The Dog House is the 72nd one reel animated Tom and Jerry short.
Characters[]
Main characters[]
Plot[]
Spike the Bulldog finishes blueprints of his dream dog house. He plans to build it and prepares tools and paint. As he finishes building the structure of the dream house he sees Tom chasing Jerry around. As Spike watches Tom hit Jerry with a piece of wood, he shields his dream house but Tom accidentally causes Spike to land on and crush the dream house. When Tom sees Spike glare at him angrily, he runs off, but Spike uses his foot to trap Tom by the tail, cleans himself, and warns him:
"Wait a minute, pussy cat! Ever since I was a pup, I've wanted a little place of my own! And I still want it! But if one more thing happens to my little dream house... there's gonna be moider!!"
Tom is then thrown by Spike into a mailbox. Tom sees Jerry walking by and hides behind the corner of a hedge. He then chases Jerry to the dream house, but both dig under it. Tom ends up taking Spike on a wild-ride on his back by accident; Spike hits Tom's head with his hammer but this causes Tom to lose his balance and throw Spike onto his own dream house. Tom then flees, before Spike reacts. After Tom escapes, Spike then taps his fingers on the rubble in annoyance.
Sometime later, Spike finishes building his dream house and prepares to paint it. Tom is still chasing Jerry about and Jerry plants a skate in Tom's path so that Tom will step on it; Tom slides into the dream house shoving it away. An unnoticing Spike grabs Tom's tail and paints it red until he notices who he is painting. When Tom flees, Spike chases him, but is delayed by Tom using an axe as a threat to destroy his dream home. Tom then teases Spike by pinching Spike's nose like a noise-maker. Spike tries to attack but is delayed by the ax again until the ax's blade falls off the handle. Before Spike can punish Tom, Tom distracts Spike to look straight, whacks him in the head with the handle and runs off as a dazed Spike falls over in pain... onto his dream house which shatters apart again.
Tom flees behind the house, but sees Jerry walking past him. When Jerry flees, Tom grabs a lawn-roller and chases after Jerry. Spike has finally finished his dream house but sees Tom rushing with the roller after Jerry towards the dream house. Spike holds up his hand to order Tom to stop, but Tom just rams through, flattening Spike & the dream house into an arrow shape.
Tom chases Jerry into his mouse-hole and puts a stick of dynamite in the doorway and lights it, but Jerry throws it into Spike's dream house. When Tom tries to grab the dynamite from the dream house, he is stopped by an angry suspicious Spike who prepares to look inside. Tom tells him not to peek inside, but Spike refuses the warning and looks inside only to see the dynamite detonated, destroying the dream house and leaving Spike in a black-face sunflower appearance.
Tom sees Jerry climbing up a power-pole and tries to use a fire-ax to chop the pole down. Spike finally has finished building his dream house but sees the pole falling towards it. To protect it, Spike grabs the house and brings it elsewhere, but nonetheless the power pole falls right onto it and crushes the dream house.
An annoyed Spike rebuilds his dream house on a tree branch, and adds a "Home Sweet Home" sign on it for extra beauty, but sees Tom chop down the tree at Jerry. A resigned Spike leans against his dream house and grumbles "Timber" as the tree topples over and crushes the dream house and throws up the "Home Sweet Home" sign.
Sometime later, Tom & Jerry's battle has paused so that Spike can finally achieve peace and quiet in his home. Jerry is resting on Spike's dream house roof as Tom watches behind a fence through a hole. Tom tries to lasso Jerry but ends up lassoing the dream house, pulling it and Spike into the fences, crushing the dream house. Tom thinks Jerry is fighting and pulls Spike repeatedly into the fence using a fire-hydrant as strength; however Spike is pulled through the hole. Tom tries to flee, but Spike finally has had enough and grabs Tom by the tail from the hole and pulls his back into the fences just as Tom did to Spike.
Spike and Jerry work together as partners to make and finish Spike's dream house for good with Tom acting as a slave, having to be whipped by the dog as Tom is forced to build the dream house, doing every single task at once.
Voice Actors[]
- Bob Shamrock as Spike Bulldog
- William Hanna as Tom
Notes[]
- The shot of Jerry running out the door and Tom storming out breaking a hole through is recycled animation from Love That Pup, albeit with the door recolored blue instead of red.
- The shot of falling power-pole was also used in Hatch Up Your Troubles.
- The final short to air in the year 1952.
- This is one of the only three cartoons where they use the blackface flower gag, the other two being The Yankee Doodle Mouse & Safety Second.
- The cartoon's plot was inspired by, and is very loosely based on, the 1948 Cary Grant/Myrna Loy film Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. It was released on 1952 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
- From this cartoon until Downhearted Duckling (for 16 cartoons), Tom's owner is not seen onscreen, following the retirement of his pervious owner Mammy Two Shoes after Push-Button Kitty.
Availability[]
.jpg "T&J - In the Dog House (DVD; 2012).jpg (101 KB)")
.jpg "Pint-Sized Pals (front side).jpg (1.17 MB)")
Censorship[]
- Much like The Yankee Doodle Mouse and Safety Second, local syndication stations sometimes cut the scene where Spike appears in sunflower blackface after his doghouse explodes on his head. However, the scene remains to be shown uncensored on both Cartoon Network and Boomerang.
Gallery[]
- Main article: The Dog House/Gallery