Cruise Cat is an animated Tom and Jerry short released on October 18th, 1952 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and produced by Fred Quimby.
Tom is instructed to keep things clean and free from incidents in a cruiser, which is scheduled to take its passengers to Hawaii. Jerry arrives the maritime terminal to begin his vacation trip to the aforementioned US state, but naturally finds opposition from the diligent cat. The episode revolves around Jerry trying to stay aboard, while Tom tries to kick the mouse out in order to avoid losing his job.
This animated feature provides examples of:
- Cruise Episode: Tom is the mascot on a cruise ship and is warned by the captain that he'll be locked in the brig if he finds a mouse aboard. Of course, Jerry finds his way on the ship and knocks Tom off the cruise into the water multiple times, but Tom always finds his way back. When Tom thinks he got rid off Jerry for good and the captain is about to congratulate him for keeping the cruise free of mice, they see Jerry on a food serving tray, which leads to Tom being thrown in the brig.
- Empty Swimming Pool Dive: Occurs when Jerry removes a plug to dry up the pool he wanted to swim in so Tom crashes against the hard bottom.
- Improvised Catapult: Jerry's last intended method to board the cruiser is by using a thin bamboo stick (pole vault style) to catapult into one of the ship's windows. It doesn't work, because Tom closes the window and Jerry crashes against it, falling into the water (at that right moment, however, the anchor raises as the cruiser prepares to leave, allowing Jerry to get in anyway).
- Inevitably Broken Rule: Tom is threatened with a layoff if something happens to the cruiser he's tasked to keep clean. This means Tom has to kick Jerry out of the cruiser as soon as the mouse tries to board it. Jerry is determined to get to Hawaii for his vacation, so he'll have to defeat Tom even if it leads to the cat's punishment.
- Oh, Crap!:
- This is Jerry's reaction upon realizing that Tom intercepted his plan to board the cruiser by walking through a rope. Jerry tries to run back, but Tom shakes the rope so Jerry ends up being Squashed Flat before managing to escape.
- Tom shows an expression of terror upon seeing Jerry having eaten all the pancakes that were meant to be served to the cruiser's captain. His reaction is further understood when taking into account that he believed he had gotten rid of Jerry prior.
- Pain to the Ass: At one point, Tom looks for Jerry while standing in front of a funnel whistle. Jerry approaches him from behind and pulls off the steam to attack his rear, causing the cat a lot of pain.
- Prison Cut: Near the end of the episode, Tom throws Jerry away from the cruiser. The mouse, after barely escaping the claws of a hungry seagull, falls back into the cruiser, but lands into a food serving tray with pancakes prepared for the ship's captain. That captain congratulates Tom for keeping things in order, but then the kitchen's chef brings the tray to serve the captain and, with the cover removed, everybody sees the mouse having eaten the pancakes. Next thing shown is Tom being thrown into the cruiser's brig, then seeing Jerry enjoying himself in the coast of Hawaii to bring an end to the episode.
- Recursive Canon: Tom chases Jerry in an attempt to kick him out of the cruiser. The two then arrive a projection room where an episode of Tom and Jerry (namely "Texas Tom") is being presented. They stop the chase to enjoy the theatrical feature... until they see their other selves hurting each other.
- Slippery Soap: At one point, while trying to escape Tom, Jerry approaches a bar of soap and puts it in the floor. When Tom passes by, he steps on the soap, which swiftly rides him away from the cruiser (while improvising a greeting to his boss in the process).
- Squashed Flat: Early in the episode, Jerry tries to board the cruiser by walking through one of the ropes that keep the big vehicle aground. He then notices Tom is unfazedly grabbing the rope from the inner end, which leads to Jerry trying to run back to the pier, only for Tom to shake the rope so the resulting wave squashes Jerry just when he reaches the outer end.
- Suddenly Speaking: After Tom is kicked by Jerry into the Booby Hatch room with the dynamite inside, Tom starts pounding on the locked door yelling "Help! God! Let me outta-" before the dynamite exploded.