| O-Solar Meow | |
|---|---|
| Tom and Jerry series | |
O-Solar Meow title card |
|
| Directed by | Abe Levitow |
| Produced by | Chuck Jones |
| Story by | John W. Dunn |
| Music by | Eugene Poddany |
| Animation by | Ben Washam Ken Harris Don Towsley Dick Thompson |
| Studio | Sib Tower 12 Productions |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | 1967 |
| Color process | Metrocolor |
| Running time | 6' 46" |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Cat and Dupli-cat |
| Followed by | Guided Mouse-ille |
O-Solar Meow is a 1967 cartoon featuring Tom and Jerry. It was the first of three outer space-related shorts to be released in the Chuck Jones era (though the second of the three to be produced, according to the MPAA code seen in the opening credits). Also according to the MPAA code and not episode number, this Tom and Jerry cartoon is the last one to feature music from Eugene Poddany (both regarding in its entirety, and regarding the Sib Tower 12/Chuck Jones Tom and Jerry cartoons). The cartoon was produced by Chuck Jones and directed by Abe Levitow. The animation was supplied by Ken Harris, Don Towsley, Tom Ray, Dick Thompson and Ben Washam. The title of the cartoon is a play-on-words of the popular Italian song "'O Sole Mio."
A (comparatively) small white ball labeled Supply Satellite No.1 is hit with a very strong spring and shot into space. It falls into a groove running along the outer edge of Space Station No.1 and moves around like a ball in a roulette wheel, after which the station appears to be designed, until it comes to rest on number 36. Immediately, "baggage" is deposited out of a machine and one of the packages is a large hunk of cheese, which attracts Jerry. He gets in his Space Age vehicle and goes after what he saw on his monitor, but soon breaks a beam without even noticing. This beam sets off a rocket, which then sets off a Rube Goldberg contraption in order to alert the resident cat on duty - Tom. Tom is thrown into his work chair in front of his surveillance monitor and woken up with a stream of water. Tom wakes up, and seeing Jerry in his cheese-vehicle, signals his robot cat to go after it.
The robot cat chases Jerry and attempts to chomp on Jerry's vehicle, but Jerry leaves a stream of exhaust in the robot's mouth causing it to cough repeatedly. Jerry speeds past Tom and Tom moves his chair to the left, but is soon dragged along on the chase by his robot. Tom remotely stops the robot and cruises along the floor without even paying any attention to what is in front of him. He runs into a nearby wall and is temporarily knocked out. Tom then runs up to his robot, turns it around, and kicks it. As a result, all three of Tom's right toes swell red and Tom is left to clutch his foot and hop around in pain.
Tom is then shown testing out a new incisive laser machine. He tests it out on a safe and a glass water container, which both slice cleanly in half. Tom then cuts out a large portion of the wall containing Jerry's hole, causing the mouse to walk out in bewilderment. He suffers a near miss from the laser and Jerry puts on his jetpack and blinds the cat with its smoke. Tom then chases Jerry and the mouse cuts him in two with the laser beam. Jerry is hovering in the air and Tom jumps at the mouse, without success, until he realizes he's in two pieces and then, embarrassed, checks himself into the nearby medical facility.
Tom then puts on an Ajax Flying Belt, but it repeatedly backfires on him: It slips to his feet and drags him by the feet, and then flips over and carries him through the air as if he was being hung by the feet. Tom runs into another wall and then is shown being dragged across the ground by his ankles and then returning to being hung by the feet. Tom blocks the air flow, but soon suffers under gravity. The cat points the jet stream down and floats in the air next to Jerry, who starts laughing at him. Tom bites at the mouse and then starts chasing him, but instead of biting the mouse on the second try, he bites a pipe and spins around again in an exercise wheel. But Jerry stops the spinning with a rod and the cat falls down, with a "BONK!".
Jerry is then shown cruising through the air, and then spots Tom behind him. He continues on his course, but pulls up just in front of a fast-rotating fan, leaving Tom to fall into the duct and be shredded. Tom falls out of the duct and has a striped appearance. The belt starts flying by itself in the air until Tom squirts it with gas and stops the belt from working again.
The wheel of cheese is then shown being propelled through the air. Jerry is inside, about to dine on a tiny bit of cheese, when Tom shoots a harpoon into the wheel and pins it to a wall. Jerry finds himself looking down the barrel of a gun and is forced to surrender. Tom places him inside a large, powerful cannon and fires it, sending Jerry to the Cheese Moon, which is shown to contain large quantities of cheese. Tom celebrates by shooting off his gun everywhere. It is then revealed to create holes in anything it hits, puncturing the hull of the space station and causing it to lose air.
Tom is then shown being pressed into patching up the holes he has made and re-inflating the space station as an angry space police officer (resembling Moe Howard from The Three Stooges) points a large gun at Tom, a bigger version of the gun Tom used to hold up Jerry. Meanwhile, Jerry is enjoying himself on the Moon, which is shown to contain large quantities of cheese because the Moon is made of green cheese.