The Cat Above and the Mouse Below

Overview

Transcript

Gallery

The Cat Above and the Mouse Below
Directed by	Chuck Jones Maurice Noble (co-director)
Produced by	Chuck Jones Les Goldman
Story by	Michael Maltese Chuck Jones
Music by	Eugene Poddany
Animation by	Tom Ray Dick Thompson Ben Washam Ken Harris Don Towsley
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	February 25, 1964
Color process	Metrocolor
Preceded by	Pent-House Mouse
Followed by	Is There a Doctor in the Mouse?

The Cat Above and the Mouse Below is a 1964 musical cartoon. It was directed by Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble.

Characters

• Tom Cat
• Jerry Mouse

Plot

This cartoon is a musical. Tom is a baritone opera singer who is a part of the "Signor Thomasino Catti-Cazzaza Baritone" concert, who is set to sing "Largo al Factotum". 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 recites the closing of the song in a sped-up countertenor 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

• The intro sequence uses a slightly more finished version of the opening theme (unlike the previous cartoon), adding some, but not all, of the missing sound effects.
• This is one of only two musical Tom and Jerry shorts from the Chuck Jones-era, the other being Cat and Dupli-cat.
• The classical music Tom recites is "Largo al Factotum" from The Barber of Seville.
  • Fittingly, as this cartoon is directed by Chuck Jones, who used to direct a handful of Looney Tunes shorts in the past, this classical piece has been played in many Looney Tunes shorts, such as Long-Haired Hare and One Froggy Evening, both directed by Jones himself.
• This cartoon shares a similar plot structure to The Cat Concerto:
  • Tom doing his musical performance, which would disturb Jerry who is sleeping nearby.
  • The cat and mouse would engage in their usual feuds, with the outcome ending in Jerry's favor.
  • Jerry, in turn, would dress up in his own concert attire to provide the musical closing to Tom's performance.
• The last name 'Catti-Cazzaza' parodies Giulio Gatti-Casazza (1869–1940), a famous Italian opera manager.
• 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.
• 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.
• 129th Tom and Jerry short overall.
• From this cartoon onwards, standard closing titles are used, unlike the early version from Pent-House Mouse.

Errors

• When Jerry wakes up from Tom's singing, his pillow vanishes for a split second.

Availability

The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume III: The Chuck Jones Cartoons (LaserDisc)

Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 6 (DVD)

Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection (DVD)

Tom and Jerry: The Deluxe Anniversary Collection (DVD)

Tom and Jerry: Chaos Concerto (DVD)

Transcript

Main article: The Cat Above and the Mouse Below/Transcript

Gallery

Main article: The Cat Above and the Mouse Below/Gallery