Royal Cat Nap
| The Royal Cat Nap | |
|---|---|
| Tom and Jerry series | |
 Title Card | |
| Directed by |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Produced by |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Story by |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Voices by | Francoise Brun-Cottan |
| Music by | Scott Bradley |
| Animation by |
Carlo Vinci Lewis Marshall Kenneth Muse |
| Layouts by | Richard Bickenbach |
| Backgrounds by | Robert Gentle |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | 7 March 1958 |
| Color process | Technicolor, CinemaScope, Perspecta |
| Running time | 6:45 |
| Language | English, French |
| Preceded by | Happy Go Ducky |
| Followed by | The Vanishing Duck |
The Royal Cat Nap is the 114th one-reel animated Tom and Jerry released cartoon, created in 1958 directed and produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera,[1] with music by Scott Bradley. The animation was credited to Carlo Vinci, Lewis Marshall and Kenneth Muse, with backgrounds by Robert Gentle and layouts by Richard Bickenbach.
Royal Cat Nap was the last of four Mouseketeer shorts and also the only Mouseketeer short not produced by Fred Quimby, which were a send-up of the famous Three Musketeers novel and film(s), beginning with the Academy Award winning short The Two Mouseketeers in 1952. The cartoon's plot has a striking similarity to that of 1945's Oscar winner Quiet Please!, except this cartoon features a French king who does not wish to be disturbed, rather than the former's Spike the bulldog. It was released on 7 March 1958 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Plot
This is another one of the cartoons set in Paris. The king is sleeping peacefully in his bed, then Jerry and Tuffy climb a nearby table. However, Tuffy loses his balance and grabs Jerry's outfit, but cannot keep from falling. Jerry looks at where Tuffy fell, but then Tuffy pops up behind Jerry and scares him. Jerry is miffed, but Tuffy explains in French what happened. Jerry shushes him and motions for the little mouse to follow. Jerry jumps into a wedge of cheese and looks through the holes. He keeps stealthy as he spears a bit of cheese on his sword. Then, he sees Tuffy has speared a grape, which bounces into the king's mouth. The king's mouth starts to inflate as he suffocates, but Jerry causes the grape to be swallowed safely down his throat. Jerry runs away and motions again for Tuffy to follow, but Tuffy runs into a teacup and breaks it, waking up the king with a start. The king glares at Tuffy, and then Jerry stabs him in the nose. He angrily calls for "a cat". Tom answers the call moments later, and is chastised by the king in French about his doing something else when he needs help. The king then warns Tom not to let the mice disturb his nap again or else he will have the cat beheaded. He then goes to sleep and Tom marches around the king's bed; then he sticks his tongue out at him and is bopped by him on the head. Tom resumes marching until he hears Jerry eating cheese. Tom gets ready to skewer the mouse, and then Jerry points to Tuffy dropping a vase. Tom catches it on his sword-blade.
Jerry and Tuffy then throw the entire platter of dishes down and Tom is forced to catch all of them on his sword, head, arm, and foot. Tom uses his remaining foot to tiptoe out of the castle so that the dishes falling do not wake the king, and then rushes back in. He steps on tacks scattered by the two mice and goes out again before yelling out in pain and pulling out the tack. Tom runs back in for the second time and barely stops before he steps on the tacks again. Tom puts a gauntlet on his feet in order to tiptoe across the tacks without being hurt. Tom then confronts Jerry, but Jerry stabs him in the nose. The cat is forced to cover the king's ears so that he does not hear his cry of pain. Tom spots some champagne corks and then hears mysterious clanking. A suit of armor is being used as a puppet, and it dances noisily. Jerry raises the visor and sees only Tom, standing nonchalantly next to the suit. He gestures toward the king, having plugged his ears with corks, and then slices apart the suit of armor. Jerry dodges while Tuffy escapes and plugs the king's nose with clothespins, which causes his face to bloat again. Tom has caught Jerry on the end of his blade, but Jerry points at the king, and Tom can only watch as the clothespins and corks are blown off and the king opens his eyes. Tom hurriedly plays Brahms's Lullaby on a soothing violin to cause the king to fall asleep again.
Tom chases the mice outside, then locks all the doors and swallows the key so that they cannot get back in. However, they (Jerry & Tuffy) bring a crossbow and shoot an arrow through the keyhole into Tom's backside. Tom tries to hold his scream of pain in until he can get outside, but with no way to get outside (since Tom locked all the doors, then swallowed the key), Tom can only accept the king's wrath and screams out inside the room, causing the king to wake up. The king promptly yells at Tom in French that he will chop off his head. However, both mice realize their mistakes in letting Tom get beheaded as they didn't hear about the reminder warnings after his last attack, so Tuffy saves Tom's life by singing Frère Jacques (Are you sleeping) to put the king back to sleep. Tom, Jerry and Tuffy tip-toe outside the room, shaking hands together, and having a sword fight (same meaning as both mice and the cat were unfriended). Tuffy's conclusion said: "C'est la guerre." ("That's war.") as a cartoon closes during a break and resumes the sword fight.
Availability
DVD
- Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases, Vol. 5
- Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 3, Disc Two
References
- ↑ The production/direction credits read "Joseph Barbera and William Hanna" rather than the usual "William Hanna and Joseph Barbera".