Fraidy Cat (Tom and Jerry short)

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This article is about the Tom and Jerry episode. For other uses, see Fraidy Cat.

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Fraidy Cat
Tom and Jerry series
The title card of Fraidy Cat.
Directed by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Animation by	None credited
Music by	Scott Bradley (uncredited)
Produced by	Fred Quimby
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	January 17, 1942
Format	Technicolor, 8 min
Language	English
Preceded by	The Night Before Christmas
Followed by	Dog Trouble

Fraidy Cat is a 1942 animated cartoon short in the Tom and Jerry series, produced by Fred Quimby for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The fourth cartoon to be created featuring the cat and mouse duo, it was released in theaters on January 17, 1942.

The cartoon begins with Tom being frightened by a particularly scary radio show. Jerry overhears the show and notices how easily scared Tom becomes, leading to the rodent scaring the cat all the more, by creating a variety of spooky sounds and effects (through pulling down a curtain and letting it go and turning on the radiator), and later fashioning a ghost from a vacuum cleaner and a nightshirt. The vacuum cleaner nearly swallows Tom whole, along with all nine of his lives.

Tom gets the fright of his life in Fraidy Cat.

However, Tom begins to suspect Jerry's involvement, and in the ensuing chase, gets caught up in a terrible case of mistaken identity, biting his black housemaid Mammy Two-Shoes - who is wearing a similar nightshirt to the one that was attached to the vacuum cleaner - in the rear. At the end of the episode, however, Jerry himself ends up getting his just deserts. After hiding in a tin of flour to escape from Tom, he is frightened by seeing his own ghostly reflection.