerry frees himself from the wall once again and ends up dropping a sandbag on Tom as he is reaching the climax of the performance, sending Tom crashing through the floor. Everyone is silent, until Jerry walks out on stage and finishes the performance in a sped-up voice. Ironically, an injured Tom tries to use a broom to gesture Jerry to stop, only causing a more dramatic effect on Jerry's closing lines. Jerry gets all the applause and the curtain with "The End" written on it.
Voice Actors[]
- Terrance Monk as Tom and Jerry (singing voices)
- Mel Blanc as Tom and Jerry (uncredited)
Notes[]
- This is one of only two musical Tom and Jerry shorts from the Chuck Jones-era, the other being Cat and Dupli-cat.
- The song Figaro was originally performed in 1786.
- The last name 'Catti-Cazzaza' parodies Giulio Gatti-Casazza (1869–1940), a famous Italian opera manager. Moreover, cazzo in Italian means "tail", but is used as a vulgar slang term for "penis".
- This is the first time where Tom sings in a baritone voice.
- This cartoon from the Chuck Jones-era acknowledges Tom's full name as Thomas via the label Signor Thomasino Catti-Cazzaza Baritone on the theatre entrance. This marks the first cartoon since the Hanna-Barbera-era where Tom is referred to as Thomas, and the only Chuck Jones-era cartoon to do so.
- American operatic baritone Terrance Monk provided the singing voice of both Tom and Jerry in this short. He would reprise as the singing voice of Tom in Cat and Dupli-cat, while Dallas McKennon provided the falsetto voice of Jerry.
Errors[]
- When Jerry wakes up from Tom's singing, his pillow vanishes for a split second.
Availability[]
.jpg "T&J - Chaos Concerto (DVD; 2014).jpg (166 KB)")
Transcript[]
- Main article: The Cat Above and The Mouse Below/Transcript
Gallery[]
- Main article: The Cat Above and The Mouse Below/Gallery