The Mouse Comes to Dinner

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = The Mouse Comes to Dinner
series = Tom and Jerry


caption =
director = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
story_artist = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
animator = Irven Spence
Kenneth Muse
Pete Burness
Ray Patterson
voice_actor = Lillian Randolph
musician = Scott Bradley
producer = Fred Quimby
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
release_date = flagicon|US May 5, 1945
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7' 18"
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0037928
preceded_by = "Mouse Trouble"
followed_by = "Mouse in Manhattan"

"The Mouse Comes to Dinner" is a 1945 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 18th "Tom and Jerry" short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby.

Plot

Mammy Two Shoes is setting up for a fancy dinner. Jerry appears from under the table and climbs on the tablecloth, observing the room as Mammy sets out more plates. She leaves the room, hoping nothing goes wrong before the company arrives (This scene has been edited out since Jerry resembles a Native American while observing). Tom appears from underneath a houseplant and rushes to the phone to call his girlfriend, but must first keep Jerry out of the cracker spread. Tom bops him with a spoon and knocks him out. Tom returns to the phone and calls up the female cat, who answers and happily exclaims that she'd love to come to dinner.

At the meal, Jerry is forced into performing menial duties for the two cats, such as carrying food over and blowing Tom's soup for him. Frustrated at being made Tom's slave, Jerry drinks some of Tom's soup, steps onto his spoon, and proceeds to spit the soup into Tom's face. Tom retaliates by placing the spoon (with Jerry on top of it) directly above a candle's flame, causing Jerry to burn his feet, and then his bottom, before shooting off the spoon and landing onto some butter, which melts on contact.

The girl cat offers Tom some bread, but Jerry sandwiches Tom's tail in between the two slices of bread, and Tom even puts ketchup on the tail sandwich before chomping on it (Tom's advertence was on the female cat and he wasn't watching what he is making ketchup on). The trick is repeated when Jerry dollops some cream, a slice of pineapple, and a maraschino cherry onto Tom's tail, which he unsuspectingly chomps, once again. Jerry is captured and made into a champagne cork opener. Tom opens the bottle and throws Jerry into a glass of water. He then pours two glasses of champagne and drinks his before his girlfriend can notice. Then, he twice tries to hug her, and the cat dodges. Tom kisses his beau's arm, but she sticks a spoon in Tom's mouth. She then starts leaping to avoid Tom's arms, but Tom hangs back and grabs her at the right moment. The female cat then takes out a "wolf pacifier" and whacks Tom. Jerry is laughing and mocks Tom kissing his girl when Tom shows up. Tom opens a cigar with Jerry's mouth and strikes a match on Jerry's behind. Tom gets pied in retaliation, and attempts to return the favor, but instead hits the female cat. Tom ducks three pies from the angry female, but is stuck in the behind with a fork from Jerry and gets hit by the fourth. Jerry runs off and runs into Tom's mouth, but runs out when he sees his surroundings, and causes Tom to bite his own tongue and hits the lid Tom is under with a spoon, and it vibrates. Jerry hides in a roast turkey and Tom sticks knives into it. Jerry, standing behind him, mimics being gored as Tom sticks more knives into the turkey. Tom hears the guttural screaming continue even when he's not puncturing the bird, and turns around and spots Jerry faking it. He pokes Jerry with the tip of the knife he's holding. Jerry yells in pain briefly and then hugs Tom's tail so that if he's stabbed, Tom gets it too, then bites the cat's tail. Tom yells and jumps in the air, but stops halfway down when he sees Jerry has planted the knife just below him, and turns and barely avoids the blade. Tom chases Jerry across the table, but Jerry breaks a champagne bottle and holds out the jagged edge. When Tom manages to stop in time, Jerry stabs him. Tom flees behind a punch bowl and is pegged by two bread rolls. Tom eats both and holds his mouth open as if to say "more, please". Jerry stuffs the salt shaker into a third bread roll and throws it into Tom's mouth. Tom ends up getting his tail burned when Jerry pulls his tail into a candelabra and uses another candle in the candlestick to light up Tom's tail. Tom lights a cigarette from the tail-candle before he realizes what's happening. After Tom realizes that his tail is burning, he rushes off to sit on an ice bucket to cool himself down. Moments later, Jerry replaces the ice bucket with an oil lamp. Tom suddenly smells burning and asks his girlfriend, "Hey, what's cooking?"," to which she replies "You are, stupid." Tom laughs at her, but soon feels his bottom getting very hot, looks down and sees he "is" burning.The heat eventually becomes so painful, that Tom is sent straight up through the ceiling and comes crashing down onto the table, wrecking it. Jerry turns Tom's accident into a ship launching ceremony by writing "S.S. Drip" on him in butter and allowing Toodles to break a bottle over him, pushing an unconscious Tom into the punchbowl, where he sinks and drowns.

Trivia

* In the film "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", E.T. accidentally turns on the TV to this cartoon, and the scene where Tom's tail is lit on fire and he screams scares E.T., who throws beer cans at the TV.
*Tom's girlfriend is the female cat from Puss n' Toots.

Censorship

*Some TV showings cut the beginning where Mammy Two Shoes is singing and setting up a table due to Jerry resembling an American-Indian when he is searching around the table. The cut version starts when Tom comes out of the potted plant.