The Karate Guard

The Karate Guard is a 2005 Tom and Jerry cartoon short directed by Joseph Barbera and Spike Brandt. It was the last Tom and Jerry cartoon to be written, co-storyboarded, co-directed and co-produced by the characters' co-creator Joseph Barbera before his death in December 2006. This is also, to date, the last theatrical cartoon to feature or star Tom and Jerry. It had a limited theatrical run in Los Angeles cinemas from September 27, 2005; then saw its television premiere on Cartoon Network on January 27, 2006.

Plot
The short starts at the outside of the house and then goes to Tom, who was taking a nap but was woken up by Jerry. Tom peeks through the mouse hole to see what the noise was and sees Jerry smacking a punching bag that mimics Tom. After Jerry finishes with the punching bag, his spiritual mentor appears and asks him if he's ready to take on Tom; Jerry agrees. After Jerry walks out of his home he sees Tom at the end of a hallway and becomes afraid of him, until Tom starts to mock Jerry, and laughs at the thought of Jerry defeating him. Jerry then decides to go and fight Tom until Tom pulls out a flyswatter and hits Jerry with it multiple times, then he slingshots Jerry with the flyswatter back into his home where he runs into one of his walls. Jerry's spiritual mentor appears again and gives Jerry a gong to ring that summons a "Karate Guard" named Momo-sumo (played by Spike) to aid him whenever he needs help.

The short deals with Tom's attempts to catch Jerry but does not know about Spike first. As soon as Jerry rings the gong, Spike sticks out his arm as Tom yelps and spins. He is then tied to a lawnmower and is launched into a garbage can. Tom moans in pain from hitting the garbage truck wall. The garbage truck door then closes on Tom. In the next scene, Jerry is eating cheese and Tom tries again. He grabs Jerry. Jerry struggles to free his hands. Spike comes and chops his backside. Tom yelps quickly and puts Jerry back, and falls to the ground. Then Tom puts pillow-like earmuffs on Spike. Tom dings to show Jerry that his guard can't hear his gong. Tom dings the gong close to Spike's ear. He wakes and shoots Tom into the air. Tom yells in fear and claws the roof he landed on. it doesn't work and he is teetering on the gutter's edge. Tom does a quick salute and falls. Then Tom takes a giant leap and land on the roof. Tom, who was shaking in fear heaves a sigh of relief. Jerry does everything he can to anger Tom, including making funny faces, showing him his underwear, etc. It works and the chase is off again. They chase into a toy store where Jerry hides in an airplane. Jerry turns it on and scalps Tom's head and then shaves Tom's body. As soon as Tom's fur comes back the chase stars again. He gets an airplane and is shredding Jerry's. Jerry gongs for Spike and Tom hits Spike's chest, causing him (Tom) to disintegrate. Spike sweeps him up and throws him in a trash can. A panicked Tom calls an exterminator, Butch, along with three more cats to remove Spike from the household. They do nothing more than fire paint-balls at Spike, who is thrown by the force into the swimming pool; Tom then breaks out laughing. However, Spike then grabs Tom and squashes him into a bowling ball which he uses to, literally, strike the cats out of the garden.

In the final scene, Jerry and Spike are watching TV (which is showing the battered exterminator cats with Butch opening his mouth and catching all his fallen teeth with his right hand) and eating popcorn, leading to Spike eating the whole popcorn and making Jerry ring the gong, but instead of a man, there is Tom, who arrives to bring more popcorn to Jerry and Spike and to kiss Spike's feet. The short draws to a close with a happy Jerry diving in the popcorn and munching it happily.

Availability
The Karate Guard is available as a bonus short on Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry and Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection volume 3 and the Tom and Jerry Deluxe Anniversary Collection,