The Cat Above and the Mouse Below

Plot synopsis:
In a concert entitled "Signor Thomasino Catti-Cazzaza Baritone", Tom is a famous legendary baritone singer who will perform at a concert to sing Largo al factotum from The Barber of Seville. Tom arrives in a very long limousine, and emerges, tossing a rose into the crowd. He walks on stage to applause and begins to sing for the audience watching. While all this is taking place, down below the stage, Jerry is trying to sleep, but is awakened by Tom's operatic tones.
Jerry tries to gesture for Tom to stop, by banging on the stage with a toothbrush but in return Tom, while singing, stomps on the floor enough to get Jerry to shake and bounce around his "room". Enraged, Jerry uses a hammer to pound a floorboard, shooting Tom out of his tuxedo into the air, from where he falls back into it, but upside down, and legs through sleeves. Tom tiptoes offstage to change back to normal.
Next, Tom sings again, this time, stomping the floor while performing, much harder than before, creating a huge rumble in Jerry's house, eventually causing Jerry's bed to collapse on top of him. Jerry thinks it's war and decides to get revenge. Tom continues the performance and Jerry holds up a sign through the vent onstage that has "PSST" written on it. Tom continues singing as he pokes his head in, and Jerry snaps his lips closed in a pucker with a doubled rubber band. In retaliation, Tom uses the rubber band to shoot a long staple into the vent, which shoots down, ricochets several times, and then whisks Jerry right out of his nightshirt, and pins him up on the wall by his neck. Jerry crosses his arms, one leg over the other, and then "taps" his foot midair, looks exceedingly annoyed.
As Tom sings in the middle of his performance, Jerry manages to get free from the staple and at the side of the stage licks a lemon so Tom gets sour by the thought of the scene, and sweating, his lips pucker and shrink. Frustrated, he goes to Jerry and while continuing to sing, juices the lemon on Jerry's head. Tom returns to the spotlight. Jerry then drills a hole in the floor and uses a hooked wire to pull the bottom of Tom's vest apart causing the chest portion to spring up and whap him in the face. Tom grabs the wire and yanks it up and down banging Jerry's head on the board until Jerry thinks to let it go. While Tom is singing the "Figaro!" part, Jerry aims a plunger at Tom's mouth and scores a direct hit. Jerry imitates Tom mockingly; but then Tom sticks him to the floor with the plunger. Using Jerry's bow, he shoots Jerry in the plunger onto a wall offstage.
Jerry frees himself and unintentionally drops a huge sandbag on Tom as he is reaching the climax, sending him crashing through the floor. Everything is silent until Jerry walks out in a tuxedo. Now the mouse is above, and the cat stuck below, and Jerry sings the last section of the performance himself (albeit sped up). An infuriated Tom raps on the floor with a broom and sends Jerry flying, but this just adds to Jerry's drama singing the final few notes as he makes a graceful balletic landing before gets a loud applause and the words "The End" appears on the close curtains as a cartoon closes.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
Tom is clearly a cat of parts!. As is clear to those who follow the exploits of Tom and Jerry, they are both quite artistically gifted.  Tom himself has played piano and bass and here sings opera.  While I personally prefer his rendition of "Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't, My Baby?" (in Solid Serenade whilst playing the afore-mentioned bass), I freely admit that Tom is in fine voice here (that of Terrance Monck, to be precise) but Jerry still steals the cartoon.  There is a sequence featuring a lemon in two sight gags that is absolutely priceless! Even those who aren't especially fond of opera will enjoy this take on the artform.  Not "What's Opera, Doc?", but good enough in its own right.  Well worth watching.  Recommended.. Along With "The Cat Concerto",The Greatest Catoon Ever". I'm twenty years old ,and I'm still crazy about cartoons,and the"Tom And Jerry" cartoons are the best ever made.But if I had to decide what is the best cartoon ever made,I would be in deep trouble,because like "The Cat Concerto",this "The Cat Above And The Mouse Below",is a unique Masterpiece.It all start with Tom,in a very fancy suit(Looking just like Fred Astaire)trying to do his job and sing the barber song from "The Barber Of Sevilha". Guess who decided to take a nap,under the theater floor.The whole film is a delicious sucession of jokes and like always there is Tom.I've said once,and I would say again:Tom is the greatest cartoon character,and "The Cat Above And The Mouse Below" is the second greatest cartoon masterpiece,losing only for "The Cat Concerto" of,course. One of the better Chuck Jones directed Tom and Jerry cartoons, and possibly the funniest. I love Tom and Jerry, and while The Cat Above and the Mouse Below is not one of their best, it is one of the better Chuck Jones-directed Tom and Jerry cartoons and much better than any of Gene Dietch's efforts, most of which in my opinion were abominations.While too short and rushed in places, The Cat Above and the Mouse Below I feel has a quite neat set-up. I loved the cartoon's idea and I thought it was executed more than satisfactorily. Granted, it is not the most original concept in the world for a cartoon, but that didn't stop from being entertained. The animation is not bad either, it is not the best looking of the Tom and Jerry cartoons and lacks the "classical" feel of the T&J cartoons of the 50s and 60s but the backgrounds are much less static, the characters are better drawn and the colours are more vibrant.The music is a complete delight. I am a big classical music/opera enthusiast, so hearing Tom singing Figaro was refreshing and very fun to watch. The cartoon is also very funny, to be honest I find the Chuck Jones T&J cartoons rather hit and miss, some are funny, some are borderline, some are lacklustre. When it comes to the humour, some of it is actually hilarious. Especially the gag(s) with the lemon, that is priceless and one of the funnier sight gags in any of the 60s Tom and Jerry cartoons.All in all, not the best, but very entertaining and one of Chuck Jones' better T&J efforts. 8/10 Bethany Cox