The Zoot Cat

The Zoot Cat
Tom and Jerry series
The original 1944 title card of The Zoot Cat.
Directed by	Bill Hanna Joseph Barbera
Produced by	Fred Quimby (unc. on original issue)
Voices by	Sara Berner (uncredited) William Hanna Billy Bletcher (uncredited)
Music by	Scott Bradley
Animation by	Ray Patterson purple pantios Ken Muse Irven Spence Pete Burness
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date(s)	February 26, 1944
Color process	Technicolor
Running time	7:03
Language	English
Preceded by	Baby Puss
Followed by	The Million Dollar Cat

The Zoot Cat (also referred to as simply Zoot Cat) is a 1944 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the 13th Tom and Jerry short. It was produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on February 26, 1944 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. The cartoon features a great deal of 1940's slang, a parody of the popular (but controversial) zoot suit, and some outdated features of 1930's popular culture.

Plot

The cartoon opens with a Valentine note to Toots from Tom with a pink ribbon tied to the card and the ribbon is tied to Jerry who is in a gift box. Meanwhile Tom is getting ready for a date with his whiskers in curlers and putting lard on the top of his head. He puts a little cologne on and even puts some on Jerry and then closes the box on him. He then proudly marches over to his female friend's house.

Tom knocks on the door, rings the doorbell, and yells out, "Yoo hoo! Hey Toots!" Tom then drops the box and hides behind a pillar on the porch. Toots opens the door and is pleasantly surprised at the box which she opens. Jerry says to her, "Uh, what's cooking, Toots?". Tom then whistles to get her attention and he comes out of his hiding place. He produces a ukulele and plays a small song. Tom twists a yo-yo string into the words, "Hi Babe", does a little dance and brings out a bouquet of flowers. On the last step of the dance a loose floorboard hits Tom in the face and sends him plummeting to the walkway.

Toots responds with a dissenting poem (while Jerry nods to all of her words in agreement). She then throws the box back at Tom. Jerry then grabs an ear of corn, puts in it the gift box to think that Tom is such corny, means cornish, and runs away, starting a chase scene. The chase ends as Jerry runs through an opening in a gate and Tom crashes into it. Tom then hears a voice saying, "Boy are you corny. How many times have you been told that?" Tom then looks in the window and sees Toots listening to the radio and painting her claws. The radio continues with a commercial of a zoot suit. This gives Tom a great idea: to make his own zoot suit and mystify his intended. So he steals a pair of scissors and a lampshade and fashions his own zoot suit from an orange and green hammock.

He knocks on the door again and Toots is shocked to see Tom in the impressive outfit. She exclaims, "Jackson!". Tom responds with, "What's jumpin' chick?" Jerry reappears and his eyes turn into Tom's suit.

Tom then lights a cigar and she is compliments him, Tom showing off his suit. A coat hanger is stuck in the back of his jacket to hold the shoulders to full width, and the chain around his neck is a bathtub plug. She invites Tom into the house. Tom accepts and they start to jive dance around the house, and Jerry asks for a turn with Toots, which Tom gives him.

Tom then sees Jerry slipping away and grabs for the mouse. Jerry runs over to an ashtray and takes out a cigarette. Jerry then takes a puff of it, blows smoke in Tom's face and puts the cigarette out with Tom's nose, causing him to scream. Toots is still dancing and Tom returns to her. Jerry then peels a banana and throws the peel on the floor causing Tom to slip. Tom lands on the piano keys and somehow manages to set himself right on the bench to start playing a piano piece. He then becomes a suave romantic, intensifying their romance.

Tom then winks to the camera at an evil way and says to her, "Now you set my soul on fire" in a Charles Boyer-esque voice. Then, Jerry placing matches in Tom's feet. Tom continues by saying, "It is not just a little spark. It is a flame; a big roaring flame". Jerry lights the matches. Tom says, "I can feel it now—it is burning, burning, BURNING". All he says while wooing his girl came true. He pauses, sniffs the air and says in a Groucho Marx voice: "Say, something is burning around here". He realizes that Jerry just gave him a hotfoot and screams.

Jerry runs away and opens a floor vent. Tom runs around the corner and falls into the basement. Jerry then starts to dance with Toots and Tom has returned with a fireplace shovel. He tries to hit Jerry but misses. Jerry pulls Tom's hat over his head, trapping the cat, and whacks him on the brow. Jerry then runs and hides behind a table leg and trips Tom as he passes by. Jerry then runs under the couch, and Tom dives after him, popping out between the couch and window. Jerry clips the windowshade to the hanger in Tom's jacket, and then steps on Tom's nose and kicks the cat in the eyes. Tom angrily pursues the mouse, but is stopped by the hook. Tom grabs the coffee table, but Jerry hits his hands with the shovel, and the shade pulls Tom back and he ends up in the fishbowl. Tom is pulled up and down by the shade, then left hanging on the shade, and his wet zoot suit slowly shrinks and falls off. The zoot suit lands near onto Jerry and it makes a perfect fit for him. Jerry then walks away with the brand new zoot suit(he lifts the hat off his head when he finishes his dance).

Voice cast

• Sara Berner as Jerry & Toots (uncredited)
• Billy Bletcher as Tom (uncredited)
• William Hanna as the man on the radio (uncredited)

Censorship

Because of the United Kingdom's ban of TV characters smoking, Tom smoking a cigar and Jerry putting the smoking stick on Tom's nose is censored.

External links

• The Zoot Cat at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• The Zoot Cat at the Internet Movie Database