The Zoot Cat

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Zoot Cat
Tom and Jerry series
The title card of The Zoot Cat
Directed by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Animation by	Kenneth Muse Ray Patterson Irven Spence Pete Burness
Music by	Scott Bradley
Produced by	Fred Quimby
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	February 26, 1944
Format	Technicolor, 7 min.
Language	English
Preceded by	Baby Puss
Followed by	The Million Dollar Cat
IMDb page

The Zoot Cat is an animated cartoon short subject, starring Tom & Jerry. It was produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on February 26, 1944 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.

[edit] Plot

The cartoon opens with a Valentine note that reads:

Roses are red
Violets are Blue
Mice are Nice
But, OH You Kid

There is a pink ribbon tied to the card and the ribbon is tied to Jerry who is in a gift box. Meanwhile Tom is getting ready for a date with his whiskers in curlers and putting lard on the top of his head. He puts a little cologne on and even puts some on Jerry and then closes the box on him. He then proudly marches over to his female friends' house.

Tom knocks on the door and rings the doorbell. Tom even yells out, "Yoo hoo! Hey Toots!" Tom then drops the box and hides behind a pillar on the porch. The female cat opens the door and opens the box. She smiles when she sees Jerry and he says, "What's cooking, toots?" Tom then whistles to get her attention and he comes out of his hiding place. He produces a ukelele and plays a small song. Tom twists a yo-yo string into the words, "Hi Babe", does a little dance and brings out a bouquet of flowers. On the last step of the dance a loose floorboard hits Tom in the face. This causes a bit of embarrassment for Tom.

The female cat responds by saying (while Jerry nods to all of her words in agreement), "Boy, are you corny? You act like a square at the fair, a goon from Saskatoon. You come on like a broken arm. You're a sad apple, a long hair, a cornhusker. In other words, you don't send me. So bail out, brother. Get lost. And here's your rat, cat."

She then throws the box back at Tom. Jerry then grabs an ear of corn and puts in it front of Tom and runs away, starting a chase. The chase ends as Jerry runs through an opening in a gate and Tom crashes into it. Tom then hears a voice saying, "Boy are you corny. How many times have you been told that?" Tom then looks in the window and sees the female cat listening to the radio and painting her nails. The radio continues with, "How many girls have said, 'No, Horace, I can only be a sister to you?' Get your boots laced, buddy. Get hep to the jive. Step in and see smiling Sam, the zoot suit man. Step out with a zoot suit, with a drape shape and a reet pleat. Wear an ankle length jacket with 3 foot shoulders, pants that begin at the chin, zoom to a 54 inch knee, then fade softly to a 3 inch victory cuff. Get hep. Get one. Get lost in a new zoot suit."

This gives Tom a great idea, if he wears a zoot suit, he'll be cool in the eyes of his beau. So he steals a pair of scissors, and a lampshade and fashions his own zoot suit from an orange and green hammock.

He knocks on the door again and the girl cat is very shocked to see Tom. Tom responds with, "What's jumping, chick?" Jerry reappears and he can't believe what Tom has done. Tom then lights a cigar which causes the girl cat to exclaim, "You're really a sharp character! A mellow little fellow. Now you collar my jive. You're on the right side, you alligator, you. Slip me some skin, my friend." As she is complimenting him, Tom is showing off his suit. A coat hanger is stuck in the back of his jacket and the chain around his neck is a bathtub plug. She invites Tom into the house. Tom replies, "Well, all reet, well, all root, well, all right." She then asks, "Let's dig a little righteous jive. Do you hear me?" They start to jive dance and even Jerry dances along too.

Tom then realizes that Jerry has cut in the dancing and Jerry runs over to an ashtray where there is a lit cigarette. Jerry then takes a puff of it, blows smoke in Tom's face and puts the cigarette out with Tom's nose. This causes Tom to scream. The female cat is still dancing and Tom returns to her. Jerry then peels a banana and throws the peel on the floor causing Tom to slip. But he lands near the piano and he starts to play for her. He then becomes a suave romantic saying, "I love you. When I'm with you, I'm what you call a hep cat. I am hep to the jive. I'm in the groove, darling." The girl cat replies, "Now you're really sending me, Jackson." Tom then winks to the camera and says to her, "You set my soul on fire," in a Charles Boyer-esque voice. Then we see Jerry placing matches in Tom's feet. Tom continues by saying, "It is not just a little spark. It is a flame, a big roaring flame." Jerry then lights the matches. Tom says, "I can feel it burning, burning, burning." He pauses and says in a normal voice, "Hey something is burning around here." He realizes his feet are on fire and screams.

Jerry runs away and opens a floor panel. Tom runs around the corner and falls all the way down to the basement. Jerry then starts to dance with the girl cat and Tom has returned with a chimney shovel. He tries to hit Jerry but misses and Jerry ends up hitting Tom. Jerry runs and hides behind a table leg and ends up tripping Tom. Jerry then runs under the couch with Tom well behind. He then clips the windowshade to the hanger in Tom's jacket. Jerry has run back to the table and the windowshade tries to pull Tom back. Tom grabs the table, but Jerry hits his hands with the shovel and the shade pulls Tom back and ends up in the fishbowl. Tom is then left hanging on the shade and his wet zoot suit shrinks and falls off. The zoot lands near Jerry and it is a perfect fit for him. Jerry then walks away with his brand new zoot suit.

[edit] Trivia

The song playing in the beginning of the cartoon is called "You Got To See Mama Everynight"

The song playing during the dance sequence is called "China Boy"

This is one of the rare cartoons where the characters speak. Sara Berner did the voice for Jerry and the girl cat. She is known to do the mama vulture character in Bugs Bunny cartoons.