Mouse into Space
| Mouse into Space | |
|---|---|
| Tom and Jerry series | |
|
Title card | |
| Directed by | Gene Deitch |
| Produced by | William L. Snyder |
| Story by | Tod Dockstader |
| Voices by | Allen Swift (uncredited) |
| Music by | Stěpan Koniček |
| Animation by | Václav Bedřich |
| Studio | Rembrandt Films |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | April 13, 1962 |
| Color process | Metrocolor |
| Running time | 6:48 |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | High Steaks |
| Followed by | Landing Stripling |
Mouse into Space is a Tom and Jerry animated short film made in 1961, released on April 13, 1962. It was the fifth cartoon in the series to be directed by Gene Deitch and produced by William L. Snyder in Czechoslovakia.
Plot
Jerry, tired of Tom's repeated attempts to harm him, leaves the house to join a space program. Tom tries to convince Jerry to stay, but to no avail. While Jerry is tested for the space program, Tom becomes so distraught that he becomes an alcoholic. However, he falls asleep in a large hose that then gets used to fill a rocket Jerry is in with rocket fuel. Miraculously, he survives, and climbs the outside of the rocket to find Jerry in the nose capsule. He proceeds to torment Jerry by spinning him in his sphere-shaped cockpit, but his success is short-lived when he accidentally steps on a button that ejects him into outer space. After brief encounters with a Soviet rocket with a bulldog and an asteroid field, Tom returns to Earth (not shown in space), soon followed by Jerry.
The two then return to the house where the cartoon began, with Jerry now wearing a rocket-shaped badge. Tom places a lighter to the rocket, and it takes flight. Jerry then uses the rocket-shaped badge as a jet pack to chase after Tom. Tom packs his things and leaves while Jerry waves goodbye to him.
Reception
In their book The Encyclopedia of Cartoon Superstars: From A to (almost) Z, authors John Calwey and Jim Korkis noted that while the Deitch shorts "were never as funny as the classics, they did have a quirky style all their own", believing that Deitch "was able to maintain the inner side of the characters by having them show occasional feelings". In Mouse into Space, as "one of the more bizarre examples", Tom becomes "so full of despair, he takes to the bottle!".[1]