Tennis Chumps

STORY

The cartoon opens with Tom emerging from a locker room at a tennis court. His entrance is interrupted by a black cat named Butch, who slams the door into Tom causing him to look like a figure in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Jerry then comes out from the locker room, but Tom orders him to pick up his tennis equipment. Jerry hands Tom his racquet and a tennis ball, and a match between Tom and Butch begins. With no further need for the mouse, Tom dismisses Jerry by hitting him into the locker room wall and he ends up landing in the drinking fountain. Jerry's mad while standing in the fountain.

Tom serves the ball and Butch returns it with such speed that it causes Tom's racket to burst into flame when it grazes the handle. Tom grabs another racket and serves three balls to Butch. Butch then splits his racket into three and returns all three balls back into Tom's mouth, and they settle into his tail.

Tom's next serve resembles a badminton serve and he pulls the net to force a drop shot. Butch then hits the ball hard into the ground and Tom has to stretch his arm all the way to the end of the court to make the return. Butch is then shown making many returns at the net, but the ball is actually bouncing off Tom's face. The ball eventually bounces back toward the end of Butch's court and Butch hits it with a lot of backspin, causing it to buzz in the air. Tom tries to chase after the ball, but ends up running into the post of the net and wrapping himself in the net.

Jerry now gets in the fun by playing the cats against each other. He hands Tom a small white bomb which looks like a tennis ball so as to blow up Butch. Jerry winks at Tom and Tom winks back. Tom lights the bomb and serves it to Butch. Butch is about to return the bomb but it explodes just before he makes contact with it, making him look like a blackfaced ballet dancer. Jerry then removes a round, white piece of a gate that resembles a tennis ball. It is heavy enough to cause Butch to be pulled into the ground when he grabs it. Jerry winks at Butch, who winks back and swings the racket, allowing the force of the net to serve the heavy ball to Tom. The overconfident Tom gets hit in the head and breaks into pieces.

Jerry starts to laugh at this and then he ducks out of the way as Tom is trying to hit him with tennis balls. Jerry ends up swallowing one of the tennis balls and he gets used as a rodent tennis ball between the two cats. After a small rally, Jerry lands up walking on the net like a tightrope and then wobbles onto Butch's head. Tom swings, hitting Butch instead and then throwing him onto the ground behind Tom. Butch is about to hit Tom but he sees Jerry running away on the other side of the court and he hits a tennis ball toward Jerry.

Jerry grabs a tennis racquet and starts rallying with Butch. Tom gets involved in the rally when a ball gets stuck in his mouth, which Butch simply hits out of it. Butch runs through a chain link fence to return the next shot by Jerry, and Jerry has to move the sideline after a ball hits the net and drops over.

Tom tries to get involved again, but Butch stops him. The rally continues and Butch runs back and forth on his side of the court with Tom next to him. Jerry then hits a really high ball and both cats run toward each other with an attempt to hit the ball, but they crash into each other and become a pair of conjoined cats. They separate and realize that they need to work together. They run toward Jerry and he runs toward an automatic tennis machine, activating it at its highest speed. The huge force of the tennis balls hits the cats before they can dodge them, pushing them into the net, then through it all the way into a tree thousands of feet away, where they get tangled in the net, acting like marionettes.

Jerry is then shown putting on a fancy jacket and he writes his name on a tennis trophy cup. He then stands and waves to a crowd of people and accepts his championship cup.

Jerry's Diary

STORY

Tom places a bunch of traps in front of Jerry's mouse hole. He raises a cleaver over the hole and is stopped by the tubby looking talking radio, telling him it is "Be kind to Animals" week. He removes the traps he just set up and returns with flowers, a present, and a pie with, "To Jerry with Love" on it. Tom knocks on the wall but there is no answer. Tom removes the grate on the wall and sees that Jerry is not at home. But he does see his diary. Tom reaches in, grabs it, and starts to read it.

The first entry dates on Sunday, April 5, when Tom used Jerry as a Tee when he played golf. The scene from Tee for Two opens, where Tom uses Jerry as a tee. Tom searches for his golf ball; unbeknown to him, Jerry has the golf ball. Tom then washes Jerry in a ball cleaner. Tom is laughing while reminding this scene. But after reading the next part of the entry, Jerry is forced to hold the tee. Tom is hits the golf ball which ricochets on a rock and the ball shatters all his teeth like glass, Tom's mood goes down and he turns to another entry.

The next entry dates on Thursday, May 12, when Jerry got curious about Tom and it almost got him caught. The scene from Mouse Trouble opens, where Tom is reading a book and laughing noisily. Jerry comes out of his mousehole, curious about why Tom is laughing. Tom keeps turning the book away and laughing again. Tom finally traps Jerry, takes him out, and then Jerry uses a similar trick and punches Tom in the eye .

Tom gets angry from what he has read and throws away the flowers. He turns to another entry which dates on Monday, June 3, when Jerry got Tom into two nasty surprises in a chase. The scene from Solid Serenade opens, where Jerry is being chased and he dives into the kitchen sink, then he drains the sink forcing Tom to crash into a pile of plates. Jerry then traps Tom's neck in a window, causing Tom to scream.

Tom is furious at what Jerry has written about him and he destroys Jerry's present (which appears to be a box of chocolates). He is just about to throw the diary away when he opens it again and reads one more entry dating Saturday, July 4, when Tom and Jerry fought using firecrackers. The scene from The Yankee Doodle Mouse opens, where Tom and Jerry fight over a firecracker. Then it blows up in Tom's face. Then Tom traps Jerry in a teapot with a firecracker, which mysteriously goes out. Jerry escapes. Tom then looks inside the teapot, ending with the firecracker blowing up with Tom appearing in a blackface sunflower.

Tom then rips Jerry's diary to pieces and Jerry comes home. He is happy to see that Tom has baked him a pie. Jerry points at the pie and then points to himself asking if the pie is for him. Tom is just about to grab Jerry but the radio stops him. "And now before your old Uncle Dudley says goodbye, did you get a nice little surprise for your animal friend?" Tom picks up the pie with a devilish smile. "You did? Well let him have it." Jerry holds out his hands and Tom throws the pie on Jerry. A rather confused Jerry then looks into the camera and shrugs his shoulders.

Love That Pup

STORY
Spike is sleeping beside his son Tyke when Tyke suddenly wakes up from a bad dream. Spike then comforts his son back to sleep again. No sooner does Tyke doze off then Tom and Jerry enter the scene. Tom runs through a door and into some spades, rakes and hoes, as Jerry hides among the two dogs. To find Jerry, Tom picks Tyke up to look underneath the puppy.

Tom holds up his right hand and sees nothing, then holds up his left hand, and drops Tyke in fear. Tom smiles nervously, attempting to run off, but Spike grabs Tom by the whiskers and issues him an ultimatum: leave Tyke alone or suffer the consequences. Tom runs and was hit in the fountain, tree, clothesline hanger and into the trash can.

Jerry emerges from behind Tyke and walks off casually until Tom comes running back. Jerry takes cover by diving into what appears to be Spike's jaw, but he really ducked under the dog's chin. Seeing the dog smack his lips as if having eaten the mouse, Tom then places his hand carefully in Spike's mouth while the dog is sleeping, and Jerry emerges from his hiding place and slams the bulldog's jaws shut with Tom's hand still in Spike's mouth. Tom yells in pain and leaps a meter back. Spike wakes up as Tom struggles to get his hand out of his mouth, pulling Spike's teeth out in the process. Tom smiles innocently again, and uses Spike's teeth as castanets while doing a Flamenco dance (while clicking to the tune of The Mexican Hat Dance) out of the scene and runs away, dropping the teeth on the bucket.

A few moments later, Tom spies Jerry sleeping next to Tyke, now using the dogs as shields. Hiding behind Tyke's kennel, he reaches out for Jerry. Jerry quietly moves Tyke's tail into Tom's grip, so that Tom ends up grabbing Tyke. After running off with the little pup, Tom realizes his mistake. He turns around to see a sleeping Spike feeling for Tyke. Tom rushes back into Tyke's place, taking on the role of Tyke. To wake up the dog, Jerry then lifts up Tyke's kennel and slams it on Tom's tail. Tom screams in pain, and Spike picks him up and pats him on the back. Just then, Tyke walks back onto the scene and whimpers. Spike looks at Tom suspiciously. Tom duplicates Tyke's whimpering and barking, but accidentally meows when he tries to duplicate his growl. Spike and Tom then growl ferociously at each other until Tom clamps his jaws on the dog's nose and runs away.

Tom takes a detour to the side, sets up a rake for the dog to run into if he follows him, and then watches as Spike takes the original route. Knowing he's lost his opponent, he runs back through the detour... and onto his own rake.

Tom finally realizes that in order to get Jerry, Spike, who is effectively Jerry's shield, must be removed from the picture. He does this by dangling a large piece of steak from a clothesline. A sleeping Spike (who holds a shotgun) senses the delectable piece of meat, and sleepwalks after the steak. Jerry is privy to what Tom is trying to accomplish. All of Jerry's efforts to wake up the mesmerized dog fail, and he ends up getting flattened. Tom successfully locks Spike in a garden shed. A evil smiled Tom smiles at Jerry. A horrified Jerry runs. Tom can now attack Jerry without his shield. He can also harm Tyke.

Tom then catches Jerry, trapping him inside an upturned barrel and hammering a cork in its knot hole. However, without Tom noticing, Jerry escapes through the side of the barrel and puts Tyke under the barrel instead. Spike busts himself out of the shed and rushes up to Tom angrily and demands to know where his son is, threatening to skin him alive if Tyke is underneath the barrel.

Tom confidently starts to lifts up the barrel, until he hears a whistle, and looks to his side to see Jerry lying on a nearby fence, waving to him. Tom does a double gulp, realizing he is in serious trouble. Apparently unaware that Tom cannot possibly be responsible for placing Tyke underneath, the dumb dog demands that Tom lift the barrel. Shivering, Tom begins to lift the barrel, only to have Spike impatiently swipe it. Tyke is lying underneath it, wiggling his tail at his father. Tom makes a quick exit, but runs into Spike, who attacks and skins the cat alive (off-screen).

In the final scene, Tom has literally been skinned alive, and he is wearing a barrel to cover his lack of fur. While standing outside the gate, having been assigned by Spike to guard them with a baseball bat, he looks through the keyhole to see his fur being used as a snug rug by a sleeping Spike, Tyke and Jerry, who hangs a DO NOT DISTURB sign over Spike's ear.

The Cat and the Mermouse

STORY

Tom's relaxation at the beach is interrupted by Jerry who inadvertently walks all over a sunbathing Tom going fishing. Jerry falls into Tom's mouth and while escaping, nearly causes Tom to swallow his beach towel. Jerry goes out to the pier and casts his favorite bait: cheese. Tom pulls on the line and makes Jerry reel him in. Jerry lets go of the line and Tom struggles to stay afloat, losing the string. Tom barely catches the pier, but Jerry swings the pole at him. After a few misses, Jerry whistles and then lands a direct hit. He runs to the end of the pier and pulls off the end board. Tom can't brake, and walks the plank until Jerry pulls it out, causing Tom to fall into the water and without emerging.

A drowning Tom wakes up on the sea bed, where he finds himself still alive. He starts imitating the majestic sea creatures until he spots Jerry. The cat grabs him, but Jerry pulls away revealing that he has become a mer-mouse. Jerry swims in circles until Tom's head has done a 360, and is then grabbed again. Jerry slaps Tom face with his tail, then spins his ears in to the shape of a wrench. The cat gives chase through shipwreck windows until Tom hangs back to swallow the mouse. Jerry breaks out through Tom's left eardrum. Jerry hides and disguises himself as a seahorse in a school of six, fooling the cat for only a while. Jerry then gets lassoed and captured, but Tom gets tricked into holding a fishing line and is caught. Tom escapes and chases Jerry into another shipwreck, but Jerry closes the door on him. The anchor of the ship lands on Tom. He emerges with chain rings on his ears and neck.

Jerry steals away, but cannot brake in time to avoid a swordfish. Jerry swims back the way he came, and sees Tom with a spade ready to strike. Tom misses Jerry and whacks the swordfish's horn. Tom returns it to its proper shape, but is pursued instead. Tom hides in a barrel until Jerry signals the swordfish with red circles in form of a target around the hole in the barrel. Tom is pursued again after being impaled in the rear. Tom ducks and narrowly missed being impaled in the head as the swordfish thrusts its blade into a pole. Tom hammers down the blade on the other side of the pole so that the swordfish cannot escape. Free of this worry, Tom returns to chasing Jerry, who has woken up an octopus. Jerry hides and Tom stands vigil. As Jerry sets out, he is poked in the back. Then Tom is poked in the back. Tom attempts to run from the octopus, but is held fast by first one, then two, then three tentacles. Seeing this, Jerry is moved to indignation, plainly viewing the octopus as too cruel a fate for Tom. He seizes Tom first by the paws and then, when his grip slips, the whiskers in a deadly tug-of-war against the octopus. Tom is tugged helplessly back and forth as the tussle goes first one way then the other. Tom wakes and finds that he is back on the jetty, revealing the whole thing to be a dream. Jerry rescued Tom from the water after he fell in and is applying artificial respiration in the same rhythm as in the struggle during the final moments of Tom's dream. Tom thankfully shakes Jerry's hand and happily submits to further removal of the water from his lungs.

Heavenly Puss

STORY

A typically violent chase begins between Tom and Jerry. Tom loosens the carpet and pulls it down, along with it a large upright piano. With no time to react, Tom is squished to death by the piano. Tom's spirit rises and climbs the golden escalator of Heaven to the golden gates of the "Heavenly Express", a train that sends dead cats to heaven. At the gatekeeper's desk, cats are waiting. The first one, Butch, had lost a fight with a bulldog (possibly Spike), Frankie, struck with flat iron whilst singing on a backyard fence, Alosius, ran over by a steamroller and Fluff, Muff and Puff, thrown into a river and drowned ("What some people won't do..."). Unfortunately for Tom, the gatekeeper refuses to let him enter because he has persecuted Jerry all his life. But since the Heavenly Express doesn't leave for an hour, he is given a certificate of forgiveness for Jerry to sign. He will be allowed through if Jerry signs it, but if he doesn't, Tom will be banished to Hell, where Spike, personified as the devil, awaits.

Tom comes back to life and pleads with Jerry to sign. First he brings cake but Jerry eats the cake and spills ink on Tom's face. Then Tom tries to forge Jerry's signature, but the angel won't let him. Tom brings cheese but during his protests, Jerry thinks it's a scam and angrily rips the certificate, causing an angry Tom to attempt to smash Jerry. Spike pops in and reminds Tom of the consequence of doing so, tempting him to finish the job ("Attaboy, Tom! Hit him and let's go! Come on!"). Tom reattaches all the ripped pieces of the certificate, but Tom misses the deadline. Jerry then signs, and Tom frantically tries to climb the stairs but they fade away and Tom falls into a hole that leads directly to Hell With A SPLASH! where he will be tortured by Spike for all eternity.

Tom awakens when an ember from the fireplace lands on top of him. He sees that he is alive and that it was just a bad dream. Having learned his lesson, he runs over to Jerry and hugs him profusely. An utterly perplexed Jerry shrugs.

Hatch Up Your Troubles

STORY

Hatch Up Your Troubles begins with a mother woodpecker leaving her nest for a brief lunch. The egg that she was nesting jumps up in her absence and falls to the ground, rolling into Jerry's mousehole and into his bed. Jerry wakes up to find himself sitting on the egg, which begins to hatch. Out comes a baby woodpecker who instantly takes to Jerry as his mother. The adorable, but naturally peckish woodpecker cannot resist pecking away at Jerry's furniture.

Jerry returns the woodpecker to his nest, but the little bird follows Jerry back to his hole. Eventually, Jerry gives up on the woodpecker and orders him out. With nowhere to go, the despondent baby woodpecker wanders around the garden, where he comes across an unsuspecting Tom, who is sitting in a deckchair, drinking and reading a magazine. The woodpecker carelessly pecks slightly at the deckchair's leg. An irritated Tom pours his drink onto the woodpecker, who then proceeds to peck through the entire leg of the deckchair, causing it to fold up with Tom still sitting on it.

Mayhem ensues. Tom begins to chase the bird, who screeches "Mama! Mama! Mama! Mama!" Jerry emerges from his mousehole and decides to intervene, stopping Tom with a rake. However Tom manages to grab hold of the rake, trapping Jerry in the process, who cannot run away. The woodpecker pecks off the end of the rake, allowing Jerry to run off, and sending Tom hurtling backwards into a mailbox. Tom hurls the long remainder of the rake handle at Jerry and the bird, but the bird quickly pecks it down to a stub. In the ensuing chase, Tom swallows the bird. The bird pecks deep inside Tom's stomach, which vibrates violently. Tom drinks from a bucket of water, only for the water to seep out through tiny holes in his body. Jerry knocked Tom's tail and the woodpecker eventually pecks his way out through Tom's teeth, and as Jerry runs off, he runs straight into an axe and is knocked out cold. As Tom attempts to disembowel Jerry, the woodpecker continually pecks at the cat's head. Tom grabs the woodpecker in his hand and corks his beak, rendering the woodpecker useless at attacking him. Tom then ties the woodpecker to a telegraph pole. However, the woodpecker manages to free himself, and noticing that Jerry has very little time to escape, quickly performs a complicated calculation in order to stop Tom and rescue Jerry. He pecks the post and Tom almost gets Jerry, but the falling telegraph pole lands on Tom's head, bouncing repeatedly and hammering him into the ground.

Jerry is thankful for the woodpecker's help. However, the mother woodpecker flies into the scene. The baby woodpecker realizes just who his mother is after all, and is whisked away by his mother. Jerry realizes that he will miss his avian companion more than he thought he would. Just then, the baby woodpecker flies back to Jerry, gives him a big kiss and flies away again, as Jerry waves him off happily.

The Little Orphan

STORY

The cartoon starts with Jerry reading a book whilst taking cheese from a mousetrap. Nibbles arrives and passes Jerry, before trying to take all the cheese from the trap. Jerry saves Nibbles in time. Jerry has been asked to take care of Nibbles over the Thanksgiving holiday. However, Nibbles is, as the note pinned to his scarf says, "always hungry." Jerry attempts to feed the little mouse with his own food, but his cupboards are empty. Quietly, he leads Nibbles out of the mousehole, and tiptoes into the living room, where Tom is sleeping beside a bowl of cream. Jerry allows Nibbles to drink the cream from the bowl, before spotting a turkey, which Mammy Two Shoes takes. Mammy puts the turkey on the table and leaves. Nibbles spots the feast too. Nibbles proceeds to eat certain foods from the table, while Jerry dresses himself and Nibbles as pilgrims, but the trouble begins when Nibbles swallows an orange whole. Jerry hits Nibbles with a knife to remove the orange. It shoots straight out of Nibbles' mouth and right into the sleeping Tom, waking him up.

After Tom's rude awakening, he spies on the two mice, and, wearing a feather duster as an Indian headdress, catches Nibbles. Jerry pops a champagne cork into Tom's face. Tom returns, grabbing Jerry. Nibbles takes a fork, and, propelled by a plate of jell-o, launches the fork into Tom's rear end. Tom picks up the offending fork and hurls it towards Nibbles, catching him by the diaper. As Tom catches Nibbles, Jerry runs up a nearby candlestick and whacks Tom in the face with a spoon.

Tom launches flaming pussy willows, melting Jerry and Nibbles' hiding places. As they flee, Jerry runs into a knife (sometimes shown as a fork instead) thrown by Tom, and is knocked out cold. Tom grabs Jerry once again. Nibbles catapults a pie into Tom's face, knocking the cat off the table. Nibbles slingshots a candle onto Tom's tail, burning the cat, such that he appears in blackface (see "Censorship" for information about this scene). Finally, Nibbles launches a champagne bottle like a missile, which hits Tom and shoots him into a cabinet. Tom finally surrenders.

In the final scene, Tom, Jerry and Nibbles say grace at the table. Nibbles finishes his prayers and proceeds to devour the entire turkey before Tom and Jerry are able to pick up their cutlery, leaving the little orphan with a full stomach.