Triplet Trouble

Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Triplet Trouble
series = Tom and Jerry


caption = The title card of "Triplet Trouble"
director = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
story_artist = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
animator = Ray Patterson
Ed Barge
Kenneth Muse
Irven Spence
voice_actor = Lillian Randolph (as Mammy Two Shoes, uncredited)
musician = Scott Bradley
producer = Fred Quimby
distributor = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
release_date = April 19, 1952
color_process = Technicolor
runtime = 7 minutes 9 seconds
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0045262
preceded_by = Smitten Kitten
followed_by = Little Runaway

"Triplet Trouble" is a 1952 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 67th "Tom and Jerry" short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby. It was animated by the usual team of Ray Patterson, Ed Barge, Kenneth Muse and Irven Spence, and the music was scored by Scott Bradley.

ynopsis

The cartoon begins with Tom using Jerry as a paddle-string ball, when the doorbell buzzes. Mammy Two Shoes answers the door while Tom hides Jerry in a drawer, fluffs the pillow, and hides behind the couch. It turns out that Mammy has adopted "three little fluffy kittens". The khaki kitten is named Baby Topsy, the orange kitten is named Little Meathead, and the black kitten is named Butch Jr. Mammy calls Tom into the living room, but meanwhile the kittens attempt to attack her. Before they can pull it off, they have to hide the paraphernalia because Mammy has turned back around and Tom is in the living room. Tom sees the possibility of being an adoptive father when Mammy declares that he is to take care of them while she runs an errand, but when Tom turns his back, the kittens take the slingshot, match and firework, attack Tom, and makes it look like "they" were the ones attacked by planting a knife on Tom and appearing knocked out. Mammy(who dressed up her blue coat) is angry and slaps Tom with a broom. She issues an ultimatum that if Tom isn't a good care-provider in her absence, she will "pulverize you to pieces". Mammy then leaves. Tom makes sure she's gone before attempting to harm the kittens, but they play good for a period of time until Butch Jr. and Baby Topsy put Tom on roller skates and throw him into the upper part of a 2-section door, which Little Meathead closes and smacks Tom flat.

Jerry pokes his head out of the drawer as the cats hide in a green suit. They point in a far direction before Tom realizes he's been fooled. Tom pulls all the cats out and they continue to let themselves be pulled out in sequence until Little Meathead substitutes Tom's tail for himself. Tom flips over and hits his head. Jerry watches and laughs, but hides when Tom comes along and shows himself to the three kittens. He directs them to Tom, but the three kittens surround him and make evil faces. Jerry laughs at what they did to Tom before he realizes they want to catch him and gulps. He dives into the drawer and is followed by all three kittens. Jerry leads the way while Butch Jr. keeps a rein on him. He lets go of Jerry and flattens him over a grate in the floor, causing Jerry to look like a waffle.

Tom watches some of the chase. Little Meathead blocks Jerry's entry to his hole with a glass pane and then lets him through such that he is caught in a machine by Baby Topsy, which shapes him into a hot dog. Butch Jr. stuffs him into a sandwich, and Little Meathead slaps mustard on it and bites into it, but Jerry escapes out a window. Tom laughs at the cats' failure, but Baby Topsy aims an umbrella into Tom's mouth. The three cats are chased by Tom, but they stop him and slam him against the ceiling. Little Meathead and Baby Topsy revive him and offer a handshake. Tom gladly obliges, but his third handshake is from Butch Jr.: it's not his hand, but a window curtain. Tom is thrown outside of the manor house. Then, Tom and Jerry team up to get revenge against the kittens for good.

Tom gets a serving cart and loads it with three cream tarts and a watermelon. Next Jerry lures the kittens by drinking up their milk from their bowl and then spitting it at the kittens. The kittens get irritated and start to chase Jerry. Then, Tom pursues them with the flying serving cart. The kittens hide themselves behind the sofa, then Jerry whistles and Tom's cream tarts hit the cats with all they got. Then Tom flies out of the window and turns around to enter through the other side. The kittens saw who made the noise and chase Jerry, but Tom returns in time and throws the watermelon at them, and Baby Topsy swallows it. Tom scoops up the kittens on the cart's nether shelf. Tom chucks them down near a clothesline, and Jerry prepares a carpet beater. Little Meathead, then Baby Topsy and finally Butch Jr. falls onto one spot, Jerry spanks them and twirls the clothesline. Then Tom returns with some paper sheets, scissors and string. Tom makes angel wings and puts them on the kittens as a final humiliation. Then Mammy returns with a bottle of cream. She looks for the kittens. But then she hears some smacks and sees red bottoms on all 3 kittens and angel wings on their backs looking like as if they were in heaven.

Notes

*In the redubbed version, as Mammy leaves the house, she can be heard saying "Three little fluffy kittens." The line is not heard when she leaves in the original version.
*The three kittens in this film have the same color scheme as the three kittens from "Heavenly Puss" who drowned and were sent to heaven.
*Tom and Jerry team up in this episode like in 1942 "Dog Trouble", 1943 "The Lonesome Mouse", and 1948 "Old Rockin' Chair Tom".
*At the end of the cartoon, the kittens are spanked on a rotary washing line, with four arms. Despite the fact that there are only three kittens only one revolution of the rotary line has an empty arm. After that, each arm shown to go around has a kitten on it, and the rotary line revolves at least twice.This makes it look like that there were two orange kittens.