The Brothers Carry-Mouse-Off

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The Brothers Carry-Mouse-Off

Tom and Jerry series


Title card of The Brothers Carry-Mouse-Off
Directed by Jim Pabian
Co-directed by Maurice Noble
Produced by Chuck Jones
Executive producer was Earl Jonas
Story by Chuck Jones
Jim Pabian
Voices by Mel Blanc
Music by Eugene Poddany
Animation by Tom Ray
Dick Thompson
Ben Washam
Ken Harris
Don Towsley
Studio Sib-Tower 12 Productions
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s) 1965
Color process Metrocolor
Running time 6 minutes 27 seconds
Preceded by Bad Day at Cat Rock
Followed by Haunted Mouse
IMDb profile

The Brothers Carry-Mouse-Off is a 1965 Tom and Jerry cartoon (though the cartoon's year of copyright is actually 1966). The cartoon was directed by Jim Pabian, with animation by Tom Ray, Dick Thompson, Ben Washam, Ken Harris and Don Towsley. Eugene Poddany scored the music, while Maurice Noble provided layouts, and Robert Gribbroek did the backgrounds. The title, The Brothers Carry-Mouse-Off is a parody of the title of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov, published in 1880.

[edit] Plot

Jerry is relaxing in a beach chair reading a book. He turns on some Latin music.

The camera zooms out to reveal Jerry has incorporated a radar system, a chair, a pool, and a tree. Jerry's radar goes crazy and an outline of a cat appears in the screen. He is fairly sure that it is Tom, but spies on him approaching his mousehole. Jerry presses a red button next to the radio which causes the entire patio to fold into the floor and hides in his mousehole.

Tom creeps up with a box and peers into Jerry's hole, then sets out various food items as traps for Jerry. Jerry exits his hole without being seen, though Tom feels something on his head when Jerry perches on it. Jerry sweeps up all the food with a fishing line that has a plunger attached after Tom has laid it out and dumps it back in the box without being spotted. Tom feels his head and Jerry dances out of the way. He suspects nothing, so he deals out all the food a second time, and this time taps a nail into each one. Jerry merely attracts them all with a magnet. Jerry then dashes away as Tom is aghast to discover the food missing again. Then, he spots the mouse running away and shoots the plunger like an arrow at Jerry and he captures the mouse. Jerry pulls a diminutive hammer out of the food. Tom laughs and sits down without resistance, knowing this will not hurt him. However, the hammer opens to reveal a larger hammer, then a larger hammer, then four more bigger hammers. Jerry whacks the cat and he is shown to be shaking akin to Jell-O. Jerry prances past and soon Tom recovers enough to chase him. Tom leaps in front of Jerry's hole and rolls out his tongue. Jerry is caught, but fights against the tongue so hard that he escapes and Tom's tongue rolls back into his mouth, twisting the cat into a roll with his tail hanging out. Jerry pulls Tom's tail and uses him as a "welcome" mat. Tom glides and jumps over the ground in order to pursue the mouse because he is still flat. Tom spots a fireplace blower and tries to inflate himself before Jerry turns up, disguised as a bearded old mouse. He offers to do the job for him, and Tom is fooled into accepting. Jerry pumps Tom up enough to send him whooshing around the room and into a bunch of furniture. Tom tiptoes out of the pile of broken furniture and removes a goldfish bowl from his head, then realizes the goldfish itself is in his mouth. He kicks it away with his toe.

Tom dashes after the double-crossing Jerry and chases him up the steps. Jerry allows himself to be seen entering a doorway and then closing the door. He successfully gets Tom to run forwards at it at great speed, and then opens the door with a "go ahead" gesture to reveal nothing but air below. Tom's face melts and he just manages to brake before falling off, but Jerry snaps his fingers and Tom loses balance and plummets. Tom sticks like a carrot in the ground and a bump forms on his head such that Tom is raised 6 inches.

Tom then has an idea. He runs up to the attic and squirts himself with Eau de Mouse perfume in order to lure Jerry. Tom plays a small guitar as he prances out to the living room. Jerry smells the perfume as he is relaxing in his indoor patio and dashes to Tom and starts kissing him. However, Tom ends up attracting a whole group of mice who argue among each other over who should get him. As they fight, Tom runs outside. He hides behind a trash can and tries to escape from the mouse costume, and he gets seen by several hungry cats, who chase Tom. Jerry watches and the camera zooms to the left and zooms in on a heart carved into the tree the mouse is sitting on.