- Royal Cat Nap
Infobox Hollywood cartoon
cartoon_name = Royal Cat Nap
series =Tom and Jerry
caption = The title card of "Royal Cat Nap".
director = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
story_artist = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
animator = Carlo Vinci Lewis Marshall Kenneth Muse
layout_artist = Richard Bickenbach
background_artist = Robert Gentle
voice_actor =
musician =Scott Bradley
producer = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
studio =
distributor =Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
release_date =March 7 ,1958
color_process =Technicolor ,CinemaScope ,Perspecta Stereo
runtime = 6 minutes 45 seconds
preceded_by = "Happy Go Ducky "
followed_by = "The Vanishing Duck "
movie_language = English
imdb_id = 0052149"Royal Cat Nap" is the 111th one
reel animated "Tom and Jerry " short, created 1957, directed and produced byWilliam Hanna andJoseph Barbera , [The production/direction credits read "Joseph Barbera and William Hanna" rather than the usual "William Hanna and Joseph Barbera".] with music by Scott Bradley. The animation was credited to Carlo Vinci, Lewis Marshall and Kenneth Muse, with backgrounds by Robert Gentle and layouts by Richard Bickenbach. "Royal Cat Nap" was the last of four "Mouseketeer" shorts, which were a send-up of the famous "Three Musketeers " novel and film(s), beginning with the Academy Award winning short "The Two Mouseketeers " in1952 . The cartoon's plot has a striking similarity to that of1945 's Oscar winner "Quiet Please! ", except this cartoon features a King who does not wish to be disturbed, rather than the former's Spike the bulldog. It was released onMarch 7 ,1958 byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer .Some of the gags, pacing, and the basic plot lend the picture a
Tex Avery feel (as he had directed several cartoons involving a character wishing to sleep, and another character taking great pains to maintain silence), though Avery never worked on the "Tom and Jerry" shorts himself.Plot summary
This is another one of the cartoons set in Paris. The king is sleeping peacefully in his bed, and then Jerry and Tuffy climb a nearby table. Tuffy, however, loses his balance and grabs Jerry's outfit, but cannot keep from falling. Jerry looks at where Tuffy fell, but then Tuffy pops up behind Jerry and scares him. Jerry is miffed, but Tuffy explains in French what happened while rubbing his rear, and he also exclaims, "And I hurt my head, too!" Jerry shushes him and motions for the little mouse to follow. Jerry jumps into a wedge of cheese and looks through the holes. He determines no one has seen him and spears a bit of cheese on his sword. Then, he sees that Tuffy has speared a grape, which bounces into the king's mouth. The king's mouth starts to inflate, but Jerry causes the grape to be swallowed. Jerry runs away and motions again for Tuffy to follow, but Tuffy runs into a teacup and breaks it, waking up the king with a start. The king makes an angry face at Tuffy, and then Jerry stabs him in the nose. He cries out in pain and calls for "a cat". Tom answers the call after some delay, and is chastised by the king in French about his doing whatever he wants when he needs help. The king then warns Tom not to let the mice disturb his nap again or else he will have the cat beheaded ("I hear one more sound, that's one more sound, and OFF with your head!"). He then goes to sleep and Tom marches around the king's bed; then he sticks his tongue out at him and is bopped on the head. Tom resumes marching until he hears Jerry munching on his cheese. Tom gets ready to skewer the mouse, and then Jerry points to Tuffy dropping a vase. Tom catches it on his sword-blade.
Jerry and Tuffy then throw the entire platter of dishes down and Tom is forced to catch all of them on his sword, head, arm, and foot. Tom uses his remaining foot to tiptoe out of the castle such that the dishes falling do not wake the king, and then rushes back in. He steps on tacks erected by the two mice and goes out again before yelling out in pain and pulling out the tack. Tom runs back in for the second time and barely stops before he steps on the tacks again. Tom puts on some kind of boots in order to tiptoe across the tacks without being hurt. Tom then confronts Jerry, but Jerry pokes him in the nose. The cat is forced to cover the king's ears such that he does not hear his cry of pain. Tom spots some champagne corks and then hears mysterious clanking. A suit of armor is being used as a puppet, and it dances noisily. Jerry raises the visor and sees only Tom, standing nonchalantly next to the suit. He gestures toward the king, whose ears are plugged with the corks, and then slices apart the suit of armor. Jerry dodges for dear life, but Tuffy escapes and plugs the king's nose with clothespins, which causes his face to turn blue again. Tom has caught Jerry on the end of his blade, but Jerry points at the king, and Tom can only watch as the clothespins and corks are blown off and the king wakes up. Tom plays a soothing violin tune to cause the king to fall asleep again.
Tom chases the mice outside, then locks all the doors and swallows the key so that they cannot get back in. However, they shoot an arrow through the keyhole and it hits Tom in the backside. Tom tries to hold his scream of pain in until he can get outside, but with no way to get outside, Tom has no choice but to let his scream out inside the room. The king wakes up and yells at Tom in French that he will have Tom's head cut off. However, Tuffy saves the day by singing
Frère Jacques to the king, sending him back to sleep again. Then Tom and the two mice tiptoe out and into the next room, where their fighting resumes. Tuffy proclaims, "C'est la guerre!" ("That's war!") during a break in the fight.Goofs
* Although Jerry and Tuffy have a simple relationship to the King and Tom, The King refers to them as "The King's Mousketeers".
* In the first fighting scene, Jerry and Tuffy are both brown instead of Jerry being brown and Tuffy grey.
* At one point Tom couldn't get out because he swallowed the key, but then the next scence shows Tom, Jerry and Tuffy able to get out.Notes
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