The Two Mouseketeers is a 1952 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the 65th Tom and Jerry short, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on March 15, 1952 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was produced by Fred Quimby and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The short is a spoof of Alexandre Dumas' 1844 novel The Three Musketeers and its film adaptations, featuring Jerry and his ward Nibbles as the "Mouseketeers" trying to raid the French king's banquet table, which is protected by Tom as a guard.
The cartoon was animated by Ed Barge, Kenneth Muse and Irven Spence. Musical supervision was done by Scott Bradley, using a version of the theme music by Nelson Eddy and the Sportsmen Quartet named "Soldier of Fortune", from the film The Girl of the Golden West. The character of Nibbles speaks French in this short and was voiced by six-year-old Francoise Brun-Cottan.
The cartoon won the series' sixth Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Such was the cartoon's success, that Hanna and Barbera created three more entries in the Mouseketeers series; Touché, Pussycat! (1954), which received an Oscar nomination, Tom and Chérie (1955) and Royal Cat Nap (1958). The premise was also featured in comic books from Dell Comics.
Plot[]
The cartoon opens with the male chorus singing “Soldiers of Fortune” throughout the credits. Jerry and his sidekick Nibbles are the two mouseketeers who decide to help themselves to a lavish banquet, which Tom has been ordered to guard by Captain Rochefort (voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan) and Sir Girard. But should he fail in doing so, Tom will be executed by the guillotine. Jerry and Nibbles enter the castle hall through a stained glass window, through a suit of knight Armour, and by parachuting down to the table. After Nibbles parachutes down to the table, they land in a roasted warthog’s mouth, causing him to get stuck, until he is rescued by Jerry. Afterwards, Nibbles goes inside a big block of cheese, pretending it is a tower with only a few floors. Nibbles waves to Jerry on the top-floor but loses his balance and he falls on an unopened banana, which opens and shoots into Jerry's mouth, causing his body to become banana-shaped. They unsuspectingly catch Tom's attention by showering him with champagne, but hide from Tom by wearing paper hats from ribs.
Later, Nibbles is helping himself to some of the food while singing Alouette to himself, when Tom emerges behind him and pokes him with his sword. The little mouse yells angrily in protest: “He, attention-la! Vous pourez faire mal a quelqu’un, Monsieur Pussycat!...Pussycat?! Au secours! Au secours! Le pussycat! Le pussycat!” (Hey! Watch it! You could hurt someone like that, Mister Pussycat. Pussy Cat!? Help! Help! The pussycat! The pussycat!). Before Nibbles can get away, Tom impales the little mouse’s cape with his rapier. Jerry manages to stab Tom in the rear-end and rescue Nibbles. Jerry puts custard in Tom’s face, launching a swashbuckling fencing display against Tom, ending in Tom catching Jerry. Nibbles pushes a knight axe toward Tom and it slices off half of Tom’s back, and Nibbles hides in some fruit.
Nibbles runs away and falls into a drink — but Jerry saves him by hurling a tomato at Tom, as well as multiple vegetables, which Tom impales on his rapier before heating them up and eats them like a shish-kebab. Nibbles walks out of the drink, drunk, and stings Tom in the bottom. Tom painfully screams and jumps up. Nibbles waves his sword while saying, “Touché, Pussycat!” but as he runs away, Tom catches him. Jerry makes the save by hitting Tom on the head with a mace, so hard that Tom falls through the table, which leads to Tom and Jerry having a sword fight. While this goes on, Nibbles brings along a cannon and stuffs it with all of the food that is on the banquet table. Once the cannon is full, he lights the cannon, and it explodes violently, which both shoots Tom and wreaks havoc on the banquet room, thus causing Tom to fail in his duties.
As the smoke disappears, Jerry and Nibbles are walking triumphantly down the street with stolen banquet food. Suddenly, in an unusual morbid ending, they see in a distance the guillotine, and with a drum roll, the blade slowly rises up and rapidly comes down, strongly suggesting that Tom’s been executed (although off-screen in order to comply with the Hays Code). Both mice gulp, and Nibbles sighs, “Pauvre, pauvre, Pussycat” (Poor, poor pussycat) and shrugs while adding “C’est la guerre” (That’s war). Then the two Mouseketeers continue their victorious marching off into the distance, knowing they are knights in shining armor. The male chorus sings the last few lines of “Soldiers of Fortune” as the cartoon closes.
Gallery[]
Main article: The Two Mouseketeers/Gallery
Availability[]
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Streaming[]
Notes[]
- This was the first Tom & Jerry cartoon to use the 1952 red and blue MGM Cartoon title.
- This is the sixth Tom and Jerry short to win an Academy Award.
- In the poster, Nibbles is orange instead of grey.
- The song that Nibbles sings while making a sandwich was "Alouette, Gentille Alouette".
- This is one of the few cartoons where Tom gets killed (or simply died) in the end.
- Tom, Jerry, and Nibbles' musketeer outfit has also appeared in Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers.
- When Jerry stabs Tom in the rear, Tom's screaming sound effect is recycled from The Little Orphan. He got stabbed by Jerry and his face turned red in both cartoons.
- He also had a red face after being stabbed by Jerry in Cue Ball Cat.
- The title is a pun of The Three Musketeers.
- Tom and Jerry's musketeer outfits also make a return in Tom and Jerry Escape.
- This is the only Musketeer short where Tom had light grey fur between his eyes.
- Jerry's musketeer outfit also made a return in Tom and Jerry Mouse Maze as one of Jerry's variants: Knight Jerry.
Censorship[]
- Brazil and Morocco have banned this short due to the ending where it's heavily implied that Tom has been executed by guillotine. Over in America, the cartoon has aired uncut, but the cartoon itself seldom aired on both free-TV and cable. Despite this, the cartoon is available on home media release and streaming (see "Availability" above).