Royal Cat Nap is a 1958 American one-reel animated cartoon and is the 111th Tom and Jerry short directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
Plot[]
The king is sleeping peacefully in his bed, then Jerry and Tuffy climb a nearby table. However, Tuffy loses his balance and grabs Jerry's outfit, but cannot keep from falling. Jerry looks at where Tuffy fell, but then Tuffy pops up behind Jerry and scares him. Jerry is miffed, but Tuffy explains in French what happened. Jerry shushes him and motions for the little mouse to follow. Jerry jumps into a wedge of cheese and looks through the holes. He keeps stealthy as he spears a bit of cheese on his sword. Then, he sees Tuffy has speared a grape, which bounces into the king's mouth. The king's mouth starts to inflate as he suffocates, but Jerry causes the grape to be swallowed safely down his throat. Jerry runs away and motions again for Tuffy to follow, but Tuffy runs into a teacup and breaks it, waking up the king with a start. The king glares at Tuffy, and then Jerry stabs him in the nose. He cries out and calls for "a cat". Tom answers the call moments later, and is chastised by the king in French about his doing whatever he wants when he needs help ("Goofing off?"). The king then warns Tom not to let the mice disturb his nap again or else he will have the cat beheaded. He then goes to sleep and Tom marches around the king's bed; then he sticks his tongue out at him and is bopped on the head. Tom resumes marching until he hears Jerry eating cheese. Tom gets ready to skewer the mouse, and then Jerry points to Tuffy dropping a vase. Tom catches it on his sword-blade.
Jerry and Tuffy then throw the entire platter of dishes down and Tom is forced to catch all of them on his sword, head, arm, and paw. Tom uses his remaining foot to tiptoe out of the castle so that the dishes falling do not wake the king and then rushes back in. Jerry sets out thumbtacks for the Tom to step on; at their speed, he steps on tacks scattered by the two mice and goes out again before yelling out in pain and pulling out the tack so he cannot wake the king up. Tom runs back in for the second time and barely stops before he steps on the tacks again. Tom puts a gauntlet on his paws in order to tiptoe across the tacks without being hurt. Tom then confronts Jerry, but Jerry stabs him in the nose. The cat is forced to cover the king's ears so that he does not hear his cry of pain. Tom spots some champagne corks and then hears mysterious clanking. A suit of armor is being used as a puppet, and it dances noisily. Jerry raises the visor and sees only Tom, standing nonchalantly next to the suit. He gestures toward the king, whose ears are plugged with the corks, and then slices apart the suit of armor. Jerry dodges while Tuffy escapes and plugs the king's nose and mouth with clothespins, which causes his face to bloat again. Tom has caught Jerry on the end of his blade, but Jerry points at the king, and Tom can only watch as the clothespins and corks are blown off and the king wakes up. Tom plays a soothing violin tune to cause the king to fall asleep again.
Tom chases the mice outside, then locks all the doors and swallows the key so that they cannot get back in. However, they bring a crossbow and shoot an arrow through the keyhole into Tom's backside. Tom tries to hold his scream of pain in until he can get outside, but with no way to get outside, Tom can't help but let his scream out inside the room. The king wakes up and yells at Tom in French that he will prepare to behead Tom. However, the mice realize their mistake in letting Tom get beheaded, so Tuffy saves Tom's life by singing Frère Jacques (Are you sleeping?) to the king, sending him back to sleep again. Tom and the mice tip-toe outside the room, shaking hands together, and having a fight. Tuffy says: "C'est la Guerre." ("That's war.") during the break and resumes his fight.
Notes[]
- The running gag of Tom having to rush outside to a distance away from the building to keep the noise away was also used in the earlier Tex Avery shorts Rock-a-Bye Bear and Deputy Droopy. It was used less straightforwardly in The Legend of Rockabye Point, also directed by Avery, but in the Walter Lantz studio instead of MGM.