The Night Before Christmas

The Night Before Christmas (1941)

It's snowy and cold outside, and warm inside where Jerry squeezes past a mousetrap to cavort under a present-laden Christmas tree. Mistaking the sleeping Tom for a plush toy, Jerry wakes him and a mad chase ensues.

Date of release
1941-12-06
TMDB
7.4 / 10 (100)
Runtime
9m
Genres
Animation, Comedy, Family
Director
Joseph Barbera, William Hanna

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

The Night Before Christmas is a 1941 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the third Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, produced by Fred Quimby and animated by Jack Zander, George Gordon, Irven Spence and Bill Littlejohn. It was nominated for the 1941 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons, but lost to the Mickey Mouse short film Lend a Paw, making it the only Tom and Jerry cartoon to lose to a Disney film.

Trivia

This third cartoon uses what has become the basic "cat stalks mouse" premise, but also hints at a softening in Tom's character: when Jerry is out in the freezing cold, Tom worries about him, indicating that their rivalry may not be entirely a fight to the death.

This short was aired as part of the MeTV Christmas special titled "MeTV's Super Colossal Cartoon Christmas" that was hosted by characters from Toon In with Me and Svengoolie.

It is also one of the first two Tom and Jerry Christmas-themed shorts produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, followed by The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show's "Snowbrawl" episode (co-produced by MGM Television and Filmation). Ted Turner acquired the rights for Tom and Jerry and other characters from MGM Cartoon Studio in 1986 (later merged with Warner Bros. since 1996).

Other Tom and Jerry Christmas-themed specials are the Tom and Jerry Tales episode "Ho Ho Horrors", several direct-to-video holiday movies starring Tom and Jerry (including Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale and Tom and Jerry: Snowman's Land) and several episodes (including one TV special) from The Tom and Jerry Show (2014), including Santa's Little Helpers, The Plight Before Christmas and Dragon Down the Holidays.

The phenomenon where Tom attempts to revive Jerry is also reused in the 1960s Tom and Jerry short film, Snowbody Loves Me, this time by wrapping Jerry in a scarf and having him drink a warm schnapps.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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