Mouse Trouble

Plot

Tom opens a delivered box and finds a book on how to catch mice and for the rest of the cartoon, he takes its advice to attempt to catch Jerry.

The first thing the book suggests is to locate the mouse. Tom locates the mouse reading the book with him, but when he tries to grab Jerry, the mouse steps off the book and slams Tom's nose in it.

Tom sets out a simple mouse trap. Jerry, however, succeeds in freeing the cheese without setting the trap off. Shocked at the trap's failure, Tom tests it, and the trap snaps as soon as he touches it. Tom then sets a snare trap around a piece of cheese and gets ready to pull the string but is distracted by a bowl of cream substituted for the cheese by Jerry. Jerry activates the trap, sending the cat out to the tree himself.

Practicing the "A Curious Mouse is Easy to Catch" chapter, while Tom is reading the book and guffaws, Jerry curiously ventures out of his hole and is slammed into the book. But when Tom grabs him, Jerry pulls the same trick on him with his fists, punching Tom in the eye. Tom corners Jerry and is about to pounce him, but Jerry fights back and beats Tom. Bruised and battered, Tom drones "Don't you believe it!" - a cultural reference to the distinctive jingle on the 1940s radio show Don't You Believe it!

At this point, Tom stops reading from chapter-to-chapter and tries suggestions he thinks will work. Upon reading Chapter VII: "Be scientific in your approach", Tom uses a stethoscope to listen for Jerry within the walls of the house. This backfires when Jerry screams into the microphone, almost deafening Tom. Tom then forces a double-barreled shotgun into Jerry's mousehole. However, the barrels protrude out of the wall and point straight at Tom's head as the cat fires and ends up razing his head. In the next scene, Tom sets a bear trap and sticks it inside Jerry's hole. Jerry walks outside from another hole behind Tom and puts the trap behind him, which triggers as Tom sits down. Tom then tries to use a mallet to flatten Jerry, but Jerry pops out of a hole behind a picture right above Tom, grabs the mallet, and hits him. Tom then attempts to disguise himself in a gift box. Jerry, seeing the box, knocks on it, hearing no response. Jerry sticks a bunch of pins into the box while Tom whimpers in pain before sawing the box in half. Jerry looks inside the box, and in horror, he gulps and displays a sign reading "IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?"

Now covered in bandages, Tom winds up a female toy mouse which repeatedly says "come up and see me some time". Jerry, noticing the toy, walks with it. Tom attempts to lure Jerry into a mouse-sized pretend hotel which is named "cozy arms", the door of which leads into Tom's open mouth. Jerry ushers the toy mouse into the hotel first, which causes Tom to eat it and breaking it (shattering his teeth in the process).

Seeing that no advice from the book works, Tom attempts to blow away Jerry with dozens of explosives (TNT, gunpowder, dynamite and a massive block buster that resembles the atom bomb Fat Man). When Tom ignites a piece of dynamite cautiously, it doesn't start the fuse enough, so he blows the fuse too hard. This causes the fuse to be fired immediately and erupted. Nothing at all remains of the house except Jerry (who remains unharmed after the explosion) and his mousehole, while a fed-up Tom, this time with a spirit form, is seen on a cloud floating to heaven, repeatedly hiccuping "come up and see me some time" ad infinitum.

Voice cast

Availability

DVD