Little Runaway
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| Little Runaway
Tom and Jerry series |
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|---|---|
 The title card of Little Runaway |
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| Directed by | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Produced by | Fred Quimby |
| Story by | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Music by | Scott Bradley |
| Animation by | Ed Barge Kenneth Muse Irven Spence Ray Patterson |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | June 14, 1952 |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 7 min 04 secs |
| Preceded by | Triplet Trouble |
| Followed by | Fit to Be Tied |
| IMDb profile | |
Little Runaway is a 1952 Tom and Jerry cartoon directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. It was animated by the usual team of animators who worked under Hanna and Barbera, credited to Ed Barge, Kenneth Muse, Irven Spence and Ray Patterson. As with the majority of Tom and Jerry cartoons, Robert Gentle created the backgrounds, and Scott Bradley composed the music.
[edit] Plot
A baby seal cuts his way out of his cage while the owners are sleeping and makes his way to Tom and Jerry's house. Jerry is going out to the pool on a beautiful day and dives into the pool, but hits his head on the seal, who is hiding there. The seal then hops out and says in seal language, I am a seal. I ran away from the circus. They make me blow horns like this: (The seal plays a little tune.) He says Will you help me? Jerry nods his head. The seal shakes his hand and says, Thanks! He then asks Jerry, Can you spare a fish? Jerry is puzzled for a second, but soon remembers where he can find one.
Jerry takes a sleeping Tom's fish, but Tom wakes up before he can get away. Jerry hides behind the fish and does a little dance with it, then waltzes away. Tom whistles for several encores and makes the fish bow, then reveals himself and takes a bow himself. Tom gives chase. Jerry tosses the fish into the pool, on top of the seal's head. The seal moves the fish around the pool, but Tom snatches it. He looks away and then the seal gobbles it. Tom starts to walk away, but sees his fish is missing and spots Jerry laughing himself silly. Tom pursues and catches Jerry, but the seal spins him and tosses him into a birdbath, where the top falls on him and vibrates in the caricature of a Chinese Buddhist monk. (This segment is often not shown on Cartoon Network; they only show Tom being hit by the top of the birdbath.)
The seal and Jerry walk away, but a news report comes on the radio detailing the seal's escape and the $10,000 reward for anyone who returns the seal. Tom is too fast for the seal and catches it. Jerry comes up with a bag and Tom puts the seal in it, intending to take the seal back himself, but Jerry fools him by taking the bag and saluting. Tom falls for it for a few seconds, but then chases after Jerry. He hides the seal and drapes the bag over a fire hydrant, which Tom runs at and ends up breaking himself into 20 pieces.
The seal runs up a water pipe to hide himself and is pursued by Tom. The seal and Tom each grab a nearby power line and pirouette through the air. The seal succeeds in reaching a distant power pole, but Tom hits one of the other poles and is crushed between the remaining sections of pole.
The little seal then tightrope-walks across the wire, and Tom uses a tricycle with a balancing rod. The seal ties the three power lines together such that Tom's tricycle splits into three and is only riding one wheel, which slows him down. Both of them dive into a glass of water, but only the seal can get out once he is in; Tom is much too big and gets stuck.
Tom then cuts up a tire and covers himself in black rubber so as to look like a large seal. The little seal and Jerry are playing catch and Tom jumps on top of Jerry and continues the game, but then throws the ball away to distract the seal. Tom covers up a knocked-out Jerry and runs off. Jerry revives and digs out. Tom is playing catch again with the little seal and then bounces away. The little seal follows. Before he can get to Tom, upon which he would have been captured, a circus worker catches Tom in a net and, thinking he's a seal, uses him for the following acts. Tom is forced to play Yankee Doodle on the horns. Tom receives thunderous applause, but gets a fish thrown into his mouth as the cartoon ends.
[edit] Notes
- The segment where Tom looks like a buddhist monk, due to the result of the seal tossing him into the birdbath, is often cut from TV due to racial sensativities.
