The Flying Cat

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = The Flying Cat
series = Tom and Jerry


caption = The title card of "The Flying Cat"
director = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
story_artist = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
animator = Kenneth Muse Irven Spence
Ed Barge
Ray Patterson
voice_actor =
musician = Scott Bradley
producer = Fred Quimby
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
release_date = January 12, 1952
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 6' 44"
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0044625
preceded_by = "Cat Napping"
followed_by = "The Duck Doctor"

The Flying Cat is a 1952 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 63rd "Tom and Jerry" cartoon directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. The cartoon's music was composed by Scott Bradley, and the animation was by Keneth Muse, Irven Spence, Ed Barge and Ray Patterson.

Plot

Tom sets out to capture and eat a sleeping canary. Jerry is walking out, preparing for a new day, when he spots the vulpine manner in which Tom is acting. As Tom steals the canary in its cage, Jerry trips the cat and Tom loses the canary. The cage rolls into the tree, jolting the canary and waking it up. The first thing he sees is the ongoing chase and he helps Jerry out by tangling Tom in the power lines and sectioning him. Tom instead chases the canary with an axe, but misses and chops down a pole, which bops Tom on the head down to successively lower heights. As Jerry is being pursued, the canary motions for him to join him up in the birdhouse. Tom follows him up, but the canary gives him a 2,000-lb weight and Tom plummets. The two shake hands but the peace doesn't last long as Tom erects a ladder and starts to climb it. But before Tom can reach the top, the canary torches it. Tom is left completely black.

Tom now winds up a swing and manages to hang on to the birdhouse with his fingers, but the two allies crush them and Tom yells and lets go of the birdhouse. His head goes so low that it digs through the ground.

Tom tries to pole-vault to the birdhouse, but the canary provides a rollerskate and Tom is sent out of control into a nearby house. After wrecking the entire second floor, Tom comes out the other side. Tom is hanging by a girdle, but it doesn't hold for long. Tom soon discovers, though, that the girdle makes a pair of wings. He delights in his new ability until he fails to spot a mailbox in his path.

Tom recovers and sets out to the roof of the house and jumps off. HE CAN FLY! Tom makes sure to pass by the window of the birdhouse so Jerry can see him. Jerry does spot him, but it takes a double take to realize what he's seeing. He lets out a gasp and wakes the canary to tell him. Jerry articulates what he's seen, but the canary laughs and goes back to sleep. Jerry finally gets his way, and the canary goes out to investigate. He is soon scared out of his feathers. Tom flies after the canary, but both of them run into a church bell. The canary and Jerry pull up the roof and turn it inside out. Tom can't avoid the nails. Tom lands in a pond and waters the local plants due to the holes in his rear end.

Jerry slides down the pole, salutes the canary, and walks away, but is soon overtaken by Tom. The canary unties Tom's wings and Tom falls 300 feet, slicing a tree in half because of his speed, giving him long legs. The canary then carries Jerry away, but Tom chases them into a train tunnel. Unfortunately for Tom, a train is coming out of the tunnel and slams the cat into a trestle from which he is suspended, as the canary and Jerry, who are on the train, shake hands one last time.