Timid Tabby

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Timid Tabby
series = Tom and Jerry


caption = The title card of "Timid Tabby"
director = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
story_artist = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
animator = Lewis Marshall
Kenneth Muse
Irven Spence
Ken Southworth Bill Schipek
layout_artist = Richard Bickenbach
background_artist = Roberta Greutert
voice_actor = Bill Thompson as Cousin George (uncredited)
musician = Scott Bradley
producer = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
release_date = April 19, 1957
color_process = Technicolor
CinemaScope
Perspecta Stereo
runtime = 6 minutes 49 seconds
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0051086
preceded_by = "Tops with Pops"
followed_by = "Feedin' the Kiddie"

"Timid Tabby" is the 106th one reel animated "Tom and Jerry" short, copyrighted 1956, directed and produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera with music by Scott Bradley. The cartoon was animated by Lewis Marshall, Kenneth Muse, Irven Spence, Ken Southworth and Bill Schipek, with backgrounds by Roberta Gruetert and layouts by Richard Bickenbach. It was released on April 19, 1957 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Plot

Tom is chasing Jerry in circles around the house and Tom receives a letter in the post mid-chase. It is from his cousin George, who is planning a visit. However, as stated in the letter, George is deathly afraid of mice and wants assurances that there are no mice. Tom hammers some wooden planks over Jerry's mouse hole to prevent him escaping and answers the door. It is cousin George (voiced by Bill Thompson who provided the voice for Droopy), who looks identical to Tom, perched on a chair.

"H-h-h-h-h-hello, cousin. Did you get my letter?" he asks. Tom happily nods.

"Are you sure there aren't any mice?" Tom nods again. "OK then, if you say so."

George enters the house, clinging on to Tom for comfort. Tom sets George down on a nearby armchair and plays a cruel prank on him to gouge his reaction, winding up a clockwork mouse, which predictably frightens George, causing him to retreat through the chair he is on and crash into the wall behind him. Tom laughs.

Jerry, meanwhile, escapes from his hole, and spots some candies by a chair. Jerry waltzes over to the plate of candy. George sits down and starts eating some. Jerry grabs onto one, but George has grabbed the same one and is about to eat it when he sees Jerry and shoots up onto the ceiling in panic, after which the ceiling plaster breaks and George runs for it. Jerry runs after him to see what is going on and notices that the cat is afraid of him. Jerry, thinking that the frightened cat is Tom, has a ball in scaring George up the wall and then manages to scare him (by sneezing) into goo that seeps through the floor grate. Jerry then juggles and eats several pieces of the candy. Tom shows up to find out what is going on and sees Jerry juggling and eating the candy. Jerry attempts to scare him (again, he thinks). Tom makes no reaction and instead hits him. Jerry vibrates like a cymbal back into his hole, and Tom pushes a TV in front of it, and sets off looking for George, unaware he is under the floor grate.

George emerges from the floor grate and laments to the camera, "I can't help it if I'm chicken." Jerry manages to squeeze past the TV and hides under it as George walks over to turn it on. Jerry appears on the TV screen and George hides, then changes the channel. Confident this has gotten rid of the mouse, George peeks at the screens again. But whatever channel he sets the TV to, Jerry pokes his head out; then Jerry runs back and forth, and he appears big and with a scary face. George hides under a windowsill. Jerry comes out of the TV, pulls the windowsill down, and scares the cat, who flees around around the corner. Jerry pursues him and runs into Tom, who was standing and watching. Predictably, he tries to scare him and gets bopped on the head again.

George approaches Tom: "Oh, cousin Tom! That dreadful creature's been frightening me again!"

Fortunately, Tom has a plan. Because the two cats look identical, Tom and George are able to confuse and frighten Jerry. George reluctantly goes along with it. George lets himself be scared by Jerry and gets him to follow the paranoid cat into a closet. Jerry repeatedly opens the door and scares George until Tom substitutes himself and whacks Jerry with a dustpan. Jerry spots Tom, who pretends to be scared like George and crouches in fright, around the corner. Jerry gets ready to kick him, but George sticks his around the opposite corner and advises him, "I wouldn't kick me...if I were you." Jerry again investigates. Tom pokes his head around the corner. Jerry tries to scare him, but he gets scared back. Jerry hides and the two cats tiptoe under a purple rug, appearing to be one long eight-legged cat to the camera. Both Jerry and George set out and George gets scared again. Jerry sees George hide behind a curtain, but he doesn't spot Tom there too. As George quickly overcomes his fear, Jerry pulls the curtain out and sees Tom. Each time Jerry tries to scare him, out pop George's arms, his legs, and then his head. The two cats together appear to be a two-headed, eight-legged monster to the mouse, and split themselves in to two after scaring Jerry out of the house (and out of his mind), glad to be rid of him. Jerry seeks sanctuary in the nearest "Home For Mice With Nervous Breakdowns".

Trivia

*This is one of the rare cartoons where Tom triumphs.
*George was the name of the mouse who signed the letter in Feedin' the Kiddie
*This cartoon was later remade as Fraidy Cat in Tom and Jerry Kids. The character of Tom's twin brother Fraidy Cat (voiced by Dana Hill, who voiced Jerry in Tom and Jerry: The Movie) expressed similarities to Tom's cousin George.