''The Little Orphan'' is a 1949 American one-reel

animated cartoon Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...

and the 40th ''

Tom and Jerry ''Tom and Jerry'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series c ...

'' cartoon, released in theaters on April 30, 1949 by

Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

. It was produced by

Fred Quimby Frederick Clinton Quimby (July 31, 1886 – September 16, 1965) was an American animation producer and journalist best known for producing the ''Tom and Jerry'' cartoon series, for which he won seven Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Films ...

and directed by

William Hanna William Denby Hanna (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001) was an American animator and cartoonist who was the creator of ''Tom and Jerry'' as well as the voice actor for the two title characters. Alongside Joseph Barbera, he also founded the ani ...

and

Joseph Barbera Joseph Roland Barbera ( ; ; March 24, 1911 – December 18, 2006) was an American animator, director, producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist who co-founded the animation studio and production company Hanna-Barbera. Born to Italian im ...

, with music by Scott Bradley. The cartoon was animated by

Irven Spence Irven LeRoy Spence (April 24, 1909 – September 21, 1995) was an American animator. He is best known for his work on MGM's ''Tom and Jerry'' animated shorts. Spence has been credited variously as Irven Spence, Irvin Spence, and Irv Spence. Care ...

Kenneth Muse Kenneth Muse (July 26, 1910 – July 26, 1987) was an American animator best known for his work on the ''Tom and Jerry'' series at MGM. Biography Muse worked briefly at Walt Disney Productions, where he was Preston Blair's assistant on '' Fa ...

Ed Barge Edward John Barge (August 29, 1910 – September 29, 1991) was an American animator. Barge was born to Alfred Edward and Margaret G. Barge in San Jose, California. In 1916, the family moved to Bakersfield, where his father was employed by t ...

and Ray Patterson. The short features Nibbles, a young mouse who is insatiably hungry. ''The Little Orphan'' won the 1948 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons, the fifth Oscar (of seven) given to ''Tom and Jerry''. Though the cartoon was released in 1949, it won its Oscar the previous year, tying them with Disney's ''

Silly Symphonies ''Silly Symphony'' is an American animation, animated series of 75 musical short films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939. As the series name implies, the ''Silly Symphonies'' were originally inte ...

'' with the record of the most Oscars.

Plot

Jerry Jerry may refer to: Animals * Jerry (Grand National winner), racehorse, winner of the 1840 Grand National * Jerry (St Leger winner), racehorse, winner of 1824 St Leger Stakes Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Jerry'' (film), a 2006 Indian fil ...

is sitting in a mouse-sized

chaise longue A chaise longue (; , "long chair") is an upholstered sofa in the shape of a chair that is long enough to support the legs of the sitter. In modern French the term ''chaise longue'' can refer to any long reclining chair such as a deckchair. A ...

reading ''Good Mousekeeping'' and eating cheese, which he is pulling off a mousetrap that has been set just in front of his mousehole. When his doorbell rings, he opens the door but does not see anyone; Nibbles zips through the door under his nose. Jerry shrugs in confusion, but then turns to see Nibbles pulling on the cheese in the mousetrap. He whisks him away just before it springs. Jerry then finds a note pinned to Nibbles' red scarf (which matches his cap, both trimmed with white fur). Nibbles is the orphan whom Jerry had agreed to host for

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...

. A postscript on the note warns: "He's always hungry". Jerry's cupboards are empty, so he carefully leads Nibbles to a big bowl of milk in front of where Tom is sleeping peacefully. Jerry warns him to be very quiet, and holds him over the bowl. Nibbles takes a nice loud slurp, awaking Tom just as Jerry pulls Nibbles back into hiding. Tom does not see anyone, so he slurps his milk and goes back to sleep. Jerry holds Nibbles out to catch the last big drop that falls from Tom's whisker, but the bowl is now empty. Then Nibbles sees

Mammy Two Shoes Mammy Two Shoes is a Character (arts), fictional character in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, MGM's ''Tom and Jerry'' cartoons. She is a heavy-set middle-aged African Americans, African American woman who takes care of the house in which Tom and Jerry reside ...

place a large turkey on the already laden table. Jerry climbs up to the table, and drops a long piece of spaghetti, which Nibbles slurps his way up. Nibbles begins to eat three bites of all kinds of food (and a candle), but Jerry again saves him from disaster when, bouncing off a

gelatin Gelatin or gelatine (from la, gelatus meaning "stiff" or "frozen") is a translucent, colorless, flavorless food ingredient, commonly derived from collagen taken from animal body parts. It is brittle when dry and rubbery when moist. It may also ...

or Jello, he almost lands in piping hot soup. Jerry takes decorations from the table and dresses himself as a pilgrim with a hat and

blunderbuss The blunderbuss is a firearm with a short, large caliber barrel which is flared at the muzzle and frequently throughout the entire bore, and used with shot and other projectiles of relevant quantity or caliber. The blunderbuss is commonly consid ...

, and Nibbles follows his example. Nibbles then takes a whole orange in his mouth, swelling his head, but Jerry hits Nibbles on the back of the head, causing the orange to fly out of Nibbles, and into a sleeping Tom's mouth, then rebounding back and forth in his guts, thoroughly waking him up. Tom, seeing the mice getting into the Thanksgiving dinner, puts on a feather duster, first as a general camouflage, but then as a Native American headdress. Tom approaches Nibbles, who points his toy blunderbuss at Tom. Tom lowers his chin, knowing this will not hurt him. What really comes knocking the feline out of his bliss is Jerry popping a champagne cork, which hurls into his face. Tom then grabs Jerry, but Nibbles, purposefully this time and carrying a fork, ricochets off the jello and stabs Tom in the hind end. Tom howls in pain and then uses the fork to catch Nibbles, and Jerry, perched on a

candelabra A candelabra (plural candelabras) or candelabrum (plural candelabra or candelabrums) is a candle holder with multiple arms. Although electricity has relegated candleholders to decorative use, interior designers continue to model light fixtures ...

, whacks Tom in the face with a large spoon, knocking him back. Sneaking back to the table, Tom sets a bowl of

cattails ''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English as bulrush or reedmace, in American English as reed, cattail, or punks, in ...

on fire one at a time, throwing them like spears. The cattails burn or melt the various hiding places Jerry and Nibbles find. With the third one, Jerry lifts a hemispherical lid and the cattail reverses back toward Tom. Then Tom throws a knife into the turkey and Jerry runs into the blunt edge, at his throat, and falls unconscious. Nibbles now launches an all-out attack: he bends back a knife handle to launch a pie, and using the string between the turkey legs, he slingshots a candle which lands on Tom's tail, and soon completely burns him up to a crisp (although Tom doesn't feel any pain) with his headdress turning into a set of pickaninny braids, giving him a

blackface Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used predominantly by non-Black people to portray a caricature of a Black person. In the United States, the practice became common during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereo ...

appearance. After cutting a cork off a champagne bottle, it begins to rocket at Tom and launches him into a cabinet, destroying it and all the dishes inside. Tom holds up a white surrender flag from the pile of broken dishes to show that he has fallen under. Finally, all three, with Tom bandaged, and order on the table restored, sit down to dinner. All bow their heads while Jerry says grace. But just as Tom and Jerry pick up their cutlery, Nibbles goes through the entire turkey like a buzz saw, leaving the famished cat and mouse with nothing to eat but the bones that have clattered to the plate. Nibbles, now finally full, pats his huge stomach in delight.

Production

As per every short of ''

'' during its first two decades, ''The Little Orphan'' was directed by

and

, with its score composed by Scott Bradley. The short is produced by

and animated by

, Ray Patterson, with layouts done by Richard Bickenbach. The cartoon was remade in

CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its creation in 1953 by ...

using thicker lines and more stylised backgrounds as ''Feedin' the Kiddie''.

Reception

Ben Simon of Animated Views considered the short as "a great example of a cat and mouse cartoon working well on all levels". For writer and historian Michael Samerdyke, ''The Little Orphan'' is " e of the most fondly remembered" ''Tom and Jerry'' cartoons, noting that the short "added some priceless images" to the cartoon series. He surmised that the short "unlocked something in Hanna and Barbera's imaginations. In the Fifties, instead of having their characters pretend they were in a different historical era, they would place the rivalry of Tom & Jerry in other times and places." Animation historian

Michael Barrier Michael J. Barrier (born June 15, 1940) is an American animation historian. Work Barrier was the founder and editor of ''Funnyworld'', the first magazine exclusively devoted to comics and animation. It began as a contribution to the CAPA-Alpha a ...

saw the character of Nibbles in ''The Little Orphan'' as an example of the growing sentimentality seen in ''Tom and Jerry'' in the late 1940s, as manifested in the character's "formulaic adorability".

Home media

*"Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases, Vol. 1" (2000) *"

Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection The ''Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection'' is a series of two-disc DVD sets released by Warner Home Video. Originally planned as an uncensored, chronological set, the issued ''Spotlight Collection'' sets include selected ''Tom and Jerry'' shorts ...

" (2004) *"

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection Warner Bros.' library of Oscar-nominated cartoons were showcased in a DVD set released by Warner Home Video on February 12, 2008 that included their own Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, as well as Tom and Jerry, Droopy, and other classic MGM car ...

: 15 Winners" (2008) *"

" (2008) *" Tom and Jerry: The Deluxe Anniversary Collection" (2010)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Little Orphan 1949 films 1957 films 1940s American animated films 1940s animated short films 1949 comedy films 1949 short films 1957 short films 1949 animated films Animated films about orphans Animated films without speech Best Animated Short Academy Award winners Films scored by Scott Bradley Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated short films Short films directed by Joseph Barbera Short films directed by William Hanna Thanksgiving in films Tom and Jerry short films American comedy short films Films produced by Fred Quimby Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio short films