The Cat and the Mermouse

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = The Cat and the Mermouse
series = Tom and Jerry


caption =
director = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
story_artist = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
animator = Kenneth Muse Ed Barge Ray Patterson Irven Spence Al Grandmain
musician = Scott Bradley
producer = Fred Quimby
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
release_date = flagicon|US September 3, 1949
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7' 49"
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0041231
preceded_by = "Heavenly Puss"
followed_by = "Love That Pup"

"The Cat and the Mermouse" is a 1949 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 43rd "Tom and Jerry" short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. It was animated by Kenneth Muse, Ed Barge, Ray Patterson, Irven Spence and Al Grandmain, scored by Scott Bradley, and released on September 3 1949.

Plot

Tom's relaxing day at the beach is interrupted by Jerry who inadvertently walks all over a sunbathing Tom as he is about to go fishing. Jerry falls into Tom's mouth and in his attempts to escape, nearly causes Tom to swallow his beach towel. Jerry goes out to the pier and casts his favorite bait - cheese. Tom pulls on the line and makes Jerry reel him in. Jerry lets go of the line and Tom struggles to stay afloat, losing the string. Tom barely catches the pier, but Jerry swings the pole at him. After several misses, Jerry whistles and then lands a direct hit. He runs to the end of the pier and pulls off the weak end board. Tom can't brake, and walks the plank until Jerry pulls it out.

A drowning Tom wakes up on the sea bed, where he is delighted to find out he's alive. He starts imitating the majestic sea creatures until he spots Jerry. The cat grabs him, but Jerry pulls away. It's revealed that the mouse has become a mer-mouse. Jerry swims in circles until Tom's head has done a 360, and is then grabbed again. Jerry tickles Tom with his fins and then spins Tom's hair into an anchor. The cat gives chase through shipwreck windows until Tom hangs back to swallow the mouse. Jerry breaks out through Tom's left eardrum. Jerry hides and disguises himself as a seahorse in a school of six, fooling the cat for a brief period. Jerry gets lassoed and captured, but Tom gets tricked into holding a fishing line and is caught. Tom escapes and chases Jerry into another shipwreck - or would, except for the fact that Jerry closed the door on him. The anchor of the ship then traps Tom.

Jerry steals away, but cannot brake in time to avoid a swordfish. Jerry swims back the way he came, and finds Tom with a spade ready to strike. Tom misses Jerry and whacks the swordfish's horn. Tom returns it to its proper shape, but is pursued instead. Tom hides in a barrel until Jerry signals the swordfish with red circles around the hole in the barrel. Tom is pursued again after being brutally stabbed in the butt. Tom ducks and narrowly missed being impaled in the head as the swordfish thrusts its blade into a pole. Tom proceeds to hammer down the blade on the other side of the pole so that the swordfish can't escape. Free of this worry, Tom relaxes, then returns to chasing Jerry, who has woken up an octopus. Jerry hides and Tom stands vigil. As Jerry sets out, he is poked in the back. Then Tom is poked in the back. Tom attempts to run from the octopus, but is held fast by first one, then two, then three tentacles. Seeing this, Jerry is moved to indignation, plainly viewing the octopus as too cruel a fate for even his arch-enemy. He seizes Tom first by the paws and then, when his grip slips, the whiskers in a deadly tug-of-war against the octopus. Tom is tugged helplessly back and forth as the tussle goes first one way then the other. Tom wakes and finds that he is back on the jetty. Jerry rescued Tom from the water after he fell in and is applying artificial respiration in the same rhythm as in the struggle during the final moments of Tom's dream. Tom thankfully shakes Jerry's hand and happily submits to further removal of the water from his lungs as the cartoon ends.