Mouse in Manhattan

Mouse in Manhattan
File:Mouseinmanhattantitle.jpg Title card of Mouse in Manhattan
Directed by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Produced by	Fred Quimby
Animation by	Kenneth Muse Ed Barge Ray Patterson Irven Spence
Color process	Technicolor
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Running time	8 min

Mouse in Manhattan is a 1945 Tom and Jerry animated short released in American theaters on 7th July 1945.

Plot Outline

File:Mouseinmanhattan.jpg

Jerry dances with an inanimate placecard mascot in Mouse in Manhattan. Animation by Kenneth Muse.

Jerry has had enough of the country life and decides to leave to city. He writes a goodbye letter detailing this for a sleeping Tom before leaving to New York City to experience life in the city. Here he gets stuck in gum, ends up as a makeshift shoe-polisher, admires the towering skyscrapers, gets nauseated in an elevator, sees more sights before falling down the sewer, has a close shave with oncoming traffic, and dangles precariously over the city on an ever-breaking candle. He also dances with several placecards (in the form of attractive women). He ultimately loses his balance and gets stuck in a champagne bottle which pops him all the way to the ground, where he lands in a dark alley in a puddle, sneezes, and is heard and scared off by an alley full of vicious cats. He is then hurtled across the city on trash cans, one of which hits a fire hydrant, sending him flying through a jewelery shop window, after which he is shot at by the police. As Jerry escapes the city (and is nearly run over by a subway train), he quickly races over the empty freeway and railroad back to the countryside, where he finds Tom still asleep (unaware that Jerry had been gone). He destroys his unread note and kisses Tom before nailing a placard reading "Home Sweet Home" above his mousehole, entering afterwards. The story is loosely modeled on The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse, especially the notion of the city as a place of both riches and fear, except that no mouse takes Jerry's place in the country.

The cartoon is unusual in that Tom is barely in it (he sleeps through nearly the whole picture) and it has no cat-and-mouse chase scenes. Instead most of its energy comes from a fusion of music with scenery, specifically cityscapes. The music was composed by Scott Bradley, and the cartoon was directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, animated by Kenneth Muse, Ed Barge, Irven Spence and Ray Patterson and produced by Fred Quimby.

Trivia

• The first Tom and Jerry cartoon to be animated by Ed Barge.
• Scott Bradley's score was made up mostly of Louis Alter's Manhattan Serenade (later used in The Godfather) and Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown's Broadway Rhythm.
• The scene in which Jerry dangles over the edge of a skyscaper hanging onto a broken candle stick is a reference to Harold Lloyd in Safety Last!.
• As an inside joke for the cartoon staff, "Tom & Jerry cartoon" appears on the marquees of multiple theaters seen in the background.
• Clip Cartoon is on Pee-Wee's Playhouse.

Censorship

• The scene where Jerry releases himself from the shoe polish is sometimes cut (usually in the USA) due to racial sensibilities.