Blue Cat Blues

Blue Cat Blues
File:.png Theatrical poster.
Production company	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributor	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	November 16, 1956
Producer(s)	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Music composed by	Scott Bradley
Screenplay by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Director(s)	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
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Blue Cat Blues is the hundred and third animated theatrical short of the Tom and Jerry series. It was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on November 16, 1956. It was produced, written and directed by series creators, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.

In this unusually dark cartoon, Jerry reminisces on Tom's desperate love life and the events leading up to his downward spiral into depression.

Detailed summary

The short opens with a depressed Tom sitting on the railroad tracks, heavily depressed and apparently bent on suicide-by-train. Jerry, who is watching Tom from above, believes "for the first time since he met her, he will be happy," so "it's better this way." Jerry then recalls the events leading up to Tom's depression.

Jerry recounts that both he and Tom were best friends, but that soon changed one day when Tom fell in love with a beautiful white female cat who, at first, seems to reciprocate Tom's feelings for her. She then winds up leaving Tom for her next-door neighbor, an obscenely rich tomcat named Butch; ultimately revealing herself as a gold digger and confirming Jerry's earlier suspicions.

Despite Jerry's vain protests, Tom becomes determined to push himself on the limit his own finances and beyond, all in the futile attempt at winning back the white cat's affections. Tom's first arrives at the white cat's doorstep to give her a single flower. But upon his arrival, Tom had found out that she had already received a beautiful horseshoe garland of roses from Butch. Tom attempts to impress her again by giving her with a small bottle of perfume, but then Butch arrives with a large tanker truck full of perfume. After squandering his own savings, Tom buys a diamond ring. But because Tom's diamond was so small that the white cat needed a magnifying glass to look at it, she presents him a ring from Butch with a large diamond so shiny that she and Tom need welding helmets just to see it. For his fourth and final gift, Tom takes out a predatory 312 monthly, 112% APR loan from a used car lot to buy her an old, rickety automobile, only for Butch to arrive in his long and fancy convertible, crushing Tom and his car.

Ultimately, the white cat chooses Butch over Tom, once again proving herself to be nothing more than an opportunistic gold digger. Tom—now desperate, broke, and severely heartbroken—starts drinking milk uncontrollably to drown his sorrows. He continues to ignore Jerry's pleas, and eventually nearly goes down the literal gutter, but is saved just in time by Jerry. The mouse managed to resuscitate his old friend, but then the duo saw that Butch and the white cat were driving by, just as they drove away in a car laden with luggage and a "Just Married" sign hanging off the back of it.

As the flashback ends and Jerry looks down at his friend with sorrow, he expresses happiness about how his own girlfriend, Toots (who looks like the mouse version of the white cat), has remained faithful to him, "with every bit of her true blue, ever-lovin' heart." However, Jerry's idyllic worldview is shattered when he sees that she is driving past him, having married to a rich mouse not too similar to Butch, and proving herself to be a gold digger as well. Heartbroken, Jerry meets Tom and joins him on the tracks. The duo waits for the oncoming train, which draws nearer and nearer. The train's whistle sounds louder as the cartoon fades out, leaving their fates uncertain.

Characters

Legend
Character debut	Speaking debut	Ep. debut	No lines	Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character	Actor
Tom Cat	William Hanna
Jerry Mouse	Paul Frees (narration)
Female cat	N/A
Butch	N/A
Toots	N/A
Rich mouse	N/A

Locations

• Earth
  • United States

Music

The music was composed by Scott Bradley.

Release

Dates are in order of release:

• United States: November 16, 1956

Behind the scenes

• The short is often cited by many as the darkest Tom and Jerry cartoon due to its subject matter and unusually dark ending.
• It is often confused to be the final short of the series due to the implied deaths of Tom and Jerry in the end. The final produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayor was Tot Watchers in 1958, while the final overall short was Purr-Chance to Dream, produced by Chuck Jones at Sib Tower 12 in 1967.
• The white female cat in this episode looks identical to Tom's girlfriend in Muscle Beach Tom, albeit all-white with blue eyes and red lipstick instead of all-brown with green eyes and no lipstick.

Legacy

To avoid controversy, Cartoon Network and Boomerang rarely air this cartoon due to its references to alcoholism and suicide. This cartoon has rarely been seen on American television, although it has aired once on TNT in the early 1990s and made its rounds on local affiliate channels.

Critical reception

In Cartoon Carnival: A Critical Guide to Best Cartoons, writer Michael Samerdyke said "Blue Cat Blues is deeply indebted to Tex Avery for its gags."

Video Movie Guide: 1995 called the short (in a review for the Tom and Jerry: Festival of Fun VHS) "among the worst Tom & Jerry outings".

The short was listed on Cracked's list of "5 Children's Cartoons Darker Than Most Horror Movies" in 2012, in which they jokingly wrote that it was the last episode of the series.

Home availability

• In the United States:
  • October 19, 2004: Warner Home Video releases Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection on DVD.
  • July 25, 2023: Warner Archive Collection releases The Fastest Gun Alive on Blu-ray Disc.