Puss Gets the Boot

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Puss Gets the Boot
Jasper & Jinx (Tom and Jerry) series
Title card
Directed by	William Hanna (unc.) Joseph Barbera (unc.)
Produced by	Rudolf Ising Fred Quimby (unc.)
Story by	William Hanna (unc.) Joseph Barbera (unc.)
Voices by	Lillian Randolph (original version) (unc.) Thea Vidale (redubbed version) (unc.)
Music by	Scott Bradley (unc.)
Animation by	Carl Urbano (unc.) Tony Pabian (unc.) Jack Zander (unc.) Peter Burness (unc.) Bob Allen (unc.)
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	February 20, 1940
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	9:14
Language	English
Preceded by	N/A
Followed by	The Midnight Snack

Puss Gets the Boot is a one-reel animated cartoon and the first Tom and Jerry short, although not billed as such in the cartoon. It was released on February 20, 1940 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. It was produced by Rudolf Ising and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, their first collaboration which would last for more than half a century, with musical supervision by Scott Bradley. The cartoon was animated by Carl Urbano, Tony Pabian, Jack Zander, Peter Burness and Bob Allen.

The only screen credit on this film was "a Rudolf Ising Production." The short is notable for featuring the first appearances of the characters who would later be christened Tom and Jerry and would go on to appear in over 110 subsequent short cartoons, seven of which won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons. As such, Puss Gets the Boot gave the animated duo their first Oscar nomination, though the short lost out to another Rudolf Ising MGM cartoon, The Milky Way. In the short, the cat's name is Jasper, and the mouse is not given a name but is officially known as Jinx.

At over nine minutes in length, Puss Gets the Boot is the longest theatrical Tom and Jerry short ever released. It is one of three Tom and Jerry shorts where the title is a pun on the fairytale Puss in Boots. The others are Puss n' Toots and Puss 'n' Boats.

Plot

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A mouse named Jinx is attempting to run but getting nowhere, because of a smug, superior cat named Jasper holding Jinx's tail so that he cannot move. The cat pulls back Jinx's tail, opens his mouth, and releases him such that he will run into Jasper's mouth. Jinx stops in time and runs toward his mousehole, but Jasper catches him with his tail and tosses the mouse into the air; he lands on the cat's tail, then runs down his body until he has to keep himself from being eaten again. Jinx dashes off and Jasper waltzes behind him innocently, hops in front of the door and opens his mouth. Jinx runs in this time, but then rolls out of the cat's mouth on his tongue.

After some chasing, Jasper runs around a back pathway and makes a new mousehole on the wall by dipping his finger in magic ink, complete with a sign that says "HOME SWEET HOME". Jinx stops running in order to enter his hole and an invisible block knocks him out. The cat revives the poor mouse with a dash of water. Jinx recovers and soon notices that something is next to him, feels the cat's head and grabs an eyelid; promptly, Jasper opens his eye and hoists him up. Jinx looks at the cat and realizes who it is, gulps, and punches Jasper in the eye; Jasper shrieks in pain and retaliates by giving chase, but shortly runs into a houseplant and breaks it.

His owner, Mammy Two Shoes, a black woman, quickly arrives and chastises Jasper. Jasper tiptoes away, but is soon under Mammy's broom, who comments about Jasper's mess. As Jasper pulls the broom off his face, he sees the mess; the housemaid delivers one last threat that forms the basis for the cartoon. If Jasper breaks one more thing, Mammy will throw him out for good.

Mammy pushes the cat away with her broom in punctuation. Jasper creeps away, but soon runs into a table, knocking over a vase which he must catch; although he succeeds, he soon spots the mouse laughing at him. Jasper crawls over the floor malevolently, and Jinx gets out of the candlestick as Jasper runs up onto the table to catch him. He holds out a wineglass from the table and threatens to break it, which forces the cat into retreat. Meanwhile, he hears Mammy prancing around the house with the swept-up mess. Jasper gulps, chuckles nervously and walks off. The mouse nods in delight, but soon sees Jasper running after him once again and renews the threat. This time, Jinx whacks the cat with the glass, who once again hides away in fear.

Tired of this, Jinx winks at the camera, throws the glass down and whistles to alert the cat, who dashes at the glass and narrowly saves it. Another whistle, another glass, the tray holding the glasses, and the four glasses that were on it follow; Jasper is lastly hit on the head with a decorated plate of flowers. Jasper sees Jinx taunting him with one more glass in his hand; frustrated, Jasper attempts to throw the plate to the ground, but realizes this would probably break it and hits himself over the head. The cat then spots pillows of all sorts on a nearby couch and lays them out, determined to end this threat.

As Jinx marches along the table, Jasper pops his head up next to him and is unmoved by Jinx's threat. The mouse then twists his tail at the cat as if to say "Have it your way", and arrogantly throws the glass to the floor. Not hearing the crash he expected, he looks down to the ground and sees that the glass fell on one of the pillows, punctuated by a smug grin from the cat. Jinx's tail is promptly trapped by the cat; the mouse says a quick prayer, and after some quick thought adds "Amen". Jasper then lets him go, only to catch and toss him with his tail again, then sits with mouth open for Jinx to fall into. Unfortunately, the mouse has landed on the china rack and drops a plate down onto Jasper instead of himself.

Jasper is momentarily stunned but still catches the plate, but Jinx proceeds to knock over every plate on the rack and force the cat to lug around the stack of plates. Sweating uncontrollably, Jasper finally manages to lean the stack against the wall, but he soon spots the mouse waving at him from the top of the stack. Jasper can only watch in terror as the mouse throws the last plate down to its inevitable destruction. Mammy angrily storms down the steps, proclaiming that she will evict the cat as soon as she gets down.

Jinx leaps in triumph, then runs down the stack of plates, stomps on Jasper's nose, rolls his eyelids, squirts his milk into the cat's back, and even cleans himself with Jasper's tail; by now, Mammy is approaching with broom in hand and Jinx gets down to business by kicking the cat in the rear, which causes him to drop all the crockery and take the entire blame. Jinx flees the scene and dives into his hole just before Mammy squashes him underfoot. Jasper is dragged across the floor by Mammy and thrown out of the house. The triumphant Jinx watches his opponent get thrown out, and then spots the "Home Sweet Home" sign used to trick him earlier. The mouse posts the sign by his own mousehole and nods in confidence that this is his own one as he marches in.

Voice cast

• Clarence Nash/William Hanna as Jasper and Jinx (uncredited)^{[citation needed]}
• Lillian Randolph as Mammy Two Shoes (original version, uncredited)
• June Foray as Mammy Two Shoes (dubbed version, uncredited)
• Thea Vidale as Mammy Two Shoes (redubbed version, uncredited)

External links

• Puss Gets the Boot at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Puss Gets the Boot at the Internet Movie Database