The Night Before Christmas (1941 film)

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = The Night Before Christmas
series = Tom and Jerry

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caption =
director = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
story_artist = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
animator =George Gordon
Irven Spence
Jack Zander
Billie Littlejohn
voice_actor =
musician = Scott Bradley
producer = Fred Quimby
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
release_date = flagicon|US December 6, 1941
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 8' 47"
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0033952
preceded_by = "The Midnight Snack"
followed_by = "Fraidy Cat"

"The Night Before Christmas" is a 1941 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 3rd "Tom and Jerry" short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, produced by Fred Quimby and animated by Jack Zander, George Gordon, Irven Spence, and Billie Littlejohn, though the animators were uncredited. It was nominated for the 1941 . It was released in theaters on 6 December 1941 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.

Plot Outline

In a large house on Christmas Eve, the night before Christmas, nothing was stirring, not even a mouse...or so it seems at first. Jerry emerges from his hole and has to avoid a Christmas themed mousetrap (already baited with a piece of cheese wrapped in a red ribbon) placed right by his hole. Jerry quickly heads for the Christmas presents, jumping merrily around the tree, licking candy canes, and jumping onto a plush toy lion that squeaks. Jerry continues jumping on the soft toy, but bounces too hard and lands on what he thinks is another soft toy. Jerry jumps up and down on the grey fur, little realizing that what he is jumping on is, in fact, Tom, who has woken up. Tom snarls and just as he is about to eat Jerry, the quick-thinking mouse grabs a nearby "Not to be opened until Xmas" sticker and instantly places it on Tom's mouth.

Jerry hides among the myriad of toys (even firing a trick cannon's cork at Tom) and hides inside a Christmas fairy light, causing him to glow. Tom grabs Jerry and is promptly electrocuted. Jerry hides among some toy soldiers, but Tom spots him, and just as he is about to crush Jerry with his paw, the mouse runs off. Tom chases Jerry, but is stopped by the barrier of a miniature level crossing. A toy train passes by, with many carriages. Jerry is sitting on top of the caboose, waving cheekily at Tom and pulling faces. However, the train enters a model of a tunnel, and with Jerry sitting on top of the train hits his head and is knocked onto the track. He quickly runs through the tunnel, pursued by Tom, who knocks the tunnel over with his size. Jerry hides inside a boxing glove and boxes the puzzled cat in the face before running off behind the Christmas tree. Tom follows him and spots him jumping into a jack-in-the-box. Opening up the box, Tom is punched by the boxing glove stuck on Jack's head and is knocked out.

Tom chases Jerry once again, but Jerry holds out a piece of mistletoe in from of him and persuades an embarrassed Tom to kiss him. Tom blushes, and while his back is turned, Jerry kicks him in the rear. The mouse darts through the slot letterbox into the outdoors. As Tom opens the lid of the letterbox to see where Jerry has gone, Jerry hurls a snowball at his face. Tom angrily barricades the slot so that Jerry cannot get back into the house.

While Jerry trudges up and down in the heavy snow in a vain attempt to warm himself, Tom fluffs up his cushion and prepares to sleep. He is unable to settle himself; heavenly choirs sing carols, pricking Tom's conscience with the message of Christmas peace and goodwill. He first props open the slot to allow Jerry back in and, when the mouse does not reappear, ventures anxiously outside to find Jerry, frozen. Fearing for Jerry's life, he brings the frozen mouse indoors and warms him up by the fire. Slowly, Jerry regains consciousness, but is wary of the cat. Tom hands Jerry a candy cane, his Christmas present. A delighted Jerry licks his cane, but then quickly reacts to prevent Tom drinking from his bowl of milk. He dips his cane into the bowl, and a loud snap is heard. Jerry uses the cane to fish a mousetrap that he had earlier planted in the bowl. Tom appreciates Jerry's warning and the mouse runs back to his hole. He uses his candy cane to hook the cheese off the mousetrap. Instead of snapping like a usual mousetrap does, the spring slowly comes down ringing the tune of "Jingle Bells" as Jerry smiles in admiration to the "musical mousetrap."

Notes

*The idea of Tom rescuing a cold Jerry from a blizzard was reused in "Snowbody Loves Me".
*This is one of the few cartoons that has its title sequence (opening and closing) still intact. This film, along with "Puss Gets The Boot" gives a extremely good idea of how the early cartoons' title sequences such as "The Midnight Snack" and perhaps cartoons made up to 3 or more years later originally were created.

References