Life with Tom

Life with Tom
File:LifeWithTomTitle.JPG The title card of Life with Tom.
Directed by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Produced by	Fred Quimby
Animation by	Kenneth Muse Irven Spence Ed Barge Irving Levine (archive footage – uncredited) Additional animation:Pete Burness (archive footage – uncredited)
Backgrounds by	Robert Gentle
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	MGM Cartoons
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Running time	7 minutes' 49 seconds"

Life with Tom is a 1952, 1953 one reel animated cartoon and is the 79th Tom and Jerry short, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby with music by Scott Bradley. The cartoon was animated by Kenneth Muse, Irven Spence and Ed Barge with backgrounds by Robert Gentle. It was released to theatres on November 21, 1953 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It is also one of several compilation package wrap-around Tom and Jerry shorts, integrating footage from the previous shorts into the plot. A mailman delivers Twi packages and whistles out loud. Tom approaches to see that nothing is in the mail. He spots a package, tears it to find out the title "Life with Tom." He hides in the bush as Jerry approaches out, grabbing the letter. Tom makes sure that Jerry is unaware if he catches the notebook. He hears the radio laughing and announcing the book. Tom opens it and flips the page to "Dedicated to Tom.... Without whom, I could do it very well." Tom slaps the page to the part where he and Jerry go fishing. Flashback to 1947's Cat Fishin', where he makes Jerry to be a worm to catch fish, but instead catches Spike, with a red browse on the head. Tom tries to fix it until he hits it very hard, causing a chase. Cut to normal where he reads "To this day, Tom still thinks that he caught some new species... dog fish." This makes Tom furious and hears the alleycats laughing. He slaps the page to the part where Jerry and Nibbles (now Tuffy) are dressed as Pilgrims. Flashback to 1948's The Little Orphan where Jerry and Nibbles where walking and Tom approaches as an Indian. Tom pokes his finger on Nibbles' tail. Nibbles prepares to shoot him, but Tom gives him a chance. Jerry sees this and lets out champagne's front, boosting at Tom's face. Jerry and Nibbles run away and Tom throws a knife at a turkey, hitting Jerry, leading him to victory, blabbing like an Indian. Nibbles throws a pie at Tom, causing him to fall down. Nibbles launches a candle at Tom, rendering him blackfaced. Nibbles lets out a champagne, boosting at Tom, crashing plates and cups, having Tom waving a white flag. This makes Tom more furious and hears Spike and Tyke laughing. Tom slaps the page once more to the part where the cannery saves Jerry from being run over by Tom with a train. Flashback to 1948's Kitty Foiled where the cannery is shocked to see that Tom is tying Jerry at a railroad. The cannery saves Jerry by lifting s bowling ball, causing Tom to crash down the basement. This makes Tom blow steam, hearing everyone laughing. He approaches to Jerry's house, tearing it apart, and smashes Jerry with the book. Jerry gives Tom the message, saying "Dear Jerry, enclosed find royality checks for $50,000. In accordance with tour instructions, naly of this is for your friend Tom." Tom reads the book and starts laughing at it.

Plot

A mailman delivers two packages and whistles out loud. Tom approaches to see that nothing is in his mailbox. He spots a package in Jerry's mailbox though, which appears to be a book, tears and opens it to find a book entitled reveal the title "Life with Tom." He hides in the bush as Jerry walks towards his mailbox and retrieves a letter. Tom then hears a radio program which announces the publication of a new book "Life with Tom" by Jerry Mouse revealing that Jerry's book is his autobiography. Tom opens the book and flips the page to "Dedicated to Tom.... Without whom, I could do very well". Tom moves on a page detailing the day where he and Jerry went fishing.

We read "Chapter VII Life with Tom wasn't always one continuous battle ... one day, believe it or not, Tom took me fishing. 'Twas a sunny summer morning and the first thing I knew ---".

We flashback to 1947's Cat Fishin' beginning where Tom uses Jerry as bait. However, Jerry ties Tom's fishing line to Spike, leading to Tom reeling Spike in and bashing him on the head, ending where Spike gives chase. We return back to the present day, where the book reads: "To this day Tom still thinks he caught a new species of dog fish." This makes Tom furious and he overhears some of his alley cat friends Butch, Meathead, Lightning (gray-tone), and Topsy laughing. He skims to the page to the part where Jerry and Nibbles are dressed as Pilgrims.

The book reads "Chapter XI On Thanksgiving day, my little nephew and I dressed up as pilgrims --- Tom, of course, also got into the act ---".

Flashback to 1948's The Little Orphan beginning where Jerry and Nibbles are walking along the dinner table. Tom approaches, dressed as an Indian Native American. Tom prevents Nibbles from walking, until Jerry pops a champagne cork in his face. As Jerry and Nibbles flee, Jerry runs into a knife thrown by Tom, and is knocked out cold and dazed. Tom grabs Jerry, but Nibbles catapults a pie into Tom's face, knocking the cat off the table. Nibbles catapults a candle into Tom's tail, burning the cat such that he appears in blackface. Finally, Nibbles unleashes a champagne bottle like a missle, which hits Tom and shoots him into a cabinet. Tom surrenders, waving the white flag.

Back to the present day, Tom hears Spike and Tyke laughing. He extends his neck out to see what page the father and son dogs are reading and moves to the page where Jerry reveals that while Man's best friend is a dog, Jerry's best friend is a canary:

"Chapter XX A dog may be man's best friend but my best friend happens to be a canary ---- For once I really was in trouble"

Flashback to 1948's Kitty Foiled beginning where the canary is shocked to witness Tom and Jerry's violent exploits. He sees Tom tying Jerry to a toy railway track. Tom hops aboard a toy train, advancing towards Jerry. The concerned canary drops a bowling ball from a bag, just before Tom hits and crashes with Jerry and with the toy train that he is riding. The bowling ball forms a deep hole through the railroad and the ground, ending in which the train plunges with Tom still aboard.

Back again to the present day. With everyone laughing at his expense, Tom is so furious and extremely annoyed to discover that he is a laughing stock, his face becomes a bright shade of red. He marches over to Jerry's hole, tearing off the facade and then smashing the book over Jerry. Offended by Tom's behavior, Jerry then angrily shows him the letter that he had received that morning. The letter sates reveals that in addition to Jerry receiving in the check stating "Dear Jerry, enclosed find royalty cheque checks for $50,000. In accordance with your instructions, half of this is for your friend Tom." Soon Tom finds a check for $25,000... (equivalent to $215,000 in 2013 ) that is addressed to him! The flattered Tom – realizing that even through the ups and downs, Jerry still considers him a friend – has a change of heart about the autobiography and he now starts to begin seeing the funny sides of it all and burst out laughing as Jerry looks on proudly.

Censorship

• See The Little Orphan for more information on censorship about the cut scenes similar to Life With Tom.

• On Cartoon Network, the blackface gag that occurs after a lit candle lands on Tom's tail burns his full crown. But in the real cartoon on Cartoon Network, the crown is not shown burned up.

• On recent television broadcasts, the blackface gag that occurs after a lit candle lands on Tom's tail is removed. In the Life With Tom version of this scene, the burning of his tail was left intact, but then the scene cuts to the champagne being launched by Nibbles before Tom can be seen in blackface.

• For unexplained reasons, some DVD versions of this cartoon leave the above sequences intact, but some remove out the scene in which the radio announces the publication.

• A scene from The Little Orphan faces out early when after Tom is burnt by the candle burns Tom, but the burning was reinstated.

Notes/Trivia

• In Jerry's book, Life With Tom, Jerry wrote: "On thanksgiving day, MY LITTE NEPHEW and I dressed as pilgrims...", so in this episode short, Nibbles has become Jerry's nephew, Tuffy. Or at least Jerry considers this little grey mouse is to be his nephew named Tuffy, not an orphan named Nibbles. Starting from this short, Nibbles is now Jerry's nephew. Other films cast him as an orphan. But wait a minute... isn't Nibbles an orphan?

• This cartoon features clips from 1946's Cat Fishin', 1948's The Little Orphan, and 1948's Kitty Foiled.

• Unlike Cat Fishin', when Tom bangs Spike's head in and out of the water, he bangs him aggressively.

• Spike, Tyke, Butch, Lighting, Meathead, Topsy, and an undefined alley cat (Who closely resembles Lighting albeit with creamy blue far, making his only appearance) all have cameo appearances in this episode.

• This is the episode when Tom and Jerry both win at the end.

• Same thing as with The Little Orphan, the blackface gag was cut out on some prints, due to racial sensitivities, the final scene with the candle on Tom's tail has been cut to the scene where the champagne bottle launches after the blackface gag has almost reached up to Tom's head.

• Pete Burness and Irving Levine were last animated.

• This is the only cartoon to include clip scenes from one Academy Award-winning short.

Availability

Laserdisc

• The Art of Tom and Jerry Vol. 2, Disc One, Side One

DVD

• Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 3, Disc One

• Boomerang streaming service

• Tom and Jerry Classic, Vol. 1

External links

• Template:Bcdb title
• Life with Tom at IMDb