The Little Orphan is the 40th Tom and Jerry cartoon released in 1949, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby.
Characters[]
Plot[]
The cartoon starts with Jerry reading a book while taking cheese from a mousetrap. Nibbles arrives and passes Jerry, before trying to take all the cheese from the trap. Jerry saves Nibbles in time. Jerry has asked by the Bide-a-wee Mouse Home to take care of Nibbles over the Thanksgiving holiday. However, Nibbles is, as the note pinned to his scarf says, always hungry. Jerry attempts to feed the little mouse with his own food, but his cupboards are empty. Quietly, he leads Nibbles out of the mousehole, and sneaks into the living room, where Tom is sleeping beside a bowl of cream. Jerry allows Nibbles to drink the cream from the bowl narrowly avoiding getting caught by Tom who drinks the rest of the cream, The mice come out of hiding and realize the bowl is empty before spotting a turkey. Mammy Two Shoes takes the turkey and puts it on the table then leaves .Jerry climbs up the table, then helps Nibbles up by giving him a long spaghetti noodle as rope that Nibbles slurps up to climb. Nibbles spots the feast too. Nibbles proceeds to eat certain foods from the table before eating a candle, Jerry pulls the orphan off only for the candle to fall smashing into a cream filled pastry, Nibbles licks the cream off of Jerry, then sees a tray of jell-o. He tries to dive into it, only to be bounced off and almost landing in a bowl of hot soup but is caught by Jerry with a spoon. Jerry dresses himself and Nibbles as pilgrims via small pilgrims decorations, but the trouble begins when Nibbles swallows an orange whole. Jerry hits Nibbles with a knife to remove the orange. It shoots straight out of Nibbles' mouth and right into the sleeping Tom, waking him up.
After Tom's rude awakening, he spies on the two other mice, and wearing a feather duster as a Native American headdress, catches Nibbles. Jerry pops a champagne cork into Tom's face. Tom returns, grabbing Jerry and about to cut him with a knife. Nibbles takes a fork and propelled by a plate of jell-o, launches the fork into Tom's rear end. Tom jumps up as Jerry and Nibbles flee the scene. Tom pauses for a moment in midair to remove the fork from his bottom, then hurls it towards Nibbles, catching him by the diaper. As Tom catches Nibbles, Jerry runs up a nearby candlestick and whacks Tom in the face and into the wall with a spoon.
Tom launches flaming cattails, burning and melting Jerry and Nibbles' hiding places. Once Tom throws the third cattail, Jerry opens the cloche lid to reflect the projectile back into Tom's mouth. As they flee, Jerry runs into a knife thrown by Tom, and is knocked out cold. Tom grabs Jerry once again. Nibbles catapults a pie into Tom's face, knocking the cat off the table. Nibbles slingshots a candle onto Tom's tail, burning him, so that he appears in blackface. Finally, Nibbles launches a champagne bottle like a missile, which hits Tom and shoots him into a cabinet (off-screen?). Tom finally surrenders.
Finally, Tom, Jerry and Nibbles do grace at the table. Everyone finishes their prayers and prepare to eat, but Nibbles devours the whole turkey in the blink of an eye, leaving the little orphan with a full stomach with him patting it experiencing delight.
Availability[]
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Notes[]
- This is the fifth Tom and Jerry short to win an award.
- The title card in the start of the cartoon up and down a bit because it’s damaged the film print both unrestored and turner prints.
- This cartoon was not reissued, and thus survives with its original titles.
- Unlike his appearance in the short, Nibbles is tinted brown on the poster.
- Two Little Indians would be released in 1953 as a spiritual successor to this cartoon.
- Jerry is asked to look after a young mouse or mice, through a request from a letter sent by an individual named "Bide-a-wee Mouse Home".
- The cat or mice briefly roleplay as a Native American (in the later cartoon, it is the younger mice).
- Tom surrenders with a white flag in the near end, after being brutally defeated.
- Tom, now bruised and having acknowledged his surrender, shares a moment of peace together with Jerry and the younger mice.
- This is the first Tom and Jerry cartoon to use the 1949 version of the 1946-1953 Tom and Jerry title card. In the original 1946 variant, the ringed background would be red and Tom would look similar to his 1946 design. This new 1949 variation would make the ringed background orange and Tom would be in his 1947/1948 design.
- This is the second Tom and Jerry cartoon to reuse the opening theme from Polka-Dot Puss, However the opening music is distorted.
- The opening title reuses the picture of the gold Oscar statue from the opening title of The Yankee Doodle Mouse, the only difference is that the background behind the statue in this opening is tinted red instead of blue.
- The Little Orphan is one of the three Fred Quimby shorts which Hanna and Barbera remade in the CinemaScope format, under the title Feedin' the Kiddie. Its Cinemascope version is rarely aired on TV in favor of the original.
- As of 2010, this short is rarely aired on Cartoon Network or Boomerang due to their unofficial ban on any shorts featuring Mammy-Two Shoes.
- When this short aired on MeTV, it was shown unrestored and on PAL audio.
Censorship[]
- For the cheater cartoon Life with Tom, clips of this cartoon were edited; the part where Tom is burned by the candle is edited so that right before flames gets to his face, it cuts to where the champagne bottle is opened, as well as cutting out the shot of Tom getting knocked back.
- Despite keeping the blackface gag, Feedin' the Kiddie cuts out the scene where Mammy Two Shoes puts the turkey on the table, as the character has completely retired after Push-Button Kitty and replaced by Joan and George.
- On a belated note for Feedin' The Kiddie, the only home media release to keep the blackface gag is Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Volume 3 DVD, while on The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume II laserdisc set, the entire scene where Tom gets burned by the candle has been removed.
- When this short aired on CBS in 1960, Chuck Jones' team reanimated scenes in this cartoon to replace the knife with a fork and re-edited Tom's blackface by having Tom retain his Indian headdress after getting burned by the candle instead of having it burn away into pickaninny braids as in the original version.
- Similarly to Life with Tom, the part where Tom is burned by the candle is cut on Cartoon Network; however, it is cut so that after the candle is shown landing on Tom's tail it immediately cuts to where the champagne bottle is opened, removing Tom getting burned all together, and it also cuts out the shot of Tom getting knocked back. The exact same edit also occurs on its CinemaScope remake Feedin' the Kiddie when shown on both Turner networks.
- In addition to having the aforementioned blackface scene removed, MeTV's Saturday Morning Cartoons block also removed Mammy Two Shoes' on screen appearance in this short, similar to how Feedin' The Kiddie cuts out her scene in that short. This edit does not occur on Toon In With Me showings of this short.
Gallery[]
- Main article: The Little Orphan/Gallery