Tricky McTrout is the thirteenth episode of The Tom and Jerry Show (1975).
Synopsis[]
Fishermen Tom and Jerry attempt to catch a crafty fish named Tricky McTrout, but everything they try just gets them into trouble with the park ranger.
Plot[]
At a campsite by a lake, Tom and Jerry are awakened from a sound sleep by Tricky McTrout, a sly, wild, crafty and rather uncatchable fish. "Better fishermen than you two have tried to catch old Tricky!" reports the ranger who greets the two. Tom and Jerry set out to succeed where scores of "better fishermen" have failed, but their methods backfire in numerous ways that often gets the two in trouble with the ranger:
- Tom attempts to backswing catch Tricky, but the trout tugs on the line and ties it to a nearby rock on a well behind the ranger's cabin. The fish drops the rock, launching Tom into the ranger's cabin and knocking the ranger outside as he tells the cat to stop "messing up the forest."
- Jerry lures down a line close to their boat's anchor. Tricky grabs the hook and attaches it to the anchor; Jerry reels the anchor back onto the boat where it bursts a hole and causes him to sink.
- The duo uses multiple fishing rods in hope to easily ensnare their prey; the fish tugs all of them at once to pull the two into the water, and then turns on their engine to uncontrollably send them to the ranger's cabin once again. "Don't you people know you can't catch fish if you're noisy?" Tricky bugles out "Charge" to further annoy the ranger.
- Tom is sent to scuba dive after the fish. However, Tricky surfaces to press a button to pump too much air into Tom's scuba suit; Jerry unscrews the tube that sends Tom flying into the ranger's cabin yet again. The ranger gives the final warning to "Stay out of my cabin!"
- Tom and Jerry uses a Super Hypnotic Lure, which successfully puts Tricky into a trance. They manage to hypnotize Tricky into thinking he is a duck, a beaver, a seal, and Moby Dick the whale. The last attempt results in Tricky swimming under the duo's boat and squirt water out of his blowhole to launch the two into the air.
- A final attempt with a fish-sensing sonar device proves to be the biggest bust of them all, as Tricky uses it to his mischievous advantage; he succeeds in luring Tom and Jerry, sonar device, boat and all right into the ranger station, completely demolishing it.
Deciding that this is the straw that broke the ranger's back, the ranger has Tom and Jerry ejected from his forest. Back home, the two discard their Super Hypnotic Lure and take a nap, when they hear water sloshing. They are surprised to find Tricky McTrout bathing in their tub, and then escaping down the drain.
Characters[]
Trivia & Notes[]
- This episode is inspired by the 1947's Tom and Jerry cartoon "Cat Fishin'".
- Tricky's transformation into Moby Dick could be referenced to Hanna-Barbera's previous animated adaptation of Herman Melville's creation: the 1967-69 CBS Saturday Morning series Moby Dick and The Mighty Mightor. It could also be based from the titular whale in "Dicky Moe".
- Tom has developed a not-so-unnormal habit of purring while sleeping. He does it again in #80-45, "The Campout Cutup".
- Lennie Weinrib voices both Tricky McTrout and The Super Hypnotic Lure.
- Number of times Tricky bugles "Charge": 4. He bugles "Reville" to wake Tom and Jerry up.