The Yankee Doodle Mouse

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The Yankee Doodle Mouse Tom and Jerry series
The reissue title card of The Yankee Doodle Mouse, featuring the Academy Award Oscar
Directed by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Produced by	Fred Quimby
Story by	William Hanna (unc.) Joseph Barbera (unc.)
Music by	Scott Bradley
Animation by	Irven Spence Pete Burness Kenneth Muse George Gordon Jack Zander (unc.)
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	June 26, 1943
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7 min
Preceded by	The Lonesome Mouse
Followed by	Baby Puss
IMDb profile

The Yankee Doodle Mouse is a 1943 one-reel animated cartoon short subject in the Tom and Jerry series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on June 26, 1943 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. It was produced by Fred Quimby and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, with musical supervision by Scott Bradley and animation by Irven Spence, Pete Burness, Kenneth Muse and George Gordon. Jack Zander is uncredited.
The short features Tom and Jerry chasing each other in a pseudo-warfare style, making numerous references to World War II technology such as Jeeps and dive bombers. The Yankee Doodle Mouse won the 1944 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons, making it the first of seven Tom and Jerry cartoons to receive this distinction.

[edit] Plot

In a cellar, Jerry is pursued by Tom, rushing into his Cat Raid Shelter, or mousehole. Tom peers into the hole, in frustration. Jerry launches a tomato from a mousetrap, which goes splat into Tom's face. Jerry climbs up the wall and grabs a handful of Hen Grenades, or, to the uninitiated, eggs. As Tom wipes the tomato off his face, he is promptly covered in egg. Jerry reaches a case of champagnes and shoots off the corks, hitting Tom in the face and sending him into a tub of water, floating in a pot. Jerry launches a brick from a spatula, which crashes into the pot, sinking the cat. A communique reads "Sighted cat - sank same. Signed, Lt. Jerry Mouse."

Later on, Jerry observes Tom through a makeshift plumbing pipe acting as a periscope. Tom approaches Jerry's mousehole, mallet in hand. Jerry opens the ironing board cupboard, and the board wallops Tom. The mouse charges down the board in a makeshift jeep , (which is actually a cheese grater), tearing Tom's fur as the grater speeds past him. However, Jerry's jeep crashes into a wall, sending a sack of flour tumbling down. Jerry grabs the sack and runs across the room, with flour billowing out behind him, as a smokescreen. Tom can barely see through the thick smoke, and Jerry, who can see (as the flour begins just above his head), repeatedly smacks Tom in the rear with a board.

Tom, wearing a bowl for a helmet, throws a stick of dynamite towards Jerry, who immediately throws it back to Tom. The lit firecracker exchanges hands repeatedly until Jerry tricks Tom into wanting it. The cat snatches the dynamite back, proudly holding it in his hand, until it explodes. Jerry jumps into a kettle, which Tom approaches and throws another firecracker in. Jerry panics and escapes through the spout. Tom opens the kettle lid and sticks his entire head in. The explosive device goes off, leaving Tom in blackface, with a flower appearance.

Tom launches a paper airplane with a firecracker is hidden inside, but Jerry blows it back and it lands beneath Tom, exploding once again. Later, Jerry plants an enormous stick of dynamite behind Tom. Tom sees the bomb and screams. However, the firecracker splits into half, to reveal a smaller one, which peels away, and pops open harmlessly to reveal successively smaller sticks of dynamite, leaving behind a minuscule replica of the original firecracker. Tom picks it up, believing it to be harmless, but the dynamite explodes powerfully.

Jerry jumps into his plane, which is fashioned from a box. He drops a succession of light bulbs onto an unsuspecting Tom, which explode on his head. He then launches a banana torpedo into the cat's face. Tom grabs a firecracker launcher and skillfully shoots down Jerry's 'plane.' Jerry hurtles towards the floor, but then his parachute, a brassiere, opens up, and he floats down gently, but it fails when Tom shoots the brassiere and Jerry falls hardly to the ground. He races into his hole, and Tom pushes the cannon into the same hole, as the mortars chase after Jerry through the cellar, into a hose, which Jerry targets towards Tom, watching confidently from inside a barrel. The barrel explodes, leaving Tom riding the remaining parts of the exploded barrel as a bicycle, crashing into the wall.

Tom then fires a dart gun at Jerry, catching him by the tail as he attempts to dive into his mouse hole. Tom grabs Jerry and ties him to a rocket, which he lights up. However, Jerry ends up helping Tom to tie himself up. Jerry emerges from the ropes and waves to Tom as the rocket shoots up with a helpless Tom, and explodes in the air, provoking a set of fireworks overlooking the American flag. Jerry proudly salutes the flag, and we see another war communique: "Send more cats!"

[edit] Trivia

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• A clip from The Yankee Doodle Mouse was also used in the 1949 cartoon Jerry's Diary.
• This film, like many other Tom and Jerry cartoons, had its titles and credits replaced when it was reissued. In this case, the initial title card was replaced with a drawing of the Oscar award in the background. The original card is considered lost.
• Hen Grenades are a spoof of hand grenades, a standard weapon in most militaries.
• This episode, along with some others, was marked to be censored, as in a few scenes, a stick of dynamite would blow up on Tom's head, thus giving him blackface.
• This is one of the shorts where Tom thinks the original firecracker is harmless.