The Flying Sorceress
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| The Flying Sorceress | |
|---|---|
| File:Flyingsorceresstitle.jpg The title card of The Flying Sorceress | |
| Directed by | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Produced by | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Animation by | Ed Barge Irven Spence Lewis Marshall Kenneth Muse |
| Layouts by | Richard Bickenbach |
| Backgrounds by | Robert Gentle |
| Color process | Technicolor CinemaScope |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Running time | 6:40 |
The Flying Sorceress is a 1956 one reel animated Tom and Jerry short directed and produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera with music by Scott Bradley. The cartoon was animated by Kenneth Muse, Ed Barge, Irven Spence and Lewis Marshall, with backgrounds by Robert Gentle and layouts by Richard Bickenbach. It was produced in CinemaScope and released to theatres on January 27, 1956 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. This is the first Tom and Jerry short to feature a new title card seen only in a handful of cartoons.
Plot
Tom is chasing Jerry through the house, as usual, but then you see he bumps into a table and breaks an ornament and Tom gets scolded by Joan. She says "Well, Mr Clumsy every time you chase that mouse, you break something". Tom is cleaning the mess, he sees an advertisement in the newspaper for an intelligent cat as an old lady's traveling companion, and gets interested in the job and leaves for the given location.
Tom walks along a road and sees a creepy house, he enters the place and a witch (voiced by June Foray) comes in riding on her broom. Seeing the job is less appealing than he thought, Tom tries to leave but the witch grabs Tom on her broomstick. She then gives her broom a kick and they take off. She notes that he doesn't look much like a witch's cat so she screams at him, scaring him so that he rears up and all his hair stands on end. Before the ride, the witch points out a cemetery, where there are seven graves, each with a previous applicant. Next to the seventh grave is an open one, reserved for Tom, marked "eight". She tells him that's what will happen if he doesn't hang on. During the ride, the witch loses her hat. Tom had taken it and uses it to parachute down, but the witch grabs Tom, they return to the house and the witch tells Tom that he gets the job. Tom is left to sleep in a coffin. As the witch retires, Tom looks at her broom and decides to take it on a joyride. He gets the hang of riding a broomstick by himself, he does a few tricks and then gets hit by a tree.
Tom then flies by his house spying Jerry, who thinks that he saw something, Jerry then opens the front door and gets knocked down by Tom, who then gets off the broom and points to Jerry. The broom hits Jerry and sweeps him into a dustpan. Tom leaves and returns to the witch's house where the witch is waiting for him. She is very angry about Tom "stealing a ride" so the witch casts a spell on the broom saying that she'll give Tom a REAL ride. The broom takes off on a painful ride with Tom on it. The broom drags Tom's head through the ceiling, causes him to bounce down the stairs, and into a table. The broom then acts like a pogo stick with Tom holding on to it.
However, Tom wakes up to see Joan shaking the broomstick. Realising it was only a dream, Tom is relieved and goes back to clearing up his mess. He then decides to sit on the broom and gives it a kick. Before he can react, the broom takes off with him on it, sailing towards the night sky. Jerry and his owner look on and Tom's owner Joan sighs and remarks, "NOW, what is that cat up to??".
Availability
DVD
- Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases, Vol. 3
- Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 1, Disc Two