Tom and Jerry Cartoons under this category
n the attic of a large house, Tom is busy at work, designing (and building) the perfect mousetrap. We see a huge blueprint detailing an intricate and elaborate mechanism ala Rube Goldberg, using many household objects. Tom has also drawn a simplistic caricature of a mouse and a cat with the rest of the trap’s design. Tired from a hard day’s work, Tom retires to his bed, where he dreams of impending success, fame and fortune.
However, while Tom is asleep, the mouse that Tom has drawn on the blueprint suddenly comes to life, abseils down the drawing board and enters Jerry’s mousehole to warn him about Tom’s plan. The blueprinted mouse drags Jerry to the drawing board, where he shows him the plan and measurements. Just then, the “cat listening for alarm” that Tom had also drawn on the blueprint also comes to life and pursues both the real and imaginary rodent. Together, the two mice use their wits to outsmart the “cat,” who ends up being squirted with water, sucked inside a fountain pen and deposited in a bottle of white ink.
Jerry is shown around the blueprint by the sketch of the mouse, before they change a crucial measurement.
Just then, Tom begins to wake up. Jerry and the blueprint mouse realize that they must act quickly, and erase a critical measurement on the plan, replacing it with another figure just slightly off the previous one. Jerry returns to his hole and the sketched mouse returns to his position on the blueprint, as Tom gets to work building his mousetrap according to the altered dimensions.
The next scene shows Tom’s complicated trap in all its glory. Tom hides in anticipation as Jerry emerges from his mousehole and tugs on a piece of cheese which is attached to some string. The string causes an alarm clock to ring, which is connected to a saw that chops off a block of wood. Successive elements of the trap work together, including windscreen wipers connected to a bucket of sand, a fan, a snooker table, washing machine, rifle, and cuckoo clock, where the cuckoo is attached to a knife which slowly cuts away at a rope, from which a large safe is suspended. Tom emerges from his hiding place and blindfolds Jerry. Just then, as expected, the safe falls on Tom, while Jerry escapes unharmed. The safe door opens, and a cube-shaped Tom walks out, lamenting his failure.
