The Missing Mouse (1953)

 

This short film marked the first Tom and Jerry cartoon of 1953 (and the 73rd Tom and Jerry short overall) and was strong start for that year. 

In this short film, some white shoe polish pours on top of Jerry and makes him appear to be a white mouse. Meanwhile Tom hears over the radio that a white mouse has consumed a secret explosive and escaped from a scientific laboratory. Seeing Jerry look like a white mouse, Tom gets very frightened. Jerry decides to use this to his advantage and get revenge on his foe. 

This is a delightful cartoon. The premise itself is very clever and provides a delightful twist on the classic Tom and Jerry formula. This premise makes this film stand out while still holding everything that we love about Tom and Jerry. While this may not have the sheer number of great gags that are in the 1940's shorts, there are some truly wonderful comedic moments here. The bit where Tom turns into an old man cat and the ending gag are truly hilarious. This film also benefits from some truly wonderful character animation. Once again this makes these characters feel completely real to us.

This is a rare Tom and Jerry cartoon of this time period, where the music credit goes to someone other than Scott Bradley. In fact, this marks the first Tom and Jerry short to have someone else in charge of the music. The music credit goes to Edward Plumb. Plumb is best known for his work at the Disney studio, where he did music for many Disney films, both live action and animation. Some of the Disney feature length films he did music on include Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), Saludos Amigos (1942), The Three Caballeros (1944), Peter Pan (1953), The Living Desert (1953), The Vanishing Prairie (1954), Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier (1955), Lady and the Tramp (1955), Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (1956) and Johnny Tremain (1957). Some Disney short films he worked on include Donald's Crime (1945), Water Birds (1952), The New Neighbor (1953), How to Sleep (1953) and Donald's Diary (1953). His non-Disney credits include Girl Trouble (1942), You Were Never Lovelier (1942), Monsieur Beaucaire (1946), The Great Lover (1949), Father Is a Bachelor (1950), The Painted Hills (1951), That's My Boy (1951) and Angels in the Outfield (1951). 

The credited animators on this film include Ray Patterson, Ed Barge, Kenneth Muse and Irven Spence. Robert Gentle is the credited background artist. A clip from this short would later be used in the Tom and Jerry cheater cartoon, Matinee Mouse (1966). Jerry would later be disguised as a white mouse again in Mouse for Sale (1955), Buddies Thicker Than Water (1962, where he pretends to be a ghost) and an episode of Tom and Jerry Tales called Bats What I Like About the South (2006).

Below is the poster for this film. Notice it is the same poster used for The Dog House (1952), just with the title changed. This poster will be seen a lot from now on. Luckily it is much more pleasant to look at than some of the earlier Tom and Jerry posters.