Designs on Jerry

Designs on Jerry
Tom and Jerry series
Title Card
Directed by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Produced by	Fred Quimby
Story by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Music by	Scott Bradley
Animation by	Irven Spence Kenneth Muse Ed Barge
Backgrounds by	John Didrik Johnsen
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	September 2, 1955 (1955-09-02)
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	6:39
Language	English
Preceded by	Mouse for Sale
Followed by	Tom and Chérie

Designs on Jerry is the 93rd one reel animated Tom and Jerry short, released in 1955, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby with music by Scott Bradley. The cartoon was animated by Irven Spence, Kenneth Muse and Ed Barge with backgrounds by John Didrik Johnsen. It was released on September 2, 1955 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Plot

Tom is busy designing a mousetrap in the attic, inspired by a quote stating that fortune will come to someone who designs an effective mousetrap. Tom creates a Rube Goldberg machine designed to capture Jerry, complete with a blueprint depicting stick figures of a mouse and a cat. After finishing his blueprint, Tom goes to bed. While Tom sleeps, the stick-mouse suddenly comes to life and enters Jerry's mousehole, waking him up to warn him about Tom's plan. Jerry, stunned, goes back to sleep, so the stick-mouse promptly drags Jerry to the plan. As they look over the plan, the stick-cat also comes to life. Promptly, Jerry hands the stick-mouse an eraser to erase the cat's teeth, though it re-draws a bigger set before chasing them.

The stick-mouse draws a mousehole on the blueprint to help Jerry escape, but is then caught by the stick-cat. Jerry draws shorter legs on the cat and erases its bigger legs, causing the cat to fall down. Now unable to run fast, the cat uses its tail as a lasso to catch Jerry, but the stick-mouse draws a bow and arrow and shoots the cat with it to save Jerry and deflate the cat's torso. The mouse then camouflages itself as a flower in a flowerpot and ladles the cat with a fork. Both mice then jump off the drawing board with the stick-mouse acting as a parachute, while the stick-cat jumps down and bounces akin to a pogo stick. The mice erase the cat by firing water at it and sucking it into Tom's jar of white ink. As both mice celebrate, Tom begins to wake up as the next day begins. Just in time, they manage to change a key measurement on the blueprint before returning to their original positions as an unaware Tom continues building his trap.

His trap ("The Better Mouse Trap, Designed and Built by Tom Cat") completed, Tom hides as Jerry emerges and grabs a piece of cheese which Tom tied to his creation, setting off a complicated chain of events. The trap ends as a safe is slowly released. Tom eagerly emerges, aiming to flatten Jerry and lock him inside the safe, but because the altered measurement caused the safe to land two feet closer to the mousehole, it falls onto Tom instead of Jerry. As Jerry retreats, the safe door opens and Tom walks out smushed and shaped as a cube. Not knowing how Jerry outsmarted him and angry over all his wasted effort, Tom curses unintelligibly over his failure, leaning on the safe.

Availability

Laserdisc

• The Art of Tom and Jerry Vol. 2, Disc One, Side Two^[1]

DVD

• Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases, Vol. 3
• Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 1, Disc Two

References

External links

• Designs on Jerry at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• Designs on Jerry at the Internet Movie Database