The Two Mouseketeers

The Two Mouseketeers
File:Twomouseketeerstitle.jpg Title card
Directed by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Produced by	Fred Quimby
Animation by	Ed Barge Kenneth Muse Irven Spence
Color process	Technicolor
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Running time	7' 21"

The Two Mouseketeers is a 1952 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the 65th Tom and Jerry short, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on March 15, 1952 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. It was produced by Fred Quimby and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, with musical supervision by Scott Bradley. The cartoon was animated by Ed Barge, Kenneth Muse and Irven Spence. The character of Nibbles was voiced by Francoise Brun-Cottan, then six years old. The Two Mouseketeers won the 1951 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons. Such was the cartoon's success, that Hanna and Barbera created a total of four adventures in the Mouseketeers series, the second of the tetralogy, 1954's Touché, Pussy Cat! which got an Oscar nomination .

Plot

In the cartoon, Jerry and Nibbles are two mouseketeers who decide to help themselves to a lavish banquet, which Tom has been ordered to guard from the King's Mouseketeers with his very life; failure to do so, and he will be guillotined. Jerry and Nibbles enter the castle hall through a stained glass window, through a suit of armor, and by parachuting down to the table. They unsuspectingly catch Tom's attention by showering him with champagne.

Later, Nibbles is helping himself to some of the food while singing Alouette to himself, when Tom emerges behind him and pokes him with his sword. The little mouse yells angrily. Before Nibbles can get away, Tom impales the little mouse's cape with his rapier. Jerry manages to stab Tom in the rear-end and rescue Nibbles. Jerry puts custard in Tom's face launching a swashbuckling fencing display against Tom, ending in Tom catching Jerry. Nibbles launches an axe toward Tom and it slices off half of Tom's back, and Nibbles hides in some fruit. Nibbles runs away and falls into a drink - but Jerry saves him by hurling a tomato at Tom, as well as multiple vegetables which Tom impales on his rapier; heating them up and eats them like a barbecued shishkebab. Nibbles walks out of the drink, drunk, and pokes Tom in the bottom. Tom screams in pain and jumps up. Nibbles waves his sword while saying, "Touche, pussy cat!" but as he runs away Tom catches him. Jerry makes the save by hitting Tom on the head with a gada so much that Tom falls through the table, which leads into Tom and Jerry having a sword fight. While this goes on, Nibbles brings along a cannon and stuffs it with everything that is on the banquet table. He lights the cannon and it explodes.

As the smoke disappears, we see Jerry and Nibbles walking triumphantly down the street with stolen banquet food. Suddenly, in an unusually morbid ending, they see a guillotine blade coming down, strongly suggesting that Tom was actually executed, though off-screen in compliance with the Hays Office. Both mice gulp, and then Nibbles sighs, "Pauvre, pauvre, pussycat", (Poor, poor pussycat) and shrugs: "C'est la guerre." (That's war.) Then the two Mouseketeers resume their victorious march off into the distance.