Triplet Trouble

Triplet Trouble is a 1952 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 67th Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. It was animated by the usual team of Ray Patterson, Ed Barge, Kenneth Muse and Irven Spence, and the music was scored by Scott Bradley.

Synopsis

Tom and Jerry are playing a paddle-string ball, when the doorbell buzzes. Mammy Two Shoes answers the door while Tom and Jerry hide in a drawer. Mammy has adopted "three little fluffy kittens". Mammy calls Tom into the living room, but as the maid turns her back, the trio show their true colours and prepare to attack her using a lit match placed in her slipper, a firework placed in the bow of her apron and a slingshot aimed directly at her ample backside. Before they can pull it off, they hide the paraphernalia because Mammy turns around and Tom is in the living room. Mammy tells Tom that he is to take care of them while she runs an errand, but when Tom turns his back, the kittens take the slingshot, match and firework, attack Tom, and make it look like they were the ones attacked by planting a knife on Tom and appearing knocked out. Mammy is angry and slaps Tom with a broom. She issues an ultimatum that if Tom isn't a good care-provider in her absence, she will "pulverize" him to pieces. Mammy then leaves. Tom makes sure she's gone before attempting to harm the kittens, but they play good for a period of time until Butch Jr. and Topsy Jr. put Tom on roller skates and slam him into the upper half of a 2-section door, which Lightning Jr. closes and smacks Tom flat.

Jerry pokes his head out of the drawer as the cats hide in a green suit. They point in a far direction before Tom sees he's been fooled. Tom pulls all the cats out and they continue to let themselves be pulled out in sequence until Lightning Jr. substitutes Tom's tail for himself. Tom flips over and hits his head. Jerry watches and laughs, but hides when Tom comes along and shows himself to the three kittens. He directs them to Tom, but the three kittens surround him and make evil faces. Jerry laughs at what they did to Tom before he realises they want to catch him and gulps. He dives into the drawer and is followed by all three kittens. Jerry leads the way while Butch Jr. keeps a rein on him. He lets go of Jerry and flattens him over a grate in the floor, making Jerry look like a waffle.

While Tom watches the chase, Lightning Jr. blocks Jerry's entry to his hole with a glass pane and then lets him through such that he is caught in a grinder by Topsy Jr., which shapes him into a hot dog. Butch Jr. stuffs him into a sandwich, and Lightning Jr. slaps mustard on it and bites into it, but Jerry escapes out a window. Tom laughs at the cats' failure, but Topsy Jr. aims an umbrella into Tom's mouth. The three cats are chased by Tom, but they stop him and slam him against the ceiling. Lightning Jr. and Butch Jr. revive him and offer a handshake. Tom gladly obliges, but his third handshake is from Butch Jr.: it's not his hand, but a window curtain. Tom is thrown outside of the house. Then, Tom and Jerry team up to get revenge against the kittens for good.

Tom has the serving cart in closet, loaded with three pies and a watermelon. Next Jerry lures the kittens by drinking up their milk from their bowl and then spitting it in the kittens' faces. The kittens get annoyed and start to chase Jerry. Then, Tom cut the string and his cart slides down. Tom and Jerry and chase The kittens all through the house. The chased team hide themselves behind the sofa, then Jerry whistles and the three get pied. Then Tom flies out of the window and turns around to enter through the other side. The kittens chase Jerry, but Tom returns in time and throws the watermelon at them, causing Lightning Jr. to swallow it. Tom scoops up the kittens in the cart's bottom and he drops them down near a clothesline, and Jerry prepares a carpet beater and Jerry spanks them and twirls the clothesline. Then Tom got off the cart with some paper sheets, scissors and string to make angel wings and puts them on the kittens as a final humiliation. Then Mammy returns with a bottle of cream. She looks for the kittens. But then she hears some smacks and sees red bottoms on all 3 kittens and angel wings on their backs as if to say " Here are your little angels.".