Busy Buddies

Busy Buddies is a 1956 one reel animated Tom and Jerry short directed and produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera with music by Scott Bradley. The cartoon was animated by Irven Spence, Lewis Marshall, Kenneth Muse and Ed Barge, with backgrounds by Robert Gentle and layouts by Richard Bickenbach. Busy Buddies was the 100th cartoon of the 114 that Hanna and Barbera directed during their tenure at MGM. It was released on May 4, 1956 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and also the first cartoon to feature Jeannie the babysitter (voiced by Julie Bennett) and a mischievous baby that kept crawling off, both of whom would return in the 114th and final cartoon, Tot Watchers.

Plot
Jeannie the babysitter is supposed to be looking after an unnamed baby while Joan and George are out. However, she is more interested in talking on the telephone. At first Tom and Jerry take the opportunity to help themselves to some food, Jerry helps himself to some cookies and Tom helps himself to a watermelon and milk, but they soon discover the baby crawling away while Jeannie continues to talk on the phone, unaware. Tom and Jerry rescue the baby from increasingly dangerous hazards, such as the cupboards, the sink, a curtain rod, the heating ducts, a flagpole, and a mailbox down the street (which leads to them being shot at by rogue police officers). Tom goes home with the baby, but suddenly the baby falls in the sky. Tom gets a stroller, but the baby uses a diaper as a parachute, and floats to safety. Jeannie is unaware through all of this (even when the baby crawls over her), and at one point even hits Tom with a book for "bothering the baby" when he returns the baby to the crib. At the end, Joan and George return and ask Jeannie how things went. She explains that she had a little trouble with Tom, but the baby was "no trouble at all". The camera then cuts to the baby in the crib, and the baby winks at the audience.

Availability

 * Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases, Vol. 5
 * Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 3, Disc Two