El Ratón Invisible

The cat and mouse are involved in the usual chases when Jerry dives into a bottle of invisible ink and discovers that it makes him vanish. Instead of seizing the opportunity to go spy on a girl mouse changing room or something, he uses his new-found invisibility to torment Tom. And it's pretty funny and quite inventive despite being a somewhat one-joke cartoon. And the action never leaves the interior of the house, which is usually the trait of below average T&J shorts. Still worth a 7/10.

However, I'm not sure how an invisible mouse can cast a shadow on the wall, it defies physics and the very nature of being invisible itself.

After the usual chase scene, Jerry accidentally winds up inside a bottle of invisible ink, which was part of a chemistry set. He quickly discovers he's invisible...so the predictable results occur, meaning he uses his new hidden condition to torment Tom. Jerry often is just defending himself, but often he has sadistic streak in him that torments the cat whenever possible, even when unprovoked.

Here, he makes Tom think his eyes are deceiving him when cheese from a mousetrap disappears before his eyes, or milk from a dish. Tom can't take anymore so he tries to sleep this nightmare off, but Jerry sets fire to his paw! Man, I hope little kids didn't ideas watching these cartoons back in the '40s and '50s! I always found Jerry, the little mouse, more evil than cute.

Thankfully, in cartoons, generally, whatever damage a character suffers is gone within seconds and he's back to normal.

The best part of this cartoon is about two-thirds of the way through when Tom figures out what the story is with Jerry, and tries different methods to detect where the mouse is located (such as putting flour on the floor to see his footprints).

This particular T & J caper requires its audience to accept the ridiculous conceit that invisible ink can actually turn you invisible. And if you swallow that idea, then you should have no problem with the rest of this so-so cartoon that also features bannisters that split into two, an unoccupied fish bowl conveniently located for dousing flaming feet, and a transparent rodent who can somehow cast a shadow against a wall.

Personally, I believe that the makers of this adventure came up with the invisibility idea in order to save them from the trouble of animating one of the main characters, but whatever the reason behind the concept, The Invisible Mouse never manages to be anything other than average.

The usual cat and mouse antics abound until Jerry jumps into a bottle of invisible ink. He gets the bright idea of torturing Tom without him knowing. The cat gets wise and tries to do stuff to make him 'see' jerry even if it's not fool-proof. Of course Jerry gets Butch aka Killer aka Spike the dog into the act (even if it's late in the short, and his contribution is minimal indeed) Brilliant animated short which kind of reminded me of the one with the white mouse who scares Tom so badly. Most of the gags work and all violent as any good tom and jerry short should truly be. This hilarious cartoon can be found on disc one of the Spotlight collection DVD of "Tom & Jerry"

My Grade: B+

This is a somewhat self-referentially clever Tom and Jerry cartoon short in that the mouse becomes transparent via invisible ink. Apt for a drawn film. That the mouse has a shadow, however, doesn't make sense in respect to his impenetrability to light, I would think, although I guess it does follow the logic of how one would see invisible ink. And I'll just accept that he returns to visibility by drinking chocolate milk. Otherwise, this brief animated knockabout features the usual cartoon violence and cat-and-mouse chase. The cat employs flour to track the invisible mouse's footsteps at one point, too, which is reminiscent of the tricks the police used in Universal's prior "Invisible Man" series and in the book by H.G. Wells.