Changes: The Cat Above and The Mouse Below

Revision as of 14:21, 20 October 2018

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 of the Chuck Jones Tom and Jerry series 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 audiorium, singing for his audience. Jerry, however, is sleeping under the stage and is awaken by Tom's really 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 angered 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. Tom, embarrassed by this, 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 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. An injured and annoyed Tom reaches his way back up to the stage and shoes Jerry away, only causing more dramatic effect to Jerry's closing lines. Jerry gets all the applause and the curtain with "The End" written on it.

Trivia

This is The only Chuck Jones Tom and Jerry short that attends to be a musical cartoon.
This is the first time 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.