The Egg and Jerry
Encyclopedia
The Egg and Jerry is the 99th one reel
animated
Tom and Jerry
short
, created in 1956
, directed and produced by William Hanna
and Joseph Barbera
with music by Scott Bradley. It is a CinemaScope
remake of 1949's Hatch Up Your Troubles
, and the first of the Cinemascope remakes of a few cartoons. The only aspects of the cartoon that differ from the original are that it is in a Widescreen format, the ink lines around the characters are thicker, and the backgrounds are more stylised. Also, the egg is white instead of pink, and Tom is missing the white fur stripe between his eyes, typical of the time period. The cartoon's title is a play-on-words of the novel and film The Egg and I
.
The Egg and Jerry begins with a mother woodpecker leaving her nest for a brief lunch. The egg that she was nesting jumps up in her absence and falls to the ground, rolling into Jerry's mouse hole and into his bed. Jerry wakes up to find himself sitting on the egg. He is a little embarrassed at first, thinking he has laid an egg. Then begins to hatch making Jerry (who is on the egg) bounce with it. Then out comes a baby woodpecker who instantly takes to Jerry as his mother. The adorable, but naturally, peckish woodpecker cannot resist pecking away at Jerry's furniture. Fortunately Jerry has a way to save his stuff. He finds a cracker and breaks off pieces for the woodpecker. Jerry gives a small piece to start but the woodpecker chops it fast. Jerry, a little startled, breaks a bigger piece and hold out to the little bird. The bird eats it and has almost shoulder-high of Jerry's arm in the birds mouth. He pulls his arm away.
Jerry returns the woodpecker to his nest, but the little bird follows Jerry back to his hole. Eventually, Jerry gives up on the woodpecker and orders him out. With nowhere to go, the despondent baby woodpecker wanders around the garden, where he comes across an unsuspecting Tom, who is sitting in a deckchair, drinking and reading a magazine. The woodpecker carelessly pecks slightly at the deckchair's leg. An irritated Tom pours his drink onto the woodpecker, who then proceeds to peck through the entire leg of the deckchair, causing it to fold up with Tom still sitting on it, which causes him to swallow the glass he was holding in his hand.
Mayhem ensues. Tom begins to chase the bird, who screeches "Mama! Mama! Mama! Mama!" Jerry emerges from his mouse hole and decides to intervene, stopping Tom with a rake
. However Tom manages to grab hold of the rake, trapping Jerry in the process, who cannot run away. The woodpecker pecks off the end of the rake, allowing Jerry to run off, and sending Tom hurtling backwards into a mailbox(which looks like a bonnet on his head). Tom hurls the long remainder of the rake handle at Jerry and the bird, but the bird quickly pecks it down to a stub. In the ensuing chase, Tom swallows the bird. The bird pecks deep inside Tom's stomach, which vibrates violently. Tom drinks from a bucket of water hoping to drown the bird, only for the water to seep out through tiny holes in his body. Jerry knocked Tom's tail which makes him cringe and yelp in pain and the woodpecker eventually pecks his way out through Tom's teeth, and as Jerry runs off, he runs straight into an axe and is knocked out cold. As Tom attempts to disembowel Jerry, the woodpecker continually pecks at the cat's head. Tom grabs the woodpecker in his hand and corks his beak, rendering the woodpecker useless at attacking him. Tom then ties the woodpecker to a telegraph pole. However, the woodpecker manages to free himself, and noticing that Jerry has very little time to escape, quickly performs a complicated calculation in order to stop Tom and rescue Jerry. The woodpecker pecks away at the telegraph pole, which comes crashing down onto Tom's head, and then repeatedly pushes him down into the ground.
Jerry is thankful for the woodpecker's help. However, the mother woodpecker flies into the scene. The baby woodpecker realizes just who his mother is after all, and is whisked away by his mother. Jerry realizes that he will miss his avian companion more than he thought he would. Just then, the baby woodpecker flies back to Jerry, gives him a big kiss and flies away again, as Jerry waves him off happily.
Reel
A reel is an object around which lengths of another material are wound for storage. Generally a reel has a cylindrical core and walls on the sides to retain the material wound around the core...
animated
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
short
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
, created in 1956
1956 in film
The year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by...
, directed and produced by William Hanna
William Hanna
William Denby Hanna was an American animator, director, producer, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of people for much of the 20th century. When he was a young child, Hanna's family moved frequently, but they settled in Compton, California, by...
and Joseph Barbera
Joseph Barbera
Joseph Roland Barbera was an influential American animator, director, producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of fans worldwide for much of the twentieth century....
with music by Scott Bradley. It is a CinemaScope
CinemaScope
CinemaScope was an anamorphic lens series used for shooting wide screen movies from 1953 to 1967. Its creation in 1953, by the president of 20th Century-Fox, marked the beginning of the modern anamorphic format in both principal photography and movie projection.The anamorphic lenses theoretically...
remake of 1949's Hatch Up Your Troubles
Hatch Up Your Troubles
Hatch Up Your Troubles is a 1949 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 41st Tom and Jerry short produced by Fred Quimby and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, with musical supervision by Scott Bradley and animation by Ed Barge, Ray Patterson, Irven Spence and Kenneth Muse...
, and the first of the Cinemascope remakes of a few cartoons. The only aspects of the cartoon that differ from the original are that it is in a Widescreen format, the ink lines around the characters are thicker, and the backgrounds are more stylised. Also, the egg is white instead of pink, and Tom is missing the white fur stripe between his eyes, typical of the time period. The cartoon's title is a play-on-words of the novel and film The Egg and I
The Egg and I (film)
The Egg and I is a 1947 film directed by Chester Erskine, who co-wrote screenplay with Fred F. Finklehoffe, based on the book by Betty MacDonald.This comedy was such a hit with audiences, it spawned the Ma and Pa Kettle film series...
.
Plot
Jerry returns the woodpecker to his nest, but the little bird follows Jerry back to his hole. Eventually, Jerry gives up on the woodpecker and orders him out. With nowhere to go, the despondent baby woodpecker wanders around the garden, where he comes across an unsuspecting Tom, who is sitting in a deckchair, drinking and reading a magazine. The woodpecker carelessly pecks slightly at the deckchair's leg. An irritated Tom pours his drink onto the woodpecker, who then proceeds to peck through the entire leg of the deckchair, causing it to fold up with Tom still sitting on it, which causes him to swallow the glass he was holding in his hand.
Mayhem ensues. Tom begins to chase the bird, who screeches "Mama! Mama! Mama! Mama!" Jerry emerges from his mouse hole and decides to intervene, stopping Tom with a rake
Rake
Rake may refer to:* Rake , a horticultural implement, a long-handled tool with tines* Rake or hay rake, a farm implement* Rake or castor angle – various fork offset angles in bicycle and motorcycle geometry...
. However Tom manages to grab hold of the rake, trapping Jerry in the process, who cannot run away. The woodpecker pecks off the end of the rake, allowing Jerry to run off, and sending Tom hurtling backwards into a mailbox(which looks like a bonnet on his head). Tom hurls the long remainder of the rake handle at Jerry and the bird, but the bird quickly pecks it down to a stub. In the ensuing chase, Tom swallows the bird. The bird pecks deep inside Tom's stomach, which vibrates violently. Tom drinks from a bucket of water hoping to drown the bird, only for the water to seep out through tiny holes in his body. Jerry knocked Tom's tail which makes him cringe and yelp in pain and the woodpecker eventually pecks his way out through Tom's teeth, and as Jerry runs off, he runs straight into an axe and is knocked out cold. As Tom attempts to disembowel Jerry, the woodpecker continually pecks at the cat's head. Tom grabs the woodpecker in his hand and corks his beak, rendering the woodpecker useless at attacking him. Tom then ties the woodpecker to a telegraph pole. However, the woodpecker manages to free himself, and noticing that Jerry has very little time to escape, quickly performs a complicated calculation in order to stop Tom and rescue Jerry. The woodpecker pecks away at the telegraph pole, which comes crashing down onto Tom's head, and then repeatedly pushes him down into the ground.