Trap Happy

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Trap Happy
series = Tom and Jerry


caption =
director = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
story_artist =
animator = Ed Barge
Kenneth Muse
Michael Lah
Ray Patterson
Pete Burness
voice_actor =
musician = Scott Bradley
producer = Fred Quimby
studio =
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
release_date = flagicon|US June 29, 1946
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7' 8"
preceded_by = "The Milky Waif"
followed_by = "Solid Serenade"
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0039045

"Trap Happy" is a 1946 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 25th "Tom and Jerry" short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. It was animated by Ed Barge,Kenneth Muse and Michael Lah and the music was composed by Scott Bradley. It was released to theaters on the 29th June 1946 and is one of Tom and Jerry's more violent cartoons.

Plot

The cartoon opens with Jerry being chased down the steps by Tom. Jerry hides under a chair and Tom runs under it, but gets smacked on the bottom with a board from Jerry. Jerry's mousehole is then mined with dynamite, but unknowingly for Tom, Jerry has lit another firework under "him", and both explode. Tom angrily continues the pursuit until Jerry offers him a fireplace tool shaped like a spatula to hit him with. Tom misses several times and Jerry holds the tool down until Tom pulls on it so hard he hits himself when Jerry flees. Tom jumps into Jerry's hole, but his lips are ruffled and Tom has to pull out. Tom is tired of the chase and searches in the Yellow Pages for an exterminator. He finds one: "Ajax Mouse Exterminators. One Call - That's All." Tom calls the company up.

"Meathead": Good morning. Ajax Mouse Exterminating Company.

"Tom": HELP! HELP! A MOUSE! JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! COME QUICK! JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!

Butch arrives within seconds, washes his hands and goes to work. He paints a steel nut two shades of yellow so it looks like cheese, and tops it off with a blast of "Essence of Cheese". Satisfied, Butch rolls it into Jerry's hole. Jerry, suspicious, smells the nut. Since it smells like cheese, Jerry gobbles it. Butch then attracts Jerry with a magnet, trapping the poor rodent. Butch then holds Jerry down while he attempts to cleave the mouse in two, but Tom, scared of seeing the deed, turns away, allowing Jerry to substitute Tom's tail. The 2 vs. 1 chase begins.

Jerry is run into his hole and Butch pins him to a wall inside the hole with a corkscrew. With nowhere to go, Jerry touches two electric wires to the corkscrew, causing it to backfire onto Butch.

The next scene shows the two felines attempt to kill the mouse with poison gas. Jerry walks out with a gas mask on; the two cats are puzzled, but don't figure out his identity. Jerry salutes and the cats salute as if to say "Good day!" Tom returns to pumping gas, but Butch has deduced the little creature must be Jerry. He slaps Tom and points to Jerry removing his mask, taunting the cats and running off. Both cats chase him one behind the other, but fall victim to Jerry placing an iron in their path such that Tom falls into Butch's mouth.

Jerry hides in another mousehole and the two cats resort to prying up the entire wall. Jerry has a hammer and slams Tom's foot, causing him to lose grip and Butch's fingers to be crushed. Jerry plays "Yankee Doodle" on the eight digits and Butch releases them. All six of the main fingers are red. Butch instructs Tom to keep quiet and hands him a large hammer while he sneaks in through a grate and chases Jerry through the walls of the house, doing significant damage. Jerry pops out of the hole and Tom swings as instructed, only to find Butch's head replaced it soon after. Butch pops out of the hole in the floor and a bump rises on his head such that his hat hangs on it.

Butch lights a bomb and the cats hide. Jerry sees it and throws it back. The cats and the mouse play Hot Potato with the bomb until Butch's hat falls off his head and it is mixed up. Jerry, instead of getting the bomb as intended, gets the hat, and Butch has the bomb on top of his head. Puzzled as to why Jerry isn't planting the bomb on Butch again, the cats look up, and then BOOM!

Jerry runs into one hole and comes out the other to find Butch on that side, then comes back out the other and finds Tom on that side. The two cats both grope and feel Jerry at the same time and grab for him just as the mouse jumps, leaving the two cats with hands held (though they don't know it). Both cats think they have Jerry and yank the other cat into the wall several times. Butch then pokes at Tom with a broom and Tom proceeds to pull Butch through the entire wall, demolishing it, all with the false impression that their hands are latched on to Jerry.

Tom slaps the pile of brick and rock with a board until he sees an opening. He digs through the pile and finds.....Butch's hat, with a corner missing. As Tom tries to find Jerry in the hat, Butch revives and replaces the hat as he draws himself up, incensed. Tom makes an "oops!" face, but Butch marks out the "MOUSE" in "MOUSE EXTERMINATOR" on his bag and replaces it with "CAT".

Tom: "C.........A........T.......... CAT........"(points to self) (GULP)

Then it hits him: Butch has pulled out a double-barreled shotgun. Tom flees through the nearest window as Butch fires numerous shots at him.

Notes

*The hand pulling scene and gag was used in "Casanova Cat".