The Lion Tamer is a 1934 animated short film produced by the Van Beuren Studios and directed by Vernon Stallings and starring Charles J. Correll and Freeman F. Gosden as the voices of their popular radio characters, Amos 'n' Andy.
The Lion Tamer is a 1934 animated short film produced by the Van Beuren Studios and directed by Vernon Stallings and starring Charles J. Correll and Freeman F. Gosden as the voices of their popular radio characters, Amos 'n' Andy.
1934-02-02
2.5
Newly arrived in town Nat and Gabe accept a dinner invitation from the volatile Hungarian Helene and her boorish husband Sasha. Whilst the other guests, ex-Bananarama member Marty, Angie, who 'makes bullets' and the supposedly suicidal Danny are affable enough, Nat and Gabe are shocked by their hosts' very public rows and Gabe's attempt at peace-making is awkwardly received. Nat is taken aback when virtual stranger Helene confides in her about Sasha's suspected infidelity and Gabe is rudely rebuffed when he tries to have a heart to heart with Sasha. After Helene physically attacks her husband the newcomers are desperate to leave but when Danny drops a bombshell Gabe is torn between responsibility and the easy way out.
Jerry is awakened from a nightmare by a knock on the door: someone has left a foundling in a walnut shell with a note, giving his name as Nibbles and saying he needs lots of milk. Fortunately, there's a dish handy, but it's next to Tom. Nibbles scurries out and dives off Tom's nose, then grabs a whisker for balance, waking Tom up. Jerry grabs him just in time and they hide under the milk. Tom laps up some milk and gets Nibbles; Jerry rescues him, and they run for the hole. Next, they try a very long straw; Tom catches them and sucks Nibbles through the straw. Much chasing follows, with a pause now and then for some milk. Tom traps Jerry in a milk bottle and chases Nibbles a while; he finally corners Nibbles and spanks him with a flyswatter. Jerry is so enraged he burst out of the milk bottle and lets out a ferocious roar; he grabs Tom by the tail and thoroughly pummels him, then stands over him as Tom feeds Nibbles milk.
Tom's advances on a young jive-talking girl cat get nowhere; nowhere, that is, until Tom gets a zoot suit. Armed with his miles of fabric and a new cool lingo, Tom still has to deal with the tricks of his nemesis, Jerry.
The Easter bunny brings an egg for Tom and Jerry that hatches into the little duckling. He keeps getting into water he shouldn't: the aquarium, water cooler, bathtub, sink, as the boys keep rescuing it. They try to give the duck back to the Easter bunny - no go. They leave it in the pond at the park and think they're home free, until the duckling brings his friends home.
Jerry is far from Tom's servant here. Tom, shipwrecked, washes up on a tropical island. His first attempts at food - a coconut and a turtle - are much too hard. But he spots Jerry just before Jerry sees him, and soon has him in the frying pan. Jerry escapes to a cannibal village; when he sees Tom's frightened reaction, he has his plan. Using soot from a pot, he blackens himself, then threatens Tom and starts cooking him. But Jerry's plan - and tail, and un-blackened bottom - is exposed when his grass skirt comes off during his war dance. Jerry helicopters away using the bone in his hair, and leading Tom right into the real cannibals. But Jerry's triumph is short-lived, as a pygmy cannibal comes after him.
Felix the Cat is perched in a tree playing his guitar and serenading himself and a canary with a little ditty called "Nature and Me." It is a beautiful day in cartoon-land but Mother Nature, perhaps not a music lover, whips up a lightning-laden thunderstorm and Felix is soon seeking shelter. He finds it at the castle of King Cole, a boastful, fabricating blow-hard. The King's ancestors, tired of hearing the braggart, come out of their pictures as ghostly specters and take the King to the dungeon and pump the gassy hot-air out of him.
Felix is feeding his various pets: a bird, two dogs, and a goldfish. But Annabelle the goldfish is unhappy; she's lonely. Felix sets out to catch her a friend. The fish drag him underwater. After a bit of searching, he finds a goldfish, but the fish cries for help, and Felix finds himself on trial before King Neptune. He's accused of wanting to eat the fish, but after he explains himself, Neptune gives him a fish from the fish orphanage, and everyone lives happily.
Oswald would like to see Mlle. Zulu the Shimmy Queen but he's short on cash. Seeing the more stately gentlemen being admitted without tickets, he tries to fool the bouncer into thinking he's important by puffing up his chest and striding in. It doesn't work, and he's forced to try a second plan, sneaking in under another patron's shadow. He gets caught and spends his time being chased by the bouncer throughout the theater.
Oswald is riding along on his horse having a merry old time when the two of them fall down a hill, right up to a castle. Oswald whistles for the princess, who blows him a kiss as she appears on a balcony. He reaches her by lassoing the balcony and tying the other end of the rope to his horse's tail, using it as a tightrope. A rival knight suddenly appears and Oswald falls off the balcony, startled. He manages to climb back up and the two fight for the princess.
Oswald is off to see his sweetheart when he is passed by a rival in a faster car. He takes the lead, though, when both drivers encounter a mud puddle; Oswald isn't afraid to get a little dirty, while his competitor is. Oswald arrives and serenades his love, hampered by the animals in the yard. The rival shows up and they fight over the girl, during which time she slips away with a third suitor.
Oswald the Rabbit enters an airplane race with a makeshift aircraft and ends up riding a dachshund lifted into the air by balloons. Meanwhile, his peg-legged rival tries to cheat his way to victory.
Oswald's country is at war, like many other volunters he joins the army and finds himself soon in the trenches. A short battle leaves him wounded, but at least in the field hospital where his girlfriend is working.
Jerry runs into a dog pound (and right on top of a napping Spike) to escape a rather mangy-looking Tom. To avoid being ripped to shreds, Tom borrows the head of a nearby dog statue. This easily fools the dogs, but not Jerry, and Tom keeps losing his newfound head...
Tom enters from stage left in white tie and tails, sits at the piano, gets his focus as the orchestra in the pit beneath him warms up, and begins to play Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody". Unbeknownst to Tom and the audience, Jerry is asleep across several of the high-note keys inside the instrument, so Tom's playing eventually wakes him. Jerry is pummeled by hammers, bounced by wires, and squeezed by Tom as the cat tries to play the concerto while dispensing with Jerry. Jerry's defensive antics add to the brio of the program and answer Tom with Jerry's own skillful musical attack. By the concerto's end, the duet leaves only one animal standing for the audience's applause.
Tom ties up Spike and sneaks into the courtyard of the glamorous Toodles Galore with his bass, hoping to woo her with his song, much to the annoyance of a sleeping Jerry.
Spike the bulldog, grateful to Jerry for getting him out of the dogcatcher's van, offers to help the little mouse any time he whistles. Tom, Jerry's feline tormentor, seeks to overcome this new disadvantage.
Jerry crashes a vase onto Tom's head, which gets Mammy to throw Tom out. Jerry at first revels in his freedom, but soon tires of this, and, under a flag of truce, hatches a plan with Tom.
An educational short film directed featuring the Luxo Jr. discovering the concept of "Up" and "Down" with the help of his dad, Luxo Sr.
Tom chases Jerry into a bottle of invisible ink, and the now-invisible Jerry proceeds to have fun torturing Tom.
Jerry takes a midnight snack from the fridge unaware that Tom is watching him.