Salt Water Tabby
| Salt Water Tabby | |
|---|---|
| Tom and Jerry series | |
 reissue title card of this cartoon | |
| Directed by |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Produced by | Fred Quimby |
| Story by |
William Hanna (unc.) Joseph Barbera (unc.) |
| Music by | Scott Bradley |
| Animation by |
Ed Barge Michael Lah Kenneth Muse Ray Patterson (unc.) |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | July 12, 1947 |
| Color process | Technicolor |
| Running time | 7:04 |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse |
| Followed by | A Mouse in the House |
Salt Water Tabby is a 1947 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 31st Tom and Jerry short. It was produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on July 12, 1947 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. The cartoon was animated by Ed Barge, Michael Lah (who later directed Droopy cartoons) and Kenneth Muse, with uncredited animation by Ray Patterson. Salt Water Tabby was scored by Scott Bradley, produced by Fred Quimby, and directed and written by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The cartoon's title is a pun on salt water taffy, a type of candy, and the common tabby cat.
Plot
Tom is leaving a beach house with a long bathing suit and sandals. He gets his suit caught and is just about to dive into the ocean, but he snaps back and through the house door. Tom then runs back out toward the ocean, but dives in just as the water recedes and lands amid a bunch of garbage. Tom paddles through the "water", thinking he is swimming, and then walks across the beach knocking out cans from his suit. He stares at Toodles reading a book and wearing sunglasses, but is looking the wrong direction to avoid running into a trash can. The trash can converts into a slot machine, which turns up three lemons, sending Tom out of the can directly into her lap. He winks his eyebrows, and despite her obvious displeasure, eats her hot dog and drinks her soda. Tom reclines in her lap, pleased with his efforts (though she isn't), and a tomato and a banana peel proceed to land on him. Tom looks in the picnic basket as more food is thrown out of it and sees Jerry eating salami from some sandwiches, and then picking up an egg.
Tom threatens to slap the mouse with a flyswatter, but Jerry throws two eggs and two olives into Tom's eyes. Tom picks up Jerry on a piece of celery, and the mouse takes bites out of the celery and continues through the cat's hand. Tom yelps in pain, and Jerry runs away near some rocks. Tom tries to grab him away, but only succeeds in pulling out a crab, which grabs the cat's whiskers and pinches them off, leaving Tom to suffer from the recoil of his nose. Tom tries to run away, but the crab grabs his tail and snaps at it with its claw, turning it into a set of linked figures and doubling the pain. Tom then chases Jerry, in hope he will get revenge. However Jerry slides up a beach umbrella pole, with Tom standing next to him. Jerry signals for Tom to stop, only to have Jerry hit the umbrella switch. The umbrella then shuts over the two, with Jerry escapes by crawling under Tom. When Jerry tries to run away, he encounters the crab for himself. He runs back to the stuck cat and pulls up Tom's trouser leg to have the crab run straight under. The crab then sits on Tom's bum.Jerry runs away in delight as if he knows he has succeeded in getting rid of the two. The crab then lifts its claws and snaps on Tom's rear/bum several times. The cat jumped in pain lead by a yell, and then the peak of the umbrella digs in the sand so they are upside down. The crab was still resting on Tom's bum, and uses its claws to make a square flap infront. The flap drops to reveal the crab and Tom's exposed bottom. The crab looks both ways as if to look for Jerry then jumps out of the suit while Tom remains caught in the umbrella.
Later, Jerry grabs a bottle of soda out of the basket, and while lugging it around bumps himself on Tom's shin. Tom opens the bottle and slams the bottlecap on Jerry's head, who is now unable to see and eventually gropes himself towards the crab. Feeling the crab's claw, he uses it to remove the bottlecap, and now that it has recovered from the surprise, the crab then attempts to catch Jerry in its claw. The mouse escapes being caught and travels back to where Tom and Toodles are sharing sandwiches in order to disturb this situation. It is not known why they suddenly like each other. The only known reason is she saw what happened in the previous scene and felt sorry for Tom. Or she saw Tom stuck in the umbrella and seemed to like the look of Tom's bottom
Jerry sneaks a shell into the sandwich, causing Tom to shatter his teeth when he bites into it. Tom realises what has happened and turns the situation around by chuckling, then swallowing the shell and revealing his broken teeth, as if to say "Look at this!" Meanwhile, Tom is spooning sugar into a cup of coffee, and Jerry replaces the bowl of sugar with a bucket of sand, adding an entire shovel of sand for good measure. Tom gets a mouthful of sand and gags and spits everywhere, and Jerry then fills the bucket with seawater and "gratefully" gives it to the cat. The raging cat snatches the bucket and drinks it, but since it's salty, Tom spits the entire bucket out and as his misfortune would have it, into Toodles' face, effectively ending their short tryst (she doesn't appear again from this point onwards).
In revenge, Tom catches Jerry with the bucket, leaving a bucket-sized sand castle behind, then cuts it down with a small shovel. Seeing nothing, Tom digs into the sand and is buried by Jerry. The mouse pads down the sand and draws back the shovel, hitting Tom in the face with it when the cat emerges. Jerry hides in the picnic basket and Tom grabs a banana out of it, but Jerry has a piece of the banana on top of his head and tosses it into Tom's mouth. Tom wonders what happened to the rest of the banana, then spotting the mouse's trickery. Jerry again holds up his hand as if to say "Stop!" and closes the beach umbrella the second time. The mouse pops out of the umbrella and, unfortunately, gets stuck in the soda bottle seen earlier. Tom grabs the bottle, victorious, and shakes it, shooting the mouse into the ocean. Jerry pulls off a clam shell, then grabs seaweed and draws a face on a piece of wood on the shore. From behind the figurine, Jerry screams "HELP!" in a hoarse, high voice and slaps the water, as if the figurine is a drowning victim. Tom comes to the "rescue" and throws himself onto the figurine, then followed by a brief tidal wave, leaving an irate Tom with a large bump on his head after the tide recedes.
The cat sees Jerry smiling and chases after the mouse,and in response,Jerry releases the air out of an inflatable beach horse (similar to the one seen on the title card). As it hurtles towards the cat, Tom opens his mouth in fright and thus swallows it, sending Tom on a wild ride and out of his bathing suit. Tom flies everywhere on the beach, provoking Jerry to hide in the flap of Tom's bathing suit, (which the crab made earlier when Tom was stuck very tight in the Umbrella) as the cat speeds across the sand, and then flies into the air and falls all the way into the sand, busting open a pool. Water from the sea promptly fills up the hole and Tom emerges riding the horse...only to find that Jerry is sailing away with the picnic basket using it as a boat' and his swimming suit like a sail, accompanied by the tune of Aloha Oe.
Censorship
The appearance of Toodles Galore was cut on MBC 3.