User Reviews

A typically intense chase for mouse blood on a beautiful sunny beach day ends up with Tom on the sea bed, where he finds the aquatic life amusing. He soon meets the mermaid version of Jerry and tangles with a scary swordfish, and a much scarier octopus!!! The animators really succeeded brilliantly in transferring the pair's usual havoc to an underwater setting. I love the beautifully detailed undersea backgrounds which are some of the best I've ever seen in anything that wasn't a Disney short. I also really liked the consistent animated small detail of the swirling bubbles that appear around the characters as they move. This particular short is packed with loads of really great little sight-gags, I love it when Tom mimics the turtle's leisurely swim, and the music that plays during that part is so funny and always stuck with me as a kid. And Jerry was wonderfully animated as well as being impossibly cute as the mermouse, his lower body replaced by a simply adorable little fishe's tale, on which he tiptoes on like two legs in a darling little comical moment! I also like the gag where he tries to sneak away from Tom by 'disguising' himself by swimming along in unison with a cadre of seahorses! The tug of war between Merjerry and the rather terrifying octopus that leads up to the big reveal of this short is is so surreal.. Just like in another classic Tom and Jerry short "Heavenly Puss", the entire show turns out to have been a dream, and like that one it also ends on the duo being nice to each other rather than their animosity, which, I always find really sweet and it rings true. And I always love the shorts like this one that take things in new and unexpected directions, pushing the boundaries of the show. I'd recommend this fine animation even if you're not a fan of these characters, as it's fantastic. Later!

. . . Cats can't swim. People have known since Ancient Times that the easiest way to dispose of nuisance cats and kittens is to throw them into the nearest river or other body of water--preferably tied up in a sack, to cut down on the pollution problem. That's why European River Cruises are frequently billed as Sailing along the Catacombs. It's also why a species of finny American bottom feeders is referred to as "catfish." THE CAT AND THE MERE MOUSE feeds off these cultural expectations, as the first mentioned title character fritters away seven or eight of his lives at the bottom of the sea. Slathering himself down at the beach with enough sunscreen to sink the Titanic, Tom is soon tricked into walking a plank by Jerry. With rodents like that, who needs rat finks?

"The Cat and the Mermouse" (over 65 years old by now) is another Hanna Barbera short film including the famous cat and mouse characters, although here, for more than half of the film Jerry is a sea creature with a fishtail. I would say he really does have relatives everywhere, but in the end we find out it was just a dream. Or was it? Maybe they could have included some smart reference about how it could have been real too. But they did not, so probably a dream.

It runs for slightly over 7 minutes and this one here is mostly worth watching for Jerry as a mermouse, the underwater animals and a nice little eardrum depiction. Random side-note: Before the action starts, Tom takes a sunbath early on and Jerry goes fishing. Wait what? A mouse that goes fishing. Yep. Anyway, I have to say I have seen more entertaining Tom & Jerry cartoons. Not recommended unless you're really a huge fan of the two.