Note: This review contains spoilers.
This short film marks the fourth and last of the cartoon featuring Jerry and Nibbles as the famous Mouseketeers. The first was The Two Mouseketeers (1952). The second was Touché, Pussy Cat! (1954). The third was Tom and Chérie (1955). Royal Cat Nap marks the only of these films to be released in CinemaScope and to feature William Hanna and Joseph Barbera as producers (they had only directed the previous shorts). This is also the only of the four shorts where Nibbles at no point says "Touché, Pussycat." Kid versions of Jerry and Nibbles would later reprise their Mouseketeer roles in an episode from TV's Tom and Jerry Kids entitled Musketeer Jr. (1993). That would be the only episode of that show to feature Nibbles. And yes, in that episode Nibbles states "Touché, Pussy Cat!"
In this short film, Jerry and Nibbles try to get some food out of the king's bedroom. Unfortunately they wake up the king in the process. The king then tells his guard (Tom) to keep the mice from waking him up. Tom must do whatever he can to stop the mice from making too much noise, which proves not to be an easy task.
The ending of this film shows a great contrast to the first of these Mouseketeer shorts. In The Two Mouseketeers, Tom gets beheaded for not catching Jerry and Nibbles, which only leads to Nibbles stating "C'est la Guerre." However, in the ending of Royal Cat Nap, the king is about to sentence Tom to being beheaded and Jerry and Nibbles feel sorry for him. Then Nibbles lulls the king to sleep, and Jerry and Nibbles help Tom sneak out. This is followed by the trio continuing fighting when they are far enough away from the king. Nibbles then has the same final line, "C'est la Guerre."
Though this may not be as great of a short as the first two Mouseketeers cartoons, it is still a fun cartoon. Though the storyline had been done before in two non-Tom and Jerry MGM cartoons, Rock-a-Bye Bear (1952) and Deputy Droopy (1955), it still provides a fun departure from previous Tom and Jerry shorts. The storyline is charming and moves at a fast fun pace. The final twist at the end is a delightful one and does a great job making these characters likable without becoming overly sentimental. The background art is wonderful. Though it is sparser than the artwork in the 1940's Tom and Jerry cartoons, it has a delightfully stylized design that makes one think of Bill and Joe's best TV work. The character animation is quite good, and I love the panic animation as Tom tries to figure out how to scream in pain without waking the king up.
This is one of the few theatrical Tom and Jerry to feature a glaring coloring mistake. Nibbles is briefly miscolored to the same color as Jerry. This makes it look as if there are two Jerrys. However the main reason this short doesn't quite reach the heights of the first two Mouseketeers cartoons is because, it doesn't have any real laugh out loud moments. As was quite common in these later Hanna and Barbera Tom and Jerry shorts, this cartoon is simply more charming than it is funny.
The credited animators on this film included Ken Muse, Carlo Vinci and Lewis Marshall. Carlo Vinci did not work on many of the Tom and Jerry cartoons, but he would become a very important animator on Bill and Joe's TV work. He worked on such TV shows as The Ruff and Reddy Show, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Flintstones, The Atom Ant Show, Abbott and Costello, Jabberjaw and many more. One of his most impressive feats at the Hanna-Barbera studio was animating the whole Flintstones episode The Flintstone Flyer (1960) by himself. Before working with Bill and Joe, Vinci had worked at the Terry Toons studio. Joseph Barbera had also briefly worked at the Terry Toons studio. In his autobiography Joe would tell this story about when he first started there. "They gave me a desk and light board next to a guy at another light board, and they gave me a 'scene.' This was a collection of drawings, like a flip book only bigger. If you flipped through them the characters appeared to move. I sat looking at the 'scene.' The man next to me introduced himself. 'I'm Carlo Vinci.' Then he looked at me looking at the stack of drawings on my board. 'You don't know anything about it do you?' 'I don't have the faintest idea.' So, Carlo - who would later come to work for Hanna-Barbera - got up from his board and explained the process to me. The scene, he said consisted of drawings numbered 1, 3, 5, 7, and so on. My job he explained, was to create the intermediate drawings which were numbered 2, 4, 6, 8 and so on. You did this by putting drawings 1 and 3 on the light board, which was a drawing board that had a piece of frosted glass on it lit from underneath by an electric bulb. The animation paper had two holes punched in it at the top. These holes fit over two registration pins, or pegs at the top of the board, keeping the drawings perfectly in place. So you put drawings 1 and 3 down over the lighted area, laid a blank piece of paper on top of this, then figured out how to bridge the positions in drawing 1 with those in drawing 3. That become drawing 2."
The credited background artist is Robert Gentle, and the credited layout artist is Richard Bickenbach. Richard Bickenbach not only worked on William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's Tom and Jerry shorts but also on their later TV work. He would work on such Hanna-Barbera TV series as Quick Draw McGraw, The Huckleberry Hound Show, Top Cat, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo Where Are You and many more. He would also work on the Hanna-Barbera feature films, The Man Called Flintstone (1966) and Charolette's Web (1973) as well as the Loopy the Loop theatrical shorts. The credited background artist is Robert Gentle. Robert Gentle would also work on many of Bill and Joe's later TV shows including The Huckleberry Hound Show, Quick Draw Mc Graw, The Atom Ant Show, Space Ghost, Wacky Races, Scooby-Doo Where Are You, Super Friends, Pac Man and The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo. He also worked on the Hanna-Barbera feature films Hey There, It's Yogi Bear (1964), The Man Called Flintstone, Charolette's Web, Hedi's Song (1982) and Rock Odessey (1987) as well as the Loopy De Loop theatrical shorts.
This film is available on the DVD sets Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 5, Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection, Vol. 3, Tom & Jerry's Greatest Chases Vol. 5, Tom and Jerry: Around the World, Tom and Jerry: Pint-Sized Pals and Tom and Jerry: Pint-Sized Pals as well as the Laserdisc set The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume II and the recent Blu-Ray set, Tom and Jerry: The Complete CinemaScope Collection. This marked the 111th Tom and Jerry cartoon.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
My Life in Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Less Than a Century by Joseph Barbera
https://tomandjerry.fandom.com/wiki/Royal_Cat_Nap
https://yowpyowp.blogspot.com/2016/10/flintstone-by-vinci.html
Though this may not be as great of a short as the first two Mouseketeers cartoons, it is still a fun cartoon. Though the storyline had been done before in two non-Tom and Jerry MGM cartoons, Rock-a-Bye Bear (1952) and Deputy Droopy (1955), it still provides a fun departure from previous Tom and Jerry shorts. The storyline is charming and moves at a fast fun pace. The final twist at the end is a delightful one and does a great job making these characters likable without becoming overly sentimental. The background art is wonderful. Though it is sparser than the artwork in the 1940's Tom and Jerry cartoons, it has a delightfully stylized design that makes one think of Bill and Joe's best TV work. The character animation is quite good, and I love the panic animation as Tom tries to figure out how to scream in pain without waking the king up.
This is one of the few theatrical Tom and Jerry to feature a glaring coloring mistake. Nibbles is briefly miscolored to the same color as Jerry. This makes it look as if there are two Jerrys. However the main reason this short doesn't quite reach the heights of the first two Mouseketeers cartoons is because, it doesn't have any real laugh out loud moments. As was quite common in these later Hanna and Barbera Tom and Jerry shorts, this cartoon is simply more charming than it is funny.
The credited animators on this film included Ken Muse, Carlo Vinci and Lewis Marshall. Carlo Vinci did not work on many of the Tom and Jerry cartoons, but he would become a very important animator on Bill and Joe's TV work. He worked on such TV shows as The Ruff and Reddy Show, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Flintstones, The Atom Ant Show, Abbott and Costello, Jabberjaw and many more. One of his most impressive feats at the Hanna-Barbera studio was animating the whole Flintstones episode The Flintstone Flyer (1960) by himself. Before working with Bill and Joe, Vinci had worked at the Terry Toons studio. Joseph Barbera had also briefly worked at the Terry Toons studio. In his autobiography Joe would tell this story about when he first started there. "They gave me a desk and light board next to a guy at another light board, and they gave me a 'scene.' This was a collection of drawings, like a flip book only bigger. If you flipped through them the characters appeared to move. I sat looking at the 'scene.' The man next to me introduced himself. 'I'm Carlo Vinci.' Then he looked at me looking at the stack of drawings on my board. 'You don't know anything about it do you?' 'I don't have the faintest idea.' So, Carlo - who would later come to work for Hanna-Barbera - got up from his board and explained the process to me. The scene, he said consisted of drawings numbered 1, 3, 5, 7, and so on. My job he explained, was to create the intermediate drawings which were numbered 2, 4, 6, 8 and so on. You did this by putting drawings 1 and 3 on the light board, which was a drawing board that had a piece of frosted glass on it lit from underneath by an electric bulb. The animation paper had two holes punched in it at the top. These holes fit over two registration pins, or pegs at the top of the board, keeping the drawings perfectly in place. So you put drawings 1 and 3 down over the lighted area, laid a blank piece of paper on top of this, then figured out how to bridge the positions in drawing 1 with those in drawing 3. That become drawing 2."
The credited background artist is Robert Gentle, and the credited layout artist is Richard Bickenbach. Richard Bickenbach not only worked on William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's Tom and Jerry shorts but also on their later TV work. He would work on such Hanna-Barbera TV series as Quick Draw McGraw, The Huckleberry Hound Show, Top Cat, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo Where Are You and many more. He would also work on the Hanna-Barbera feature films, The Man Called Flintstone (1966) and Charolette's Web (1973) as well as the Loopy the Loop theatrical shorts. The credited background artist is Robert Gentle. Robert Gentle would also work on many of Bill and Joe's later TV shows including The Huckleberry Hound Show, Quick Draw Mc Graw, The Atom Ant Show, Space Ghost, Wacky Races, Scooby-Doo Where Are You, Super Friends, Pac Man and The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo. He also worked on the Hanna-Barbera feature films Hey There, It's Yogi Bear (1964), The Man Called Flintstone, Charolette's Web, Hedi's Song (1982) and Rock Odessey (1987) as well as the Loopy De Loop theatrical shorts.
This film is available on the DVD sets Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 5, Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection, Vol. 3, Tom & Jerry's Greatest Chases Vol. 5, Tom and Jerry: Around the World, Tom and Jerry: Pint-Sized Pals and Tom and Jerry: Pint-Sized Pals as well as the Laserdisc set The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume II and the recent Blu-Ray set, Tom and Jerry: The Complete CinemaScope Collection. This marked the 111th Tom and Jerry cartoon.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
My Life in Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Less Than a Century by Joseph Barbera
https://tomandjerry.fandom.com/wiki/Royal_Cat_Nap
https://yowpyowp.blogspot.com/2016/10/flintstone-by-vinci.html
