Dog Trouble is a 1942 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the fifth Tom and Jerry cartoon released. It was produced in Technicolor, released to theaters on April 18, 1942 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer and re-released on June 21, 1952. It was animated by George Gordon, Irven Spence, Jack Zander, Cecil Surry and Bill Littlejohn.

The cartoon introduces the character of Spike, who would later become a recurring supporting character in the Tom and Jerry and later Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer shorts. In this cartoon, Spike serves as the main antagonist, forcing Tom and Jerry to work together for the first time to overcome him.

Plot

At Mammy Two Shoes' house, Jerry is running across a tablecloth, but getting anywhere. As the view widens we see that Tom is pulling the cloth like a treadmill off the end of a buffet. When Jerry reaches the end of the cloth, he then runs across to the other side of the table, but Tom quickly runs to the far end of the table, and opens his mouth. Although he cannot stop, Jerry grabs onto one of the cat's whiskers to swing himself back out, then escapes into his mousehole. Tom then knocks on the wall to get Jerry to come out, and patiently waits, but Jerry sneaks out through an electrical outlet around the corner. He sees a piece of cheese on a mousetrap and holds out the mousetrap to try to catch Tom's tail. When the cat's jumping tail repeatedly swishes past the trap, Jerry finally grabs his tail and sets it on the trap, which trips. He then runs for his life as Tom yelps in agony at his throbbing tail.

Jerry tries to run out the door, but he runs directly into a large sleeping bulldog (Spike), and almost hits him. Tom's chase runs him into the dog, causing Spike to awaken to being inadvertently being given a big kiss by Tom. Tom turns tail and runs, trying to escape by climbing up a lamp. Jerry gets his due as well when Spike hears him laughing at Tom's misfortune and turns to give chase to the mouse instead. Jerry escapes by climbing up the cuckoo clock, but accidentally activates it, causing the bird to pop out with Jerry hanging onto it, giving Spike several failed chances to chomp on him.

In delight, Tom slides and swirls down the lamp, but quickly the bulldog forces him back up. The same thing happens to Jerry, and this time when the cuckoo bird pops out with Jerry on board, Spike succeeds in destroying the cuckoo, resulting in him missing the mouse. Still, Jerry has to scramble in thin air to hold on for dear life. Tom again tries to sneak away quietly, and succeeds until the floor creaks causing Spike to go after the cat again. Off-screen, sounds of a horrific brawl are heard, and the mortified mouse resolves to assist his rival in fighting the greater danger. The cat jumps onto a desk as Spike attempts to bite him, and Jerry whistles for Tom to join him on top of the clock where it's safe. To avoid the next chomp, Tom leaps all the way to the clock, but his grip is unstable and Tom's whiskers start snapping under the tension. As he starts to fall, the cat gropes in thin air to safety, and Tom extends his hand to Jerry in gratitude. When Jerry loses balance trying to shake the cat's hand, Tom returns the favor and saves him by lowering his tail to pull him out of Spike's mouth, and now that this alliance has been fully sealed, they shake hands. As Spike continues to growl menacingly at them, Tom and Jerry come to the conclusion that they have no choice but to fight back against their new enemy.

The new allies connive a plan together; Jerry sneaks across the ceiling sides, down a curtain, and into a sewing basket. He ties a piece of the long thread of yarn to his body and starts to sneak through the house. As a cover for Jerry's plan, Tom taunts Spike and holds out his tail, continually pulling it up every time Spike tries to bite it. Meanwhile, the mouse has woven the entirety of the yarn through the house as a trap for Spike. Jerry sneaks up behind Spike, pulls up behind and kicks him in the rear, causing Spike to yelp in pain. When Spike lands, Jerry sticks out his tongue and throws Spike's lips over his own face, provoking Spike to chase him around the corner. Jerry then hides and leaves Spike to fall into the yarn trap, completely wrecking the room. This causes Mammy Two Shoes to promptly enter and survey the scene and Spike is then dragged across the floor by Mammy and thrown out, as he is not even supposed to be in the house.

Tom and Jerry wave to Spike as they watch him get thrown out, and Tom breathes a sigh of relief until a snap from far off is heard behind the curtain they are hiding. Tom's tail gets caught in another mousetrap, and despite Jerry's mournful denial, the chase resumes.

Production

• Directed by: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, Michael Lah
• Story: Jim Tyer, Carl Meyer
• Animation: Ray Abrams, George Gordon, Bill Littlejohn, Irven Spence, Cecil Surry, Jack Zander, George Germanetti, James Tyer
• Sequence Director: Dan Gordon
• Music: Scott Bradley
• Co-Producer: William Hanna
• Produced by: Fred Quimby

Censorship

Mammy's appearance at the end was cut from TBS and TNT.{{citation needed|date=June 2017}}

Voice cast

• Lillian Randolph as Mammy Two Shoes (1942 original) (uncredited)
• Thea Vidale as Mammy Two Shoes (1989 redubbed) (uncredited)
• Harry E. Lang and William Hanna as Tom (uncredited)
• Billy Bletcher as Bulldog (Spike) (uncredited)

Availability

DVD

• Tom and Jerry Golden Collection Volume One, Disc 1
• Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection, Volume Two, Disc 1

VHS

• Tom & Jerry's 50th Birthday Classics ^[1]

References

External links

• {{bcdb title|3160}}
• {{IMDb title|34657}}