The Zoot Cat

Last updated
The Zoot Cat
The Zoot Cat title card.png
Title card
Directed by Bill Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Story byJerry Mann
Produced by Fred Quimby [1] [2] (uncredited on original issue)
StarringBill Hanna
Jerry Mann
Sara Berner
Edited byFred MacAlpin [2]
Music by Scott Bradley
Animation by Ray Patterson
Ken Muse
Irven Spence
Pete Burness [1] [2]
Assisted by:
Tony Ligerra
Barney Posner [3]
Layouts by Harvey Eisenberg [2]
Color process Technicolor
Production
company
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer [1] [2]
Release dates
  • January 27, 1944 (1944-01-27)
(Premiere)
  • February 26, 1944 (1944-02-26)
(USA)
  • October 7, 1950 (1950-10-07)
(Reissue) [3]
Running time
7:03 [1]
LanguageEnglish

The Zoot Cat is a 1944 American Technicolor one-reel animated short and is the 13th Tom and Jerry short. [4] It was released to theatres on February 26, 1944 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. [1]

Contents

Plot

Tom prepares a Valentine's Day surprise for Toots, complete with a gift box containing a note from Jerry. Despite his efforts to impress her with music, dance, and a homemade zoot suit, Toots rejects Tom's advances, leaving him humiliated. Jerry, seizing the opportunity, teases Tom relentlessly, eventually outsmarting him and stealing the spotlight in the stylish suit.

Voice cast

Availability

VHS
Laserdisc
DVD
Blu-ray
iTunes
Streaming

Censorship

Because of the United Kingdom's ban of TV characters smoking, Tom smoking a cigar and a cigarette and Jerry putting the cigarette on Tom's nose is faded out. [9]

Related Research Articles

<i>The Cat Concerto</i> 1947 film directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera

The Cat Concerto is a 1947 American one-reel animated cartoon and the 29th Tom and Jerry short, released to theatres on April 26, 1947. It was produced by Fred Quimby and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, with musical supervision by Scott Bradley, and animation by Kenneth Muse, Ed Barge and Irven Spence and uncredited animation by Don Patterson.

Tom and Jerry is an American animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series centers on the rivalry between the titular characters of a cat named Tom and a mouse named Jerry. Many shorts also feature several recurring characters.

<i>The Yankee Doodle Mouse</i> 1943 film by directed by Joseph Barbera and William Hanna

The Yankee Doodle Mouse is a 1943 American one-reel animated cartoon in Technicolor. It is the eleventh Tom and Jerry short produced by Fred Quimby, and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, with musical supervision by Scott Bradley and animation by Irven Spence, Pete Burness, Kenneth Muse and George Gordon. Jack Zander was credited on the original print, but his credit was omitted in the 1950 reissue. It was released to theaters on June 26, 1943 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. The short features Tom the cat and Jerry the mouse chasing each other in a pseudo-warfare style, and makes numerous references to World War II technology such as jeeps and dive bombers, represented by clever uses of common household items. The Yankee Doodle Mouse won the 1943 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, making it the first of seven Tom and Jerry cartoons to receive this distinction.

<i>Puss Gets the Boot</i> 1940 film

Puss Gets the Boot is a 1940 American animated short film and is the first short in what would become the Tom and Jerry cartoon series, though neither are yet referred to by these names. It was directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and produced by Rudolf Ising. It is based on the Aesop's Fable, The Cat and the Mice. As was the practice of MGM shorts at the time, only Rudolf Ising is credited. It was released to theaters on February 10, 1940, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

<i>Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears</i> 1944 film by Chuck Jones

Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears is a 1944 Merrie Melodies cartoon short directed by Chuck Jones and written by Tedd Pierce. The short was released on February 26, 1944, and features Bugs Bunny. This short marks the first appearance of Jones' dysfunctional version of The Three Bears, and is a parody of the old fairy tale, Goldilocks and The Three Bears.

<i>The Old Grey Hare</i> 1944 film by Bob Clampett

The Old Grey Hare is a 1944 Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. The short was released on October 28, 1944, and features Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd.

<i>Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4</i> 2006 American film

Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 4 is a DVD box set that was released by Warner Home Video on November 14, 2006.

The Midnight Snack is a Tom and Jerry cartoon released on July 19, 1941. It is the second of the Tom and Jerry films, returning to the basic premise of the previous film, Puss Gets the Boot, following that cartoon's Academy Awards nomination.

<i>Russian Rhapsody</i> (film) 1944 film by Bob Clampett

Russian Rhapsody is a 1944 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. The short was released on May 20, 1944.

The Night Before Christmas is a 1941 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the third Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, produced by Fred Quimby and animated by Jack Zander, George Gordon, Irven Spence and Bill Littlejohn. It was nominated for the 1941 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons, but lost to the Mickey Mouse short film Lend a Paw, making it the only Tom and Jerry cartoon to lose to a Disney film.

<i>Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection</i> Film

The Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection is a series of two-disc DVD sets released by Warner Home Video. Originally planned as an uncensored, chronological set, the issued Spotlight Collection sets include selected Tom and Jerry shorts on each volume. Volume 1 was released on October 19, 2004, Volume 2 on October 25, 2005, and the third and final volume on September 11, 2007. On October 15, 2019, the set, which consists of 4 discs, was repackaged with some errors fixed.

<i>Mouse Cleaning</i> 1948 Tom and Jerry cartoon

Mouse Cleaning is a 1948 one-reel animated cartoon and the 38th Tom and Jerry short. The title is a play on "house cleaning". It was produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on December 11, 1948, by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer and again on February 17, 1956. It was animated by Ray Patterson, Irven Spence, Kenneth Muse and Ed Barge, who were the usual animators for the Tom and Jerry cartoons in the early 1940s up until the late 1950s. It was directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and produced by Fred Quimby; no writer has yet been credited. The music was scored by Scott Bradley and the backgrounds were created by Robert Gentle.

<i>Saturday Evening Puss</i> 1950 animated short film directed by Joseph Barbera

Saturday Evening Puss is a 1950 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 48th Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The cartoon was released on January 14, 1950, produced by Fred Quimby, scored by Scott Bradley and animated by Ed Barge, Kenneth Muse, Irven Spence and Ray Patterson. It is the only Tom and Jerry cartoon to feature Mammy's face on-screen, though only briefly. A re-edited version was produced in the 1960s replacing Mammy with a white teenage girl.

<i>Plane Daffy</i> 1944 film

Plane Daffy is a 1944 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Frank Tashlin. The cartoon was released on September 16, 1944, and stars Daffy Duck.

<i>Daffy Duck in Hollywood</i> 1938 Merrie Melodies animated short starring Daffy Duck directed by Tex Avery

Daffy Duck in Hollywood is a 1938 Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Tex Avery. The cartoon was released on December 12, 1938, and stars Daffy Duck. The short is Avery's last Daffy Duck cartoon.

<i>Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3</i> 2005 DVD compilation of Looney Tunes animated short films

Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 3 is a DVD box set from Warner Home Video that was released on October 25, 2005. It contains 60 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies theatrical short subject cartoons, nine documentaries, 32 commentary tracks from animators and historians, 11 "vintage treasures from the vault", and 11 music-only or music-and-sound-effects audio tracks.

Tom and Jerry Golden Collection was a scrapped series of two-disc DVD and Blu-ray sets produced by Warner Home Video that was expected to collect all 161 theatrical Tom and Jerry cartoon shorts released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from the 1940s through the 1960s. Only the first of the three planned volumes was released, on October 25, 2011. It features 37 shorts, roughly one-third of the 113 Tom and Jerry shorts that had been included in the Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection, a previous DVD series that focused on the shorts directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera from 1940 to 1958.

<i>Tom and Jerry: The Classic Collection</i> Collection of DVDs from Warner Home Video

Tom and Jerry: The Classic Collection is a series of Region 2 DVD sets released by Warner Home Video. The sets include selected Tom and Jerry shorts on each volume. These DVDs are available in 6 double-sided DVDs and 12 single-layer DVDs. The DVDs in the UK were re-released as "Collector Editions", which were Digipak versions with 2 Volumes inside.

<i>Blue Cat Blues</i> 1956 film directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera

Blue Cat Blues is a 1956 one-reel animated Tom and Jerry cartoon and was written, directed and produced by co-creators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The short was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on November 16, 1956 in CinemaScope. It is the series' 103rd entry.

Tex Avery Screwball Classics is a series of single-disc Blu-ray and DVD sets by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's Warner Archive unit collecting various theatrical cartoons from animation director Tex Avery during his tenure at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio's cartoon division between the years of 1942 and 1955. It is the first comprehensive collection of Avery's MGM shorts to be released on home media in North America since The Compleat Tex Avery series of laserdiscs in the 1990s, with many of the shorts having been previously unreleased on DVD or Blu-ray.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The Zoot Cat (1944)". Big Cartoon DataBase (BCDB). Archived from the original on June 19, 2013. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Webb, Graham (2011). The Animated Film Encyclopedia: A Complete Guide to American Shorts, Features and Sequences (1900–1999) (Second ed.). McFarland & Company Inc. p. 394. ISBN   978-0-7864-4985-9.
  3. 1 2 3 Baxter, Devon (6 December 2017). "Tom & Jerry in "The Zoot Cat" (1944)". Cartoon Research. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  4. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 149–150. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7.
  5. "..:: The Tom and Jerry Online :: An Unofficial Site : TOM AND JERRY DVD/VHS::." www.tomandjerryonline.com. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  6. "LaserDisc Database – Art of Tom & Jerry, The: Volume I [ML102682]". www.lddb.com. Retrieved 7 February 2020.
  7. Simon, Ben (14 July 2003). "The Art Of Tom And Jerry: Volume One – Animated Views". Animated Views. Retrieved 9 February 2020.
  8. "Tom and Jerry, Vol. 1". iTunes. 25 September 1965. Retrieved 14 February 2020.
  9. "Films in Review » The Zoot Cat". filmsinreview.lib.byu.edu. Retrieved 9 February 2020.