The Yankee Doodle Mouse

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = The Yankee Doodle Mouse
series = Tom and Jerry

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caption = The reissue title card of "The Yankee Doodle Mouse", featuring the Academy Award Oscar
director = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
story_artist = William Hanna
Joseph Barber
animator = Irven Spence
Pete Burness
Kenneth Muse
George Gordon
Jack Zander
voice_actor =
musician = Scott Bradley
producer = Fred Quimby
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
release_date = flagicon|US June 26, 1943
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7' 23"
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0036547
preceded_by = "The Lonesome Mouse"
followed_by = "Baby Puss"

"The Yankee Doodle Mouse" is a 1943 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 11th "Tom and Jerry" short produced by Fred Quimby and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, with musical supervision by Scott Bradley and animation by Irven Spence, Pete Burness, Kenneth Muse and George Gordon. Jack Zander is uncredited. It was produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on June 26 1943 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.

The short features Tom and Jerry chasing each other in a pseudo-warfare style, making numerous references to World War II technology such as jeeps and dive bombers. "The Yankee Doodle Mouse" won the 1943 , making it the first of seven "Tom and Jerry" cartoons to receive this distinction.cite news|title=William Hanna: Master animator whose cartoon creations included Tom and Jerry and the Flintstones|last=Gifford|first=Denis|date=2001-03-24|publisher=The Guardian (London)]

Plot

In a cellar, Jerry is pursued by Tom, rushing into his "Cat Raid Shelter", as he calls his mousehole. Tom peers into the hole, in frustration. Jerry launches a tomato from a mousetrap, which goes splat into Tom's face. Jerry climbs up the wall and grabs a handful of "Hen-Grenades" (eggs). As Tom wipes the tomato off his face, he is promptly covered in egg, one of them hitting him in the eye to make him appear to be wearing a monocle. Jerry reaches a case of champagne and shoots off the corks, hitting Tom in the face and sending him into a tub of water, floating in a pot. Jerry launches a brick from a spatula, which crashes into the pot, sinking the cat.

A communique reads "Sighted cat - sank same. Signed, Lt. Jerry Mouse."

Later on, Jerry observes Tom through a makeshift plumbing pipe acting as a periscope. Tom approaches Jerry's mousehole, mallet in hand. Jerry is on the ball, however, and opens the ironing board cupboard, which causes the board to land on Tom. The mouse charges down the board in a makeshift jeep (which is actually a cheese grater attached to a roller-skate), tearing Tom's fur as the grater speeds past him. However, Jerry's jeep crashes into a wall, sending a sack of flour tumbling down. Jerry grabs the sack and sends flour throughout the room as a smokescreen. Tom can barely see through the flour, and Jerry, who "can" see (as the "smokescreen" begins just above his head), repeatedly smacks Tom in the rear with a board from behind him. Eventually, however, Tom lands facing the mouse, and Jerry's eyes pop out before he slaps Tom a fourth time anyway.

Tom, wearing a bowl for a helmet, throws a stick of dynamite towards Jerry, who immediately throws it back to Tom. The lit firecracker exchanges hands repeatedly until Jerry takes it from Tom, tricking the cat into trying to hold onto it instead of keeping it away. They snatch it away from each other until Tom steals it one last time with a firm stare, and triumphantly holds it in his hand, until it explodes.

Jerry jumps into a kettle, which Tom approaches and throws another firecracker in. Jerry panics, but it fails to explode due to lack of air, and the mouse escapes through the spout. The puzzled cat opens the kettle lid and sticks his entire head in. With the kettle exposed to air, the firecracker goes off, leaving Tom in blackface, with a flower appearance.

Tom launches a paper airplane with a firecracker hidden on top, but Jerry blows it back and it lands beneath Tom, exploding just as the cat looks at it and leaving him in blackface once again.

Later, Jerry plants an enormous stick of dynamite behind Tom. Tom sees the bomb and screams. However, the firecracker splits into half, to reveal a smaller one, which peels away, and pops open harmlessly to reveal successively smaller sticks of dynamite, leaving behind a minuscule replica of the original firecracker. Tom picks it up, believing it to be harmless, but the dynamite explodes powerfully.

Jerry jumps into his plane, which is fashioned from a box of eggs. He drops a succession of light bulbs onto an unsuspecting Tom, which explode on his head. He then launches a banana torpedo into the cat's face. Tom grabs a firecracker launcher and skillfully shoots down Jerry's "plane." Jerry hurtles towards the floor, but then his parachute, a brassiere, opens up, and he floats down gently, but it fails when Tom shoots the brassiere and Jerry falls hard to the ground. He races into his hole, and Tom pushes the cannon into the same hole. The mortars chase after Jerry through the cellar and into a hose, which Jerry targets towards Tom, watching confidently from inside a barrel. The barrel explodes, leaving Tom riding the remaining parts of the exploded barrel as a bicycle and then crashing into the wall.

Tom then fires a dart gun at Jerry, catching him by the tail as he attempts to dive into his mousehole. Tom grabs the mouse and tie him to a rocket, which he lights up. However, Jerry helps Tom to tie himself up. Jerry emerges from the ropes, with Tom oblivious until he waves to Tom. The cat fails to blow out the rocket, and it shoots up with a helpless Tom, and explodes in the air, provoking a set of fireworks forming the United States flag. Jerry proudly salutes the flag, and we see another war communique: "Send more cats!"

Censorship

*On older Cartoon Network showings, the segment where the tea kettle explodes with Tom's face in it was excised due to the blackface gag. Recent airings have restored this gag.

Notes

*A clip from "The Yankee Doodle Mouse" was also used in "Jerry's Diary".
*This film, like many other "Tom and Jerry" cartoons, had its titles and credits replaced when it was reissued. In this case, the initial title card was replaced with a drawing of the Oscar award in the background. The original card is considered lost.
*Hen Grenades are a spoof of hand grenades, a standard weapon in most militaries.
*This is one of the shorts where Tom thinks the original firecracker is harmless.

References