Tennis Chumps

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Tennis Chumps

Tom and Jerry series


The title card of Tennis Chumps
Directed by William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Produced by Fred Quimby
Story by William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Music by Scott Bradley
Animation by Ray Patterson
Irven Spence
Ed Barge
Kenneth Muse
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) December 10, 1949
Color process Technicolor
Running time 6 min 49 secs
Preceded by Jerry's Diary
Followed by Little Quacker
IMDb profile

Tennis Chumps is a 1949 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon featuring Tom and Jerry. It was directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and produced by Fred Quimby. The cartoon's music was scored by Scott Bradley, and the footage was animated by Ray Patterson, Irven Spence, Ed Barge and Kenneth Muse.

[edit] Plot

The cartoon opens with Tom emerging from a locker room at a tennis court. His entrance is interrupted by a black cat named Butch. Butch slams the door into Tom causing him to look like an Egyptian hieroglyphic. Jerry then comes out from the locker room with Tom's tennis equipment. Jerry hands Tom his racquet and a tennis ball, and a match between Tom and Butch begins. Tom dismisses Jerry by hitting him into the locker room wall and he ends up landing in the drinking fountain. Tom serves the ball and Butch returns it to him. Butch hits the ball so hard that it causes Tom's racket to burst into flame. Tom grabs another racket and serves three balls to Butch. Butch then splits his racket into three and returns all three balls back to Tom. Tom ends up swallowing all these balls and they settle into his tail.

By the cartoon's end, Jerry is victorious, happy and glorious.
By the cartoon's end, Jerry is victorious, happy and glorious.

Tom's next serves 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 scrambles to return it after the ball comes out of the ground. Tom stretches 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 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 then tries to help out by handing Tom a small white bomb which looks like a tennis ball. 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. Jerry then removes a round, white piece of a gate that resembles a tennis ball. It is heavy and Jerry winks at Butch. Butch winks back and serves the heavy ball to Tom. 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 Tom goes to hit Jerry with his tennis racquet. He ends up hitting Butch instead. 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, Butch runs through a chain link fence to return a shot by Jerry, and Jerry ends up moving 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 a tennis machine, firing tennis balls at both cats. The rapid fire of tennis ball force both cats into the net and they get sling shot out into a tree.

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.

[edit] Censorship

  • The Boomerang channel in the UK cuts out when Butch smokes a cigar.[1]