The Great Motorboat Race is the forty-eighth and final episode of The Tom and Jerry Show (1975). It is followed by "Farewell, Sweet Mouse" in 1980 from The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show.
Synopsis[]
Tom and Jerry are working together to compete in a boat race.
Plot[]
Tom and Jerry compete in a boat race competition against Commodore Crumbly in his 18,000 horsepower boat The Sea Splitter, Sir Nievel Evil in his powerful boat, The Wave Whacker, and Daredevil Danny in his exotic airboat. While everyone else has the advantage with super-horse-powered boats, T&J are stuck with a small but highly touted rowboat with an engine on the back, called, of all things, The Dingy Dinghy. After being swamped at the starting line by the wake of the other competitors, Tom and Jerry are on their way, only to encounter obstacles like a smoke screen sent out by another boat, and a pier that falls on them. After carrying their boat through a cruise ship that stands in their way and being swallowed and sneezed out by a whale, Tom and Jerry finally win the race. When their boat hits the stadium wall, they are thrown through the air right into the trophy cup.
Characters[]
- Tom Cat
- Jerry
- Commodore Crumbly
- Sir Nievel Evil
- Daredevil Danny
- Announcer
- Captain (cameo)
Trivia[]
- The captain from Episode 80-46's "Cruise Kitty" makes a cameo at the end as T&J fall into the loving cup. Some other backgrounds from the cartoon may have been used as well.
- Uses cues from the underscores of Hanna-Barbera's Wacky Races (CBS, 1968-70), Dastardly And Muttley In Their Flying Machines (CBS, 1969-71), and Motormouse And Autocat (ABC, 1970-71).
- To get out of the whale, Jerry makes the whale sneeze. A similar trick was used in Disney's Pinnochio (Buena Vista, 1940) when Pinnochio and Geppetto were stuck inside Monstro the whale.
- In the scene where the whale sneezes Tom and Jerry out of his mouth, he appears to be a repainted version of Moby Dick from Hanna-Barbera's hard action adventure series Moby Dick And The Mighty Mightor (CBS, 1967-69).
- This was the last New Tom & Jerry cartoon to be produced and to air first run on ABC Saturday Morning; these cartoons would keep repeating throughout its second season (with Mumbly) in 1976-77. As Filmation Associates would step up next at bat to animate Tom & Jerry TV cartoons for the 1980-82 CBS series The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show (which restored the cat and mouse to enemy status), Hanna-Barbera would not make any more T&J cartoons until 1990, when they produced Tom & Jerry Kids for Fox.