Mucho Mouse

Plot synopsis:
Madrid, Spain 1956
The camera slowly pans to the right and reveals a Spanish house, and goes inside to the sound of a flamenco guitar. As the camera reveals that Lightning is playing the guitar while leaning against a couch, Jerry, known in this cartoon as El Magnífico (Spanish for "The Magnificent"), comes dancing out of his hole and then brings back a small wedge of cheese. Meanwhile, the Spanish owner of the house (Joan) comes in the room, sees Jerry, and taps her foot impatiently at Lightning. In Spanish, Lightning compliments the señorita (Joan) about her good looks today, until he finally agrees to chase Jerry. He dives at the mouse eating his cheese on the carpet, and Jerry strategically raises the carpet and himself such that the cat goes underneath the carpet and runs into a table. Lightning is unfazed and returns the other way, but the mouse ties the cat's tail to another table and is drawn back into it, and then smashed by the top of the table. Lightning's legs, tail, and head pop out akin to a turtle.
Now, the cat dives at the mouse next to his El Magnífico hole, and the mouse lifts himself out of the way again, leaving the cat to pitch and jump directly into his guitar where he left it, on the couch. Jerry, having defeated Lightning, dances back into his hole. The poor cat, head poking through his guitar, proclaims it is no use. Joan responds by saying that is because he is lazy - the laziest cat, in fact, that she has ever seen! Lightning is hurt, and responds that nobody could catch "El Magnífico". Therefore, she commands him to read a telegram which says "Arriving today from U.S.A., Guarantee to catch mouse (El Magnífico)....Tom, Olympic, U.S. and World Champion Mouse Catcher."
Tom arrives at the door with numerous medals and trophies beside him. The cat, being from the United States, uses a guide book to help him speak Spanish. He tells the señorita: "How are you, ma'am?" in Spanish, obviously struggling with the language, particularly on the "señorita". However, she waves this off as good manners, and then leaves, reaffirming Tom's guarantee to catch the mouse. They bid goodbye in Spanish (Tom still speaking poorly), and the señorita then snubs Lightning in comparison to Tom. Lightning, whose guitar is repaired, pulls back and lets go of the strings on his instrument, which smack into Tom, making him angry. Lightning points to the mouse hole and sings "El Magnificooooooooooo...". Just then, Tom sees Jerry carrying a banana as he walks back into his hole.
Tom uses a stethoscope to detect Jerry in the wall, marks the spot (X), drills a hole in the spot (X), and then pulls the mouse out with a fireplace blower. The cat stuffs Jerry into a small cannon, lights it, and holds the door open for the mouse as he is thrown out of the house. Triumphant with no trouble at all, Tom claps his hands. However, Jerry pops right back in via a small door panel at the bottom of the door. Tom kicks him out a second time, and Jerry comes back in through one of the higher panels, which falls on Tom's head. Jerry does a different dance this time, in which he steps repeatedly on the board. As he is coming close to the El Magnífico hole, Tom begins to flamenco along with him and around the room. However, the tables are turned when Jerry directs the dance to a nearby window, which Tom falls through and out of, then down into a fountain. Tom is now incensed.
The camera cuts to the front door and Tom shunting the door out of the way. He stops next to Lightning and begins to transform into a bull as bullfight music plays, thus ramping up Lightning ("El Toro!"), and begins to play a guitar tune along with the music as El Magnífico comes out in a matador garb.
Tom makes a beeline for the mouse and misses as Jerry eggs him on by saying "Haha!, Toro!, C'mon!" The cat runs at him again, and Jerry, blindfolded, jumps in the air and the red cape swirls like a tutu in the air. The camera cuts to Lightning cheering "¡Ole!" with progressively higher emotion, until he sees Tom crash into a table and a small piece of pottery cracks over his head. So Jerry opens Tom's eye and waves the red cape in it, causing it to spin and the cat to wake up. Tom lunges, but he misses a third time and slides into Jerry's mouse hole, taking the mouse along on top of him.
Jerry revives the "bull" by smacking him in his rear with the cape. Now, the cat is angry, but the fourth lunge leads to the cat simply disappearing into the cape as Jerry holds it out. After showing there is nothing on either side of it, Jerry hurls Tom out of the cape, and then plays guitar on Tom's whiskers. This gets the cat to continue the chase, and he turns in all directions to attempt to corner the mouse against the wall. However, Jerry escapes this and makes circles around the floor, causing Tom to wrap himself up in a pretzel shape. The camera now cuts to Jerry victoriously carrying his trophy as Lightning and a recorded clip of a Spanish crowd acclaim "¡Ole!".
Joan returns to find both Lightning and Tom playing guitar, and demands to know what is going on. Lightning responds, "Señorita, I told you: Nadie, absolutely no one, can catch El Magnífico!", and asks Tom if this was true in Spanish. Tom replies in the positive with fluent Spanish and both continue their guitar playing, as Joan sees Jerry pushing some fruits into his hole.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
'El Magnifico' Too Tough To Catch.
We are in Madrid, Spain, where an orange housecoat is unable to get rid of the mouse in the house.
The cat is on the sofa one afternoon, playing flamenco music on his guitar.
The mouse hears it, and comes out of his hole (where it says, "El Magnifico" over the outside of it) and begins dancing.
The housewife comes out and is not happy.
She chastises the orange cat (it's not Tom) for not getting rid of the mouse and for being lazy.
The cat replies, "No one, absolutely no one can catch 'El Magnifico.'""Is that so,?
says the woman.
"Read this." She hands his a telegram that says, "Arriving today from the U.S.A. Guaranteed to catch El Magnifico.
Signed, Tom, Olympic and World Champion Mouse Catcher."Tom then arrives at the house, complete with trophy (with a flashing neon message on it!), string of medals and a translation book.
The woman is thrilled and leaves the house, confident Tom will solve the problem.Well, Tom is good but the mouse is, indeed, too tough as we see in this entertaining animated short.
Hilarious, no, but it's funny and it's a "cute" cartoon.
I liked the music, too.(Note: There is an inference here that this 'toon is done is Spanish.
That's not true; most of it is in English, at least on the DVD, "Whiskers Away," that I have where this is included.).
not one of the best.
One of the few disappointing Tom and Jerry cartoons of the Hanna Barbera era.This cartoon is notable for the fact that Tom and Jerry both speak - and in Spanish!Jerry is El Magnifico, the uncatchable mouse.
The local cat has given up and plays flamenco guitar while Jerry raids the larder.
Call for the world champion mouse catcher - you guessed it - Tom So far an interesting idea, but Jerry emerges from every attempt unscathed.
Part of the charm of Tom and Jerry is that you're never quite certain who will get the best of things, but this one is entirely too predictable.However even the worst of the Hanna Barbera cartoons are at least watchable and better than most of the later efforts..
Not so magnifico..
Madrid, Spain, and a local cat is outclassed by the brave, quick-witted, flamenco dancing mouse called El Magnifico (or Jerry, as we know him).
Exasperated, the lady of the house sends for Tom, the World Champion mouser from the U.S. of A.I've seen well over a hundred Tom and Jerry cartoons thus far and this is one of the weakest, the set-up nothing special and the antics old-hat.
It might be set in Madrid, but there isn't much to distinguish Mucho Mouse from your average, predictable house-bound T&J caper, save for a little Spanish guitar, one small scene where Jerry plays toreador to the bullish Tom, and the fact that both the cat and mouse speak..
Even with the predictable story, Mucho Mouse is very entertaining.
As people may already know, I am a fan of Tom and Jerry.
I personally wouldn't consider Mucho Mouse one of the best, the story is a little too predictable and the cartoon is a little too short so those brings it down a notch.
However, there are some great sight gags and writing and Jerry is a joy to behold, so the cartoon is never less than entertaining.Mucho Mouse also goes at a cracking pace, and the characters are delightful.
Tom is good, but it is actually Jerry who steals the show.
The animation is beautifully done, especially in the colours and backgrounds.
The music is also outstanding, I loved the flamenco-rhythms, which added to the cartoon's setting and authenticity.All in all, a very entertaining cartoon without being one of the best.
8/10 Bethany Cox. Jerry Gonzales.
"Mucho Mouse" is a 7-minute cartoon from 1957, so it has its 60th anniversary this year, and this is one of the later Hanna Barbera collaborations featuring the world's most famous cat&mouse duo.
And they tried to bring in new aspects to keep the series going.
Here we hear both Tom and Jerry as well as the other cat talk (adding to the animals' humanization here), the action is moved to Spain and the fat black cat owner is replaced by a thin lanky Spanish woman.
The cat in the house has given up pretty much on catching Jerry, who is also known as The Magnificent One here and only goes for it a bit when the owner's pressure becomes too much once again after Jerry empties the kitchen constantly.
So a new cat needs to come, but hey at least she seems to love her old red cat enough to not kick him out.
The new cat is Tom and God knows where he got all these awards and trophies from?
But after initial successes, he also quickly realizes that this mouse is out of his league and he basically turns into a second red cat, with other fur color obviously though.
So everybody's a winner as the cats are chill eventually and the mouse is happy because he still won't be stopped getting all these delicacies.
I mentioned the humanization earlier and the fact that the stereotypical reaction of cat killing or trying to kill mouse is never an option here, even if Tom manages to catch the magnificent, slightly boastful mouse early on.
Instead the cats applaud it and give in to its greatness.
Oh yeah, as for my title: I know Speedy is from Mexico and not Spain, but the Hispanic note here as well as all the flamenco guitar playing and dancing and, last but not least, Jerry's legendary reputation really reminded me of Speedy Gonzales here.
His first Oscar-winning cartoon is from 1955, so only 2 years older.
A coincidence?
I doubt it.
But this one here still succeeds in its own right.
It's worth seeing for cartoon lovers fore sure.
Not among T&J's most or least known overall, I give it a thumbs-up.