''Mouse Cleaning'' is a 1948 one-reel

animated cartoon Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

and the 38th ''

Tom and Jerry ''Tom and Jerry'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series ...

'' short. The title is a play on "house cleaning". It was produced in

Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

and released to theatres on December 11, 1948, by

Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American film and television production and distribution company headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. Metro- ...

and again on February 18, 1956. It was animated by Irven Spence, Kenneth Muse, Ed Barge and Ray Patterson, who were the usual animators for the Tom and Jerry cartoons in the early 1940s up until the late 1950s. It was directed by

William Hanna William Denby Hanna (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001) was an American animator, voice actor, and musician who is best known for co-creating ''Tom and Jerry'' and providing the vocal effects for the series' title characters. Alongside Joseph B ...

and

Joseph Barbera Joseph Roland Barbera ( ; ; March 24, 1911 – December 18, 2006) was an American animator and cartoonist, best known as the co-founder of the animation studio Hanna-Barbera. Born to Italian Americans, Italian immigrants in New York City, Bar ...

, and produced by

Fred Quimby Frederick Clinton Quimby (July 31, 1886 – September 16, 1965) was an American animation producer and journalist best known for producing the ''Tom and Jerry'' cartoon series, for which he won seven Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Films ...

; no writer has yet been credited. The music was scored by Scott Bradley and the backgrounds were created by Robert Gentle.

Plot

While chasing Jerry in the garden, Tom runs through a mud puddle and then into the house, tracking mud on the kitchen floor right after Mammy Two Shoes has finished cleaning. As punishment, Mammy makes Tom clean the floor and orders him to keep the house clean, while she leaves to go shopping, or "we is gonna be minus one cat around here." Once she is gone, Jerry wants to sabotage Tom, so he begins making a mess around the house by, among other things, emptying the ashtray onto the floor, squirting ink from a fountain pen into a pail, juggling food, bringing an old horse and pushing an ink stamp pad onto Tom's paws while he takes a nap, causing the cat to leave a long trail of paw prints in the living room. Tom throws Jerry down the laundry chute into the basement and quickly cleans the room. As he does so, a coal truck arrives at the house to make a delivery, and Jerry uses a rope to pull the truck's delivery chute up to the living room window, causing the house to flood with

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

. When Mammy returns from shopping and discovers this, she blames Tom, who flees. As he runs, Mammy throws lumps of coal at him, one of which knocks him out.

Voice cast

Lillian Randolph Lillian Randolph (December 14, 1898 – September 12, 1980) was an American actress and singer, a veteran of radio, film, and television. She worked in entertainment from the 1930s until shortly before her death. She appeared in hundreds of radi ...

as Mammy Two Shoes (1948 original, uncredited) **

Thea Vidale Thea R. Vidale (born November 20, 1956) is an American stand-up comedian and actress. Vidale is perhaps best known for her role as Thea Armstrong-Turrell in the ABC sitcom '' Thea'', which originally aired from 1993 until 1994. Vidale is noted a ...

as Mammy Two Shoes (1990 dubbed version, uncredited) *

as Tom (in the style of

Stepin Fetchit Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry (May 30, 1902 – November 19, 1985), better known by his stage name Stepin Fetchit, was an American vaudevillian, comedian, and film actor of Jamaican and Bahamian descent, considered to be the first black ...

)

Reception

''Boxoffice'' reviewed the short on December 12, 1948, saying, "This is a repeat performance of a common film cartoon gag but amusing nevertheless." Film critic and historian

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, '' Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'', published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film criti ...

praised the short saying it "... typifies the development of this series taking the same story idea as ''

Puss Gets the Boot ''Puss Gets the Boot'' is a 1940 American animated short film and the first short in what would become the ''Tom and Jerry'' cartoon series, though neither are yet referred to by these names. It was directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, ...

'' and playing it in modern Tom-and-Jerry fashion, with hilarious gags, razor-sharp timing, and riveting "takes", or reactions. For sheer belly laughs, this cartoon is difficult to top." In 2007, this short and '' Casanova Cat'' were pulled from the ''

Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection The ''Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection'' is a series of two-disc DVD sets released by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Warner Home Video. Originally planned as an uncensored, chronological set, the issued ''Spotlight Collection'' sets include ...

- Volume 3'' DVD compilation by

Warner Home Video Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. (doing business as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment; formerly known as Warner Home Video and WCI Home Video and sometimes credited as Warner Home Entertainment) is the American home video distribution ...

due to racial stereotypes. It had been announced that ''Mouse Cleaning'' would be available on the '' Tom and Jerry Golden Collection - Volume 2'' on DVD and

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

, with the short being presented uncut, uncensored, and restored from its original nitrate elements that had been recently discovered. However, on February 6, 2013, it was announced by

TVShowsOnDVD.com TVShowsOnDVD.com was a website dedicated to cataloging, campaigning for, and reporting news about Region 1 television series releases on DVD and region A Blu-ray. The site's slogan asked: "Is YOUR Favorite Show On DVD?". From February 2007 un ...

that ''Mouse Cleaning'' was not part of the list of cartoons on this release, as well as the cartoon '' Casanova Cat'', which was also skipped over on the ''Spotlight Collection, Volume 3'' DVD release. However, the set has since been indefinitely delayed following a negative reception.

Production

* Written & Directed by

* Animation: Ray Patterson, Irv Spence,

Kenneth Muse Kenneth Muse (July 26, 1910 – July 26, 1987) was an American animator, best known for his work on the ''Tom and Jerry'' series at MGM Cartoons. Biography Muse worked briefly at Walt Disney Productions, where he was Preston Blair's assistant ...

Ed Barge Edward Jonathan Barge (August 29, 1910 – September 29, 1991) was an American animator. Early life and education Barge was born to Alfred Edward and Margaret G. Barge in San Jose, California. In 1916, the family moved to Bakersfield, where his ...

* Layouts:

Richard Bickenbach Richard Frederick Bickenbach (August 9, 1907 – June 28, 1994) was an American animator who worked for Warner Bros. Cartoons and as a layout artist and character designer for MGM and Hanna-Barbera Productions. He worked on animation for many ca ...

* Backgrounds: Robert Gentle * Music: Scott Bradley * Produced by

Notes

* The scene where Tom runs far away from getting hit from the flying projectile, in this case – a lump of coal, was reused from a previous cartoon, ''

Tee for Two ''Tee for Two '' is a 1945 American one-reel Technicolor animated cartoon and is the 20th ''Tom and Jerry'' short, first released to theaters on July 21, 1945, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The short is directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, c ...

''.

Availability

VHS * ''Tom and Jerry's 50th Birthday Classics 3''. DVD * The original version (with Lillian Randolph's voice) is intact on UK TV airings * '' Tom and Jerry: The Classic Collection'' Vol. 2, and the Vol. 1–6 boxset (

Region 2 DVD DVD region codes are a digital rights management technique introduced in 1997. It is designed to allow rights holders to control the international distribution of a DVD release, including its content, release date, and price, all according to t ...

), uncensored.

References

External links

* {{The Hanna–Barbera Tom and Jerry shorts 1940s English-language films Tom and Jerry short films Short films directed by Joseph Barbera Short films directed by William Hanna 1940s American animated films 1948 comedy films Films scored by Scott Bradley Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated short films American animated short films American comedy short films Films produced by Fred Quimby Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio short films Animated films about cats Animated films about mice African-American animated films English-language comedy short films English-language action comedy films 1948 animated short films