The Two Mouseketeers

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. The cartoon was animated by Ed Barge, Kenneth Muse and Irven Spence. Musical supervision was done by Scott Bradley, using a version of the theme music by Nelson Eddy and The Sportsmen Quartet named "Soldier of Fortune", from the movie The Girl of the Golden West. The character of Nibbles was voiced by six-year-old Francoise Brun-Cottan.

The Two Mouseketeers won the series' sixth Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Such was the cartoon's success, that Hanna and Barbera created a total of four adventures in the Mouseketeers series; the second, 1954's Touché, Pussy Cat! received an Oscar nomination.

Plot
Mouseketeers Jerry and Nibbles decide to help themselves to a lavish royal banquet. Tom has been ordered to guard the spread from the King's Mouseketeers with his life, under threat of execution by guillotine. Jerry and Nibbles enter the castle hall through a stained-glass window. Jerry releases the rear-end cover on a suit of armor, making a small drawbridge to the windowsill; they sneak into the armor, emerge from the helmet's visor and then parachute onto the table. Jerry lands first, followed by Nibbles who landed on a roasted warthog's mouth, forcing Nibbles to be stuck. Jerry took Nibbles off the warthog, making the pig's mouth to close. Afterwards, Nibbles went inside a big block of cheese, pretending it is a tower with only a few floors. Nibbles shows Jerry that he is on the top-floor but loses his balance as he falls off to an unopened banana. The banana opens and shoots into Jerry's mouth in a few centimeters distance to the back, making Jerry's body a shape of the banana itself. They unwittingly catch Tom's attention by showering him with champagne after trying to open the cork with the roasted warthog's tail.

After hiding from Tom by wearing white paper decorations from the standing rib roast to look like two ribs, Jerry runs off, but little Nibbles begins making a ham sandwich while singing "Alouette" to himself. Tom emerges behind him and pokes him with his sword, and the angry Nibbles yells in protest: "He, attention-la! Vous pourriez faire mal a quelqu'un, Monsieur Pussycat!...Pussycat?! Au secours! Au secours! Le pussycat! Le pussycat! Sauve moi de le pussycat!" (Hey, watch it! You could hurt someone like that, Mister Pussycat!...Pussycat?! Help! Help! The pussycat! The pussycat! Save me from the pussycat!). But before he can get away, Tom captures him by putting his rapier through Nibbles' tabard. Failing to escape, Nibble wishes hello to Tom (saying, "Bonjour, Monsieur Pussycat"). Jerry manages to stab Tom in the rear-end to rescue Nibbles, and throws a custard in Tom's face for good measure. This launches a swashbuckling fencing display against Tom, ending in Tom catching Jerry. Nibbles tips a halberd toward Tom and it shaves the tabard and all the fur off Tom's back from head to hind end (revealing ruffled white underwear), while Nibbles hides in some fruit.

Nibbles runs away, but is sent flying by Tom into a full wine glass – but Jerry saves him by hurling a tomato at Tom, followed by multiple vegetables and meat chunks. After impaling them all on his rapier, Tom then heats and eats them like a shish kebab. Nibbles, now drunk, climbs out of the glass. He pokes Tom in the rear-end, making him yowl and jump up, as Nibbles waves his sword, saying "Touché, pussycat!" But as he runs away, Tom catches him. Jerry makes the save by hitting Tom on the head with a mace so hard that Tom falls through the table, which leads into Tom and Jerry resuming their sword fighting. While this goes on, Nibbles brings along a cannon and stuffs it with everything on the banquet table. Just as Tom catches Jerry, Nibbles lights the cannon and it violently explodes.

As the smoke disappears, Jerry and Nibbles are seen walking triumphantly down the street with stolen banquet food. Suddenly, they look up and see a guillotine in the distance, and with a drumroll the blade comes down, strongly suggesting that Tom was executed (although off-screen in order to comply with the Hays Code). Both mice gulp, and then Nibbles sighs "Pauvre, pauvre pussycat!" ("Poor, poor pussycat!"). Then he shrugs, saying "C'est la guerre!" ("Such is war!"). With that, the two Mouseketeers continue their victory marching off into the night.

Production

 * Directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
 * Animation: Ed Barge, Kenneth Muse, Irven Spence
 * Music: Scott Bradley
 * Produced by Fred Quimby

Availability
VHS DVD
 * Quest for Camelot
 * Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases, Vol. 3
 * Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 1, Disc Two