The Missing Mouse

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The Missing Mouse
Directed by William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Story byWilliam Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Produced by Fred Quimby
StarringWilliam Hanna
Paul Frees
Harry E. Lang
Music by Scott Bradley (theme song only)
Edward H. Plumb
Animation by Ray Patterson
Ed Barge
Kenneth Muse
Irven Spence
Color process Technicolor
Production
company
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date
  • December 20, 1952 (1952-12-20)
Running time
6:29
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Missing Mouse is a 1952 American one-reel animated cartoon and the 73rd Tom and Jerry cartoon, released in theaters on December, 20 1952. [n 1] [1]

Contents

Plot

While running away from Tom around the house, Jerry gets accidentally all covered in white shoe polish. Tom hears an announcement on the radio informing the population that a white mouse, after having swallowed an explosive product, has fled from a laboratory and that the animal is extremely sensitive to sound, which would trigger the explosion and cause enormous damage. Tom then sees that Jerry is all white and does his best to prevent him to be attained by noise or harm of any kind.

Production and release

Home media

The short was released on VHS/DVD/Blu-ray in various collections, including Tom and Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology , The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume I, [4] Tom and Jerry - Hijinks and Shrieks (2003), [5] Tom and Jerry: The Classic Collection, Tom and Jerry: 85th Anniversary Kids Collection, Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection , and Tom & Jerry's Greatest Chases: Volume Four in 2010. [6]

Reception

"This is fast and furious, rating with the better T and J entries. EXCELLENT.", wrote a contemprary review in The Exhibitor . [7]

Rodney Figuereido of Animated Views wrote: "This is a fun short with Jerry at his most devilish persona as he tortures Tom into thinking he is about to blow up." [6] Ben Simon, of the same website, found the short "ma(de) the most out of its "threat on the loose" concept". [4]

Describing Tom's sudden ageing sequence in the short, Paul Wells commented: "The 'body' in animated cartoons can be free from ageing. Tom and Jerry, it seems, were perennially the same age in the Hanna Barbera period, unless 'ageing' itself could be used as a gag as, for example, in The Missing Mouse [...], when Tom ages with worry as he realises that the white mouse he is vigorously washing is not Jerry but an explosive mouse who has escaped from a laboratory and will ‘go off’ at the slightest touch!" [8]

Thad Komorowski of Cartoon Research remarked that the short was "(h)istorically significant as the only short from the original MGM cartoon studio not scored by Scott Bradley. Disney regular Ed Plumb fills in, giving this cartoon a chilling, spidery feel as it concludes with the destruction of the explosive white mouse and the whole city." [9]

Notes

  1. ↑ Various sources indicate, apparently erroneously, 1953.

References

  1. ↑ T. R. Adams (August 19, 1991). Tom and Jerry: Fifty Years of Cat and Mouse. Internet Archive. Crescent Books. pp. 131–132, 155. ISBN   978-0-517-05688-2.
  2. ↑ "The Missing Mouse (1953) - The Internet Animation Database". www.intanibase.com. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  3. ↑ Motion Picture Herald. (1953). United States: Quigley Publishing Company. Vol. 190. P. 9.
  4. 1 2 Simon, Ben. "The Art Of Tom And Jerry: Volume One – Animated Views" . Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  5. ↑ "Tom and Jerry - Hijinks and Shrieks - The Internet Animation Database". www.intanibase.com. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  6. 1 2 Figueiredo, Rodney. "Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases: Volume 4 – Animated Views" . Retrieved December 23, 2025.
  7. ↑ The Exhibitor (Nov 1952-Jan 1953) General Edition. Media History Digital Library. Philadelphia, Jay Emanuel Publications, Inc. 1952. p. 183.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  8. ↑ The gendered object. Internet Archive. Manchester, UK ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed exclusively in the USA and Canada by St. Martin's Press. 1996. p. 193. ISBN   978-0-7190-4474-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. ↑ "Thad's Review – Part 3: "Tom & Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology 1940-1958" |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved December 23, 2025.
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