Salt Water Tabby
Encyclopedia
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
.
, which turns up three lemons, sending Tom out of the can directly into the girl's 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 chases after Jerry in retaliation, and Jerry signals for Tom to stop the chase in a beach umbrella, tripping the switch to leave the cat stuck inside. When Jerry encounters the crab himself after a short walk away, he leads it on a chase that ends in Tom's bathing suit. It pinches Tom's bum and he yelps in pain. The top of the umbrella got stuck in the sand and the crab makes a flap in the front of Tom's bathing suit in a tin-opener fashion to escape the umbrella.
Jerry then 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 the female are sharing sandwiches in order to disturb this situation.
Jerry sneaks a shell into the sandwich, causing Tom to shatter his teeth when he bites into it. Tom realizes 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 ocean water and "gratefully" gives it to the cat. The raging cat snatches the bucket and drinks it, but since it's salt water, Tom spits the entire bucket out into the female cat's 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 a hand as if to say "Stop!" and closes the beach umbrella. 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 Tom with a large bump on his head after the tide recedes.
The cat sees Jerry smiling and chases the mouse, and Jerry responds by releasing the air out of an inflatable beach horse (previously 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 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 Tom's bathing suit as a sail, accompanied by the tune of Aloha Oe.
1947 in film
The year 1947 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 22 - Great Expectations is premiered in New York.*November 24 : The United States House of Representatives of the 80th Congress voted 346 to 17 to approve citations for contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten".*November 25...
one-reel animated cartoon
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
and is the 31st Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
short
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
. It was produced in Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
and released to theatres on July 12, 1947 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. The cartoon was animated by Ed Barge
Ed Barge
Edward John "Ed" Barge was an American animator.Barge was born to Alfred Edward and Margaret G. Barge in San Jose, California. In 1916, the family moved to Bakersfield, where his father was employed by the Santa Fe Railroad and Pacific Western Oil Co. before retiring in 1954...
, Michael Lah
Michael Lah
Michael Richard Lah was an American animator. He is best known for his work at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, primarily as a member of Tex Avery's animation unit....
(who later directed Droopy cartoons) and Kenneth Muse
Kenneth Muse
Kenneth Lee Muse was an American animator. He is best known for his work on the Tom and Jerry series at MGM.-Biography:...
, with uncredited animation by Ray Patterson
Ray Patterson (animator)
Raymond "Ray" Patterson was an American animator, producer, and director. Patterson was born in Hollywood, California, and was the brother of animator Don Patterson.-Early career:...
. Salt Water Tabby was scored by Scott Bradley
Scott Bradley
Scott Bradley was an American composer, pianist and conductor.Bradley is best remembered for scoring the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer theatrical cartoons, including those starring Tom and Jerry , Droopy , Barney Bear , and the many one-shot cartoons.Bradley was a...
, produced by Fred Quimby
Fred Quimby
Frederick C. "Fred" Quimby was an American cartoon producer, best known as a producer of Tom and Jerry cartoons, for which he won seven Academy Awards...
, and directed and written by William Hanna
William Hanna
William Denby Hanna was an American animator, director, producer, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of people for much of the 20th century. When he was a young child, Hanna's family moved frequently, but they settled in Compton, California, by...
and Joseph Barbera
Joseph Barbera
Joseph Roland Barbera was an influential American animator, director, producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of fans worldwide for much of the twentieth century....
. The cartoon's title is a pun on salt water taffy
Salt water taffy
Salt water taffy is a variety of soft taffy originally produced and marketed in the Atlantic City, New Jersey, area beginning in the late 19th century.-Etymology:...
, a type of candy, and the common tabby cat
Tabby cat
A tabby is any cat that has a distinctive coat that features stripes, dots, lines or swirling patterns, usually together with an "M" mark on its forehead. Tabbies are sometimes erroneously assumed to be a cat breed. In fact, the tabby pattern is found in many breeds of cat, as well as among the...
.
Plot
The cartoon opens with Tom emerging from 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 a female cat reading a book and wearing sunglasses, but is looking the wrong direction to avoid running into a trash can. The can converts into a slot machineSlot machine
A slot machine , informally fruit machine , the slots , poker machine or "pokies" or simply slot is a casino gambling machine with three or more reels which spin when a button is pushed...
, which turns up three lemons, sending Tom out of the can directly into the girl's 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 chases after Jerry in retaliation, and Jerry signals for Tom to stop the chase in a beach umbrella, tripping the switch to leave the cat stuck inside. When Jerry encounters the crab himself after a short walk away, he leads it on a chase that ends in Tom's bathing suit. It pinches Tom's bum and he yelps in pain. The top of the umbrella got stuck in the sand and the crab makes a flap in the front of Tom's bathing suit in a tin-opener fashion to escape the umbrella.
Jerry then 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 the female are sharing sandwiches in order to disturb this situation.
Jerry sneaks a shell into the sandwich, causing Tom to shatter his teeth when he bites into it. Tom realizes 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 ocean water and "gratefully" gives it to the cat. The raging cat snatches the bucket and drinks it, but since it's salt water, Tom spits the entire bucket out into the female cat's 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 a hand as if to say "Stop!" and closes the beach umbrella. 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 Tom with a large bump on his head after the tide recedes.
The cat sees Jerry smiling and chases the mouse, and Jerry responds by releasing the air out of an inflatable beach horse (previously 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 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 Tom's bathing suit as a sail, accompanied by the tune of Aloha Oe.