Royal Cat Nap

This is the last of the Tom and Jerry Mouseketeer cartoons and I can't say that I'm sorry: I haven't like them very much, with this one being the worst.

The king's mouseketeers, Jerry and Tuffy, are in the king's chamber helping themselves to some food and making a bit of a racket. The king is not best pleased about being woken up and orders Tom to keep them quiet or face the guillotine. Naturally, the two mice take this as a cue to try and make as much noise as possible.

Hilarity does not ensue, the gags not being all that original. Also, this cartoon continues the trend of having the most unsightly backgrounds and a frustrating lack of detail (the thumbtacks spread on the ground for Tom to tread on look like hastily scrawled black letter Ts).

Although this story takes place back in the old days of France, the storyline is one that was used many times in modern settings in Tom and Jerry cartoons: a threat by an adult to Tom to do something about "the mouse" or it was curtains for the cat. Usually, it meant being tossed out of the house but here, it's the threat of the guillotine if Tom doesn't make sure the "mouseketeers" don't keep quiet so the house-owner can go back to sleep.

Whenever Jerry hears threats like that directed toward Tom, he does his best to make sure he gets the cat in trouble by doing what Tom's not supposed to do (and one wonders why I and others root for Tom in these cartoons!).

Jerry has his little gray French mouse friend "Tuffy" with him so the two of them try to make as much noise as possible. We see some repeat sight gags such as Tom balancing a half dozen dishes on his paws to keep dishes from breaking, etc.

Even though some of the cartoon is also a direct rehash from others as the early gags are very similar, there were enough original gags - and good ones - to still make this fun to watch. Tom provides the humor as he has to be on his toes, literally.

The artwork in here is excellent and CinemaScope a good format to show it off. The colors are brilliant. One scene has the magnificent castle on the left and rolling purple hills in the background of lush yellow/green grass and wheat in the center and right. It's just beautiful.

The Tom and Jerry Mousketeers cartoons are very entertaining very like the rest of the series. Royal Cat Nap is the final one, and while possibly my least favourite of the Mousketeers series it still is a lot of fun and certainly far better than the show's 60s output(anything is better than the Gene Deitch cartoons though). The story, apart from the nice twist at the end, is on the predictable side, and some of the early gags I agree look as though they were rehashed from the previous cartoons. However, the animation is colourful and very pleasing to look at. The late 50s did not see Tom and Jerry at their best, their last really outstanding cartoon was for me Down Beat Bear, but of this particular period Royal Cat Nap is one of their better-looking. The music is very catchy and energetic, while the newer gags are lively and amusing. Tom and Jerry are their likable selves and Nibbles is adorable, also proving himself fairly resourceful in the twist.

Overall, an entertaining end to the Tom and Jerry Mousketeers series. 8/10 Bethany Cox