I remember a time when cartoons were part of the everyday schedules on the BBC and to a lesser extent ITV growing up but I had a favourite and that was ‘Tom and Jerry’. I have many favourites of the duos capers but a stand out is The Night before Christmas (1941 film) luckily YouTube to the rescue this morning and I will put a link down below.
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the houseNot a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…
The opening scene we see a trap sitting outside a mouse hole with a lump of cheese wrapped in a bow acting as its enticing festive bait. Suddenly a little brown mouse pops his head around the door. Shockingly, the mousetrap does not crush Jerry. He leaves it where it is and goes off to investigate the decorated gift-laden house that is all ready for Christmas Day just hours later.
When I re-watched this short ahead of writing about it, I was astounded by just how much of it I remembered, especially in the opening moments. Jerry looking at his comically distorted reflection in a bauble; the falling dolly scaring the bejesus out of him; hiding in the mane of a cuddly lion; licking the red stripe off a candy cane. Of course, things get a little crazy when he accidentally wakes up a certain sleeping house cat, Tom.
But despite the classic chases, and the incredible cartoon violence, this is a Christmas story. After electrocuting Tom and hitting him over the head with various things, Jerry escapes through the letterbox. With Tom’s aims met, he blocks up the hole so that the annoying rodent can’t get back in. It’s snowing outside, however, and we see Jerry trudging back and forth in the snow attempting to stay warm whilst Tom relaxes by the fire.
The wind howls a gale outside. The cat’s hard heart is melted by seasonal spirit and he returns to prop open the letterbox and allow his housemate back in; but there’s no sign of Jerry. Thus, Tom embarks on a trip out in the cold to find the little frozen mouse and nurse him back to health, saving his life in the process. I’m not going to lie, as the duo warily exchange Christmas gifts and agree to put their mutual hatred aside for the holiday, I get a little choked up. When it’s revealed that Tom’s trap was not that at all, I’m positively beside myself.
It’s funny looking back on this film with the benefit of some wider knowledge. As a child, I probably preferred the moments where Jerry tricks Tom into running into a wall but I am a Cardiff City fan, a real life underdog so I was secretly longing for Tom to win the battle between the two. As an adult, I was able to get a little sentimental about these two dearly loved characters, enemies, getting into the spirit.
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