The Milky Waif
Encyclopedia
The Milky Waif is a 1946 American one-reel animated cartoon
and is the 24th Tom and Jerry
short
directed by William Hanna
and Joseph Barbera
, produced by Fred Quimby
in Technicolor
, released in theaters on May 18, 1946, and re-released in theaters on January 9, 1954 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. It was animated by Ed Barge
, Kenneth Muse
and Michael Lah
, with uncredited animation by Ray Patterson
and Irven Spence
. The name is a pun on "The Milky Way
".
catching him and knocking him on the head. The mouse wakes up and hears the knock again, to his fright, but sees it's actually a knock at his door and goes out to open it. There is basket on his front door; Jerry does not notice when he peeks out the first time, and then widens his eyes in puzzlement. He pokes the basket, and it comes alive, runs in circles through Jerry's home, and then runs into a wall. Jerry pulls the blanket off to reveal it is Nibbles. Wondering what to do with him, he picks up the note attached, which says, “Please take care of Little Nibbles
---He’s always hungry! P.S. Feed him lots of milk". Nibbles then confirms he's hungry by licking his lips and rubbing his belly.
Seeing that he has no food anywhere in his hole, Jerry tells Nibbles to be quiet and he tiptoes out of his hole, spotting Tom asleep by his bowl of milk. Nibbles sees the milk and runs toward it; Jerry repeatedly grabs the smaller mouse and pulls him back into the hole until he is forced to hang Nibbles on a hook by his diaper. Jerry then tells Nibbles to stay put, and goes out to the kitchen to get the milk for his younger protege.
Meanwhile, the disobedient Nibbles has caught up and passed Jerry. The bigger mouse doesn't notice until Nibbles climbs on Tom’s nose and jumps onto the rim of Tom’s bowl. Nibbles loses his balance and has to hang onto one of Tom’s whiskers, which causes Tom to wake up. Before the cat can open his eyes and see them, Jerry grabs Nibbles and the two land in the milk, splashing it in Tom's face. Tom, startled, looks around and sees no one, so he starts to drink his milk. Jerry and Nibbles are under the milk holding their breath until Tom unsuspectingly scoops up Nibbles with his tongue.
In horror, Jerry jumps out of the milk and bluntly opens the cat's mouth to retrieve Nibbles, which begins the chase. Jerry is holding Nibbles as he runs, but Tom starts to catch up, so Nibbles switches positions until they reach the mousehole. Nibbles is safe, but Jerry bumps his head on the wall just above the mousehole. Fortunately, Nibbles quickly pulls him into the hole before Tom crashes headfirst into the wall.
With the direct attempt having failed, Jerry builds a pipe bridge to the milk by stringing straws together all the way into the bowl. However, Tom is alert and opens one eye to see the end of the straws land in the bowl, and to hear and see milk being sucked out of his bowl. Knowing this is a hungry Nibbles, Tom turns the tables by grabbing the other end of the straw and drinking through it, sucking Nibbles through the straws in an attempt to eat him. Seeing the rapidly-worsening situation, Jerry squishes the very end of the straw, saving Nibbles just in time, and blows the small mouse into the mousehole.
Extremely angry at this turn of events, the cat chases Jerry into his hole until Tom moves the hole over so that Jerry crashes into the wall. Tom grabs Jerry, but Nibbles comes out to make the save by hitting Tom’s tail with a hammer. The chase starts up again until Jerry signals for Tom to stop, while Nibbles sips and spits some milk into Tom's face.
Jerry and Nibbles hide in a closet, while Tom hammers on the door. Seeing a chance to use deception, Jerry uses a container of shoe polish he discovers to disguise himself and Nibbles as a pair of black people. Emerging from the closet, Jerry, dressed in headscarf and in blackface
(Lillian Randolph
) greets Tom. Out comes Nibbles, also in blackface and wearing a headscarf. However, the disguise is revealed when Nibbles' diaper falls down, exposing his tail and gray fur. The chase continues, eventually leading to Jerry grabbing a frying pan and hitting Tom in the face with it, knocking him out.
Jerry sadistically pulls out Tom's tongue, and with all his strength knocks the cat in the head, causing him to chomp his tongue. Tom yells and the chase begins again. Jerry hands the frying pan to Nibbles and allows himself to be chased through the room repeatedly. However, instead of Nibbles whacking the cat when the pair are in range, he swings too soon and smashes his comrade. This repeats a second time, but on the third time around, Jerry stops and points at the cat. Nibbles obliges and hits Tom square in the face, then crawls under the rug to escape along with Jerry. Tom grabs a bottle to trap the mice in as they emerge, but picks it up too soon and collects only Jerry in the bottle. Nibbles taunts the cat and darts back under the rug, while Tom puts a stack of books on top of the bottle and goes under the rug to get Nibbles. However, as soon as he emerges, he meets a pie placed at the exit by Nibbles.
The cat chases him until he stops at Tom’s bowl again, signals for the cat to stop, and starts to drink from it. Tom, after allowing the mouse to drink briefly, grabs Nibbles. But when he opens his hands, Nibbles has crawled under Tom’s fur. Therefore, Tom grabs his tail and a pistol and shoots at Nibbles when he emerges from it, but just shoots his tail instead, which, of course, causes him to scream in agony. As Nibbles runs away, the cat chases him with a flyswatter and successfully corners him. He gives him a good swat on the behind, Jerry who runs directly through the glass, popping it, to inspect his nephew.
Tom's swat left a big red mark... and Jerry is furious about it. He faces Tom with no mercy. Seeing he has pushed Jerry too far, Tom pathetically hides the flyswatter behind his back, and Jerry, not fooled in the slightest, lets out a massive bull roar. This makes Tom literally turn yellow with fear, and he attempts to run away, but Jerry attacks and grabs him by the tail before he can escape, slams the cat against the floor three times, throws him behind a garbage can, and pops open the lid into the cat's face repeatedly.
In the final scene, Jerry is shown standing over Tom's shoulder with a wooden meat tenderizer
to keep the cat in line under threat of being whacked, while a bandaged and bruised Tom timidly spoon-feeds milk to Nibbles.
in the UK, in the Arab World on Spacetoon
and MBC 3
and in the US along with Cartoon Network
, so that Nibbles spitting the milk at Tom cuts directly to Tom running into Jerry's pan, most likely due to avoid any controversy of stereotyping
.
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 24th 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...
directed 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....
, 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...
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...
, released in theaters on May 18, 1946, and re-released in theaters on January 9, 1954 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. It 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...
, 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:...
and 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....
, 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:...
and Irven Spence
Irven Spence
Irven Spence was an American animator. He is best known for his work on MGM's Tom and Jerry animated shorts. Spence has been credited variously as Irven Spence, Irvin Spence, and Irv Spence....
. The name is a pun on "The Milky Way
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...
".
Plot
Jerry is asleep in his bed, dreaming of TomTom Cat
Thomas "Tom" Cat is a fictional character and half of the academy-award winning Tom and Jerry cartoon cat-and-mouse duo. He is a blue/grey anthropomorphic cat who first appeared in the 1940 animated short Puss Gets the Boot...
catching him and knocking him on the head. The mouse wakes up and hears the knock again, to his fright, but sees it's actually a knock at his door and goes out to open it. There is basket on his front door; Jerry does not notice when he peeks out the first time, and then widens his eyes in puzzlement. He pokes the basket, and it comes alive, runs in circles through Jerry's home, and then runs into a wall. Jerry pulls the blanket off to reveal it is Nibbles. Wondering what to do with him, he picks up the note attached, which says, “Please take care of Little Nibbles
Tuffy
Tuffy is a fictional character from the Tom and Jerry cartoon series. He is the little grey, diaper-wearing orphan mouse whose cartoon debut came in the 1946 short The Milky Waif. Tuffy was later featured in the 1949 Academy Award-winning short The Little Orphan...
---He’s always hungry! P.S. Feed him lots of milk". Nibbles then confirms he's hungry by licking his lips and rubbing his belly.
Seeing that he has no food anywhere in his hole, Jerry tells Nibbles to be quiet and he tiptoes out of his hole, spotting Tom asleep by his bowl of milk. Nibbles sees the milk and runs toward it; Jerry repeatedly grabs the smaller mouse and pulls him back into the hole until he is forced to hang Nibbles on a hook by his diaper. Jerry then tells Nibbles to stay put, and goes out to the kitchen to get the milk for his younger protege.
Meanwhile, the disobedient Nibbles has caught up and passed Jerry. The bigger mouse doesn't notice until Nibbles climbs on Tom’s nose and jumps onto the rim of Tom’s bowl. Nibbles loses his balance and has to hang onto one of Tom’s whiskers, which causes Tom to wake up. Before the cat can open his eyes and see them, Jerry grabs Nibbles and the two land in the milk, splashing it in Tom's face. Tom, startled, looks around and sees no one, so he starts to drink his milk. Jerry and Nibbles are under the milk holding their breath until Tom unsuspectingly scoops up Nibbles with his tongue.
In horror, Jerry jumps out of the milk and bluntly opens the cat's mouth to retrieve Nibbles, which begins the chase. Jerry is holding Nibbles as he runs, but Tom starts to catch up, so Nibbles switches positions until they reach the mousehole. Nibbles is safe, but Jerry bumps his head on the wall just above the mousehole. Fortunately, Nibbles quickly pulls him into the hole before Tom crashes headfirst into the wall.
With the direct attempt having failed, Jerry builds a pipe bridge to the milk by stringing straws together all the way into the bowl. However, Tom is alert and opens one eye to see the end of the straws land in the bowl, and to hear and see milk being sucked out of his bowl. Knowing this is a hungry Nibbles, Tom turns the tables by grabbing the other end of the straw and drinking through it, sucking Nibbles through the straws in an attempt to eat him. Seeing the rapidly-worsening situation, Jerry squishes the very end of the straw, saving Nibbles just in time, and blows the small mouse into the mousehole.
Extremely angry at this turn of events, the cat chases Jerry into his hole until Tom moves the hole over so that Jerry crashes into the wall. Tom grabs Jerry, but Nibbles comes out to make the save by hitting Tom’s tail with a hammer. The chase starts up again until Jerry signals for Tom to stop, while Nibbles sips and spits some milk into Tom's face.
Jerry and Nibbles hide in a closet, while Tom hammers on the door. Seeing a chance to use deception, Jerry uses a container of shoe polish he discovers to disguise himself and Nibbles as a pair of black people. Emerging from the closet, Jerry, dressed in headscarf and in blackface
Blackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
(Lillian Randolph
Lillian Randolph
Lillian Randolph was an American actress and singer, a veteran of radio, film, and television. An African American, she worked in entertainment from the 1930s well into the 1970s, appearing in hundreds of radio shows, motion pictures, short subjects, and television shows.-Early years:Born...
) greets Tom. Out comes Nibbles, also in blackface and wearing a headscarf. However, the disguise is revealed when Nibbles' diaper falls down, exposing his tail and gray fur. The chase continues, eventually leading to Jerry grabbing a frying pan and hitting Tom in the face with it, knocking him out.
Jerry sadistically pulls out Tom's tongue, and with all his strength knocks the cat in the head, causing him to chomp his tongue. Tom yells and the chase begins again. Jerry hands the frying pan to Nibbles and allows himself to be chased through the room repeatedly. However, instead of Nibbles whacking the cat when the pair are in range, he swings too soon and smashes his comrade. This repeats a second time, but on the third time around, Jerry stops and points at the cat. Nibbles obliges and hits Tom square in the face, then crawls under the rug to escape along with Jerry. Tom grabs a bottle to trap the mice in as they emerge, but picks it up too soon and collects only Jerry in the bottle. Nibbles taunts the cat and darts back under the rug, while Tom puts a stack of books on top of the bottle and goes under the rug to get Nibbles. However, as soon as he emerges, he meets a pie placed at the exit by Nibbles.
The cat chases him until he stops at Tom’s bowl again, signals for the cat to stop, and starts to drink from it. Tom, after allowing the mouse to drink briefly, grabs Nibbles. But when he opens his hands, Nibbles has crawled under Tom’s fur. Therefore, Tom grabs his tail and a pistol and shoots at Nibbles when he emerges from it, but just shoots his tail instead, which, of course, causes him to scream in agony. As Nibbles runs away, the cat chases him with a flyswatter and successfully corners him. He gives him a good swat on the behind, Jerry who runs directly through the glass, popping it, to inspect his nephew.
Tom's swat left a big red mark... and Jerry is furious about it. He faces Tom with no mercy. Seeing he has pushed Jerry too far, Tom pathetically hides the flyswatter behind his back, and Jerry, not fooled in the slightest, lets out a massive bull roar. This makes Tom literally turn yellow with fear, and he attempts to run away, but Jerry attacks and grabs him by the tail before he can escape, slams the cat against the floor three times, throws him behind a garbage can, and pops open the lid into the cat's face repeatedly.
In the final scene, Jerry is shown standing over Tom's shoulder with a wooden meat tenderizer
Meat tenderizer
A meat tenderizer is hand-powered tool used to tenderize slabs of meat in preparation for cooking the meat. Although a meat tenderizer can be made out of virtually any object there are three types that manufactured specifically for tenderizing meat. The first, most common, is a tool that resembles...
to keep the cat in line under threat of being whacked, while a bandaged and bruised Tom timidly spoon-feeds milk to Nibbles.
Voice cast
- Lillian RandolphLillian RandolphLillian Randolph was an American actress and singer, a veteran of radio, film, and television. An African American, she worked in entertainment from the 1930s well into the 1970s, appearing in hundreds of radio shows, motion pictures, short subjects, and television shows.-Early years:Born...
as Jerry (uncensored version) (uncredited) - Thea VidaleThea VidaleThea Vidale , is an American stand-up comedian and actress.She began her career doing stand-up comedy in comic clubs in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Los Angeles...
as Jerry (rumored redubbed version) (uncredited)
Censorship
In the scene where Jerry and Nibbles hide in the closet and disguise themselves as a pair of black people, Jerry is voiced by Lillian Randolph, the same voice actress who also portrayed Mammy Two-Shoes in the shorts. A rumor is circulating that when the cartoons featuring Mammy Two-Shoes were redubbed by Thea Vidale to remove the use of potentially offensive dialect for television broadcast, this cartoon was redubbed with the same voice as well. However, the decision to air this redubbed version never came to light, so the scene is removed from BoomerangBoomerang
A boomerang is a flying tool with a curved shape used as a weapon or for sport.-Description:A boomerang is usually thought of as a wooden device, although historically boomerang-like devices have also been made from bones. Modern boomerangs used for sport are often made from carbon fibre-reinforced...
in the UK, in the Arab World on Spacetoon
Spacetoon
Spacetoon is the first free-to-air animated series and channel in the Middle East broadcast from Dubai Media City.- About Spacetoon :Apart from Arabic, the Group launched an English language channel, in 2005 that broadcasts in the Middle East and North Africa, and a channel dedicated to teens...
and MBC 3
MBC 3
MBC 3 is a free-to-air children channel that hosts by Dania al-Shafii and Hassan al-Mula and belongs to the Middle East Broadcasting Center . It was launched on 8 December 2004...
and in the US along with Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
, so that Nibbles spitting the milk at Tom cuts directly to Tom running into Jerry's pan, most likely due to avoid any controversy of stereotyping
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
.