The Mouse Comes to Dinner

How you could have an exquisitely laid out dinner table, even with the food out, and have Tom, a girlfriend and Jerry all creating havoc at the table with nobody noticing is beyond me....but that's the setup here. No one is ever home in this house but the maid, "Mammy Two Shoes." This dinner table is set for about 12 but where are the humans? We never see them, except in the '50s episodes when the maid is no longer in the cartoons.

At any rate, the basic premise of the jokes is little Jerry spoiling the dinner for Tom and the feline is trying to impress. At first Tom has the upper hand, outfitting Jerry is tiny chef's hat and having him wait on the two of them. You know that arrangement isn't going to last, and it doesn't as poor Tom gets abuse by not only his mouse foe but by the girl he invited to dinner! This cat can't win!

After almost demolishing almost everything in the room, setting some fires, crashing through a ceiling, etc., there was still no sign of a human being. Oh, well....it's a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

This is a hilarious Tom and Jerry short. Tom gets his tail and butt on fire and runs for water. He is just about to sit down for some relief when Jerry puts a chafing dish under his flaming butt. He sits down and sizzles for a few min! He thinks he is getting cooled off, but he is getting heated up....A LOT!. He then realizes what has happened and flies off the surface, only to have his rear end stick to it. His butt comes free and he smashes through the roof with the flames from his butt trailing behind him. When he lands back to Earth, he is too dazed to realize that he could sit in the punch bowl to cool his rear. He just sits there while Jerry and Toots paint "SS Drip" on his burned backside. How embarrassing for him. He tired to show off and ends up with his rear end burned off and sinks into a bowl of punch. What a day!!!!!!!

Now I liked this Tom and Jerry cartoon very much, it isn't a favourite, but I was entertained. Even if some gags were on the predictable side and the pacing a little more leisurely than usual, there is a lot to like about The Mouse Comes to Dinner. The animation is beautiful, old-fashioned but nice and ornate. Just looking at that dinner made my mouth water. The music is a lovely touch, the story is nicely constructed and there are some funny gags as well. I did feel somewhat sorry for Tom here as his tail for example got burned, Tom is cunning if rather dim-witted too(he should have known that Jerry would get his revenge) and Tom's girlfriend is a cute 'un. Overall, lovely Tom and Jerry cartoon, nice and funny if a little predictable on occasions. 8/10 Bethany Cox

The Mouse Comes to Dinner (1945)

*** (out of 4)

Tom gets a cute cat to come over to dinner so he obviously wants to impress her so he makes Jerry serve the food, which of course ends up with one fight after another. THE MOUSE COMES TO DINNER is certainly an entertaining film that manages to go at a very fast pace and of course there are plenty of laughs as well. This film offers up some rather creative fights and especially the sequence where Tom keeps biting his own tail. Another highlight is the scene where the poor cat is too stupid to realize that he's on fire and not in a good way. As you'd expect the animation is top-notch as are the sound effects, which certainly add a few nice laughs.

Mammy-Two-Shoes (who was actually NOT dubbed in the version I watched, would you believe) has set up a huge banquet for guests of some kind, who will be arriving soon. Tom sneaks into the dining room and calls his girlfriend Toots, inviting her over.

Using Jerry as a reluctant butler Tom tries numerous times to impress Toots and fails again and again. What was surprising about this cartoon is that it's a bit crueler than usual. The violence and pain were on level with an episode of Itchy and Scratchy. There is even one moment of torture in which Tom holds Jerry, in a teaspoon, over a candle.

Hey, I'm not complaining. I'm not some nut who is against cartoon violence. I actually thought that this one was damn funny.