The Two Mouseketeers
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| The Two Mouseketeers | |
| Tom and Jerry series | |
 The title card of The Two Mouseketeers |
|
| Directed by | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
|---|---|
| Story by | William Hanna (unc.) Joseph Barbera (unc.) |
| Animation by | Ed Barge Kenneth Muse Irven Spence |
| Music by | Scott Bradley |
| Produced by | Fred Quimby |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date | March 15, 1952 |
| Format | Technicolor, 7 min |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | The Duck Doctor |
| Followed by | Smitten Kitten |
| IMDb page | |
The Two Mouseketeers is a one-reel animated cartoon short subject in the Tom and Jerry series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on March 15, 1952 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. It was produced by Fred Quimby and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, with musical supervision by Scott Bradley. The cartoon was animated by Ed Barge, Kenneth Muse and Irven Spence. The Two Mouseketeers won the 1951 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons. Such was the cartoon's success, that Hanna and Barbera created a total of four adventures in the 'Mouseketeers' series, the second of the quartet, 1954's Touché, Pussy Cat! also getting an Oscar nomination (though unlike The Two Mouseketeers, it did not win the award).
In the cartoon, Jerry and Nibbles are two mouseketeers who decide to help themselves to a lavish banquet, which Tom is attempting to guard. It is the first in a series of Mouseketeer shorts, but was originally intended as a one-off. It is conceptually similar to 1948's The Little Orphan except instead of Indians VS. Pilgrims, this is a battle between a guard and the King's Mouseketeers. Tom is commanded to guard a lavish banquet from the King's Mouseketeers with his very life. Failure to do so, and "off comes ze head." Jerry and Nibbles enter the castle hall through a stained glass window and parachute down to the table. They unsuspectingly catch Tom's attention by hitting the cat in the face with a champagne cork.
Later, Nibbles is singing Alouette to himself, when Tom emerges behind him and pokes him with his sword. The little mouse yells angrily "Hey, attention-la! Vous pourriez faire mal a quelqu'un, Monsieur pusscyat! Au secours! Au secours! Le pussycat!" (Hey! Watch it! You could hurt someone with that, Mister Pussycat. Help! Help! The pussycat!) Before Nibbles can get away, Tom impales the little mouse's cape to his sword. Jerry manages to stab Tom and rescue Nibbles, launching a swashbuckling fencing display against Tom. While this goes on, Nibbles brings along a cannon and stuffs it completely full with food, in fact, everything that is on the banquet table. He lights the cannon and it explodes. As the smoke disappears, we see Jerry and Nibbles walking triumphantly down the street. Suddenly, in an unusually morbid ending, they see a guillotine coming down, strongly suggesting that Tom was actually executed, though off-screen. Nibbles sighs "Pauvre, pauvre, pussycat," (Poor, poor pussycat) and shrugs "C'est la guerre." (It's war.) The two Mouseketeers march off into the distance.
