Produced by Fred Quimby | Music by Scott Bradley | |
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Directed by William Hanna
Joseph Barbera Story by William Hanna
Joseph Barbera Voices by Daws Butler as Man (unc.)
June Foray as Woman (unc.) Animation by Ed Barge
Irven Spence
Kenneth Muse | ||
The Pet Peeve is the 88th one-reel animated Tom and Jerry short, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby with music by Scott Bradley. The cartoon was animated by Kenneth Muse Ed Barge and Irven Spence, with backgrounds by Robert Gentle. It was released on November 20, 1954 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Contents
This was the first Tom and Jerry cartoon to be released in CinemaScope and the second to be produced in the format (the first was Touché, Pussy Cat!, released a month later), which widened the cinema screen to a more expansive aspect ratio to compete against the growing popularity of television. The CinemaScope process required thicker and more defined ink lines around the characters, giving them a slightly more "modern" and less detailed appearance.
The cartoon is also the first to feature an owner of the house that is not Mammy Two Shoes, the African-American maid voiced by Lillian Randolph from the first cartoon Puss Gets the Boot (1940) up to and including 1952's Push-Button Kitty. Instead, Mammy was replaced with a white married couple.
Plot
Tom and Spike are living together, Spike is eating a club sandwich while Tom makes a sandwich with cat food. Tom drops a piece of bread as Jerry tries to steal it. Tom stops Jerry by stepping on his tail as he takes the piece of bread from Jerry and pops him back to his hole. They overhear an argument taking place between the owners of the house named Joan and George. Joan and George decide that the food costs are far too high and their dog and cat are eating too much. George reads all of the costs saying Dog food and Cat food. The argument is now saying that they get rid of Tom or Spike. The ensuing argument ends with the conclusion that only one pet can stay in the house. George wants to get rid of Tom, but Joan wants to get rid of Spike. When both Tom and Spike prove to be as helpful as each other in cleaning the house and providing good company, George and Joan make a deal: the first to catch Jerry will stay in the house.
Tom grabs Jerry, but Spike punches him and grabs Jerry. Tom then closes a door on Spike and regains Jerry. Spike then tricks Tom into coming into the closet with him and wallops him with a golf club, causing Tom to go down into the basement and pull Spike into the floor grate. Tom then goes to give Jerry to George, but Spike leaps out and grabs Jerry.
Tom shakes Spike's hand in a seeming gesture of surrender, packs up his possessions and leaves. Spike follows Tom to comfort him, before Tom tricks him by giving him his possessions and grabbing Jerry. Tom laughs in delight until Spike busts through the door and starts chasing Jerry as Tom frees himself and is compressed into a cylinder. Spike grabs Jerry, but Tom flips him backwards. Tom and Spike then duel with swords, destroying a lot of the house. When Spike and Tom see Jerry run down a carpet, they roll it up to catch him and cut it up until they slice off George's slippers.
George angrily demands Tom and Spike to both leave. George decides that Jerry will be their pet and hands him cheese as he seemingly does not each much (despite Jerry hiding food in his mousehole). Tom and Spike are ordered by George to take their own things and leave. Hearing him say this, they run out of the house with the fridge having one of them pushing open the door, defying George and running away into the distance.
Alternate versions
Like a number of early widescreen animated films (several other MGM cartoons and Disney's Lady and the Tramp, for example), Pet Peeve was produced in both the Academy and CinemaScope aspect ratios. The same animation cels were used, but the camera shots were reframed and different backgrounds were used. For some television broadcasts, however, a pan and scan copy was prepared from the CinemaScope version (which is reframed from the Academy version, and missing information present at the top and bottom of the frame in many shots from the Academy version). Contrary to the CinemaScope version, the Academy version is missing information present at left and right side of the frame in many shots from the CinemaScope version.
Availability
Laserdisc