The Dog House (film)

The Dog House is the 72nd animated Tom and Jerry short, directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quimby with music by Scott Bradley. It was animated by Ed Barge, Kenneth Muse, Ray Patterson, Irven Spence, with backgrounds by John Didrik Johnsen. The cartoon's plot was inspired by, and is very loosely based on the 1948 Cary Grant/Myrna Loy film Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. It was released on November 29, 1952 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Plot
Spike is building the doghouse of his dreams. However, Tom chases Jerry through the chassis of the house and also pulls a board off it to attack the mouse with. When Jerry perches on Spike's head, even lying on top of his dream house does not stop it from being smashed. Tom bolts, but Spike stomps on his tail, then dusts himself off and wrenches the cat facing in his direction. He issues Tom an ultimatum: the cat had better leave his dream house alone or Spike will make him suffer the (fatal) consequences.

Tom is thrown into a power pole, shaking a mailbox onto his head. Tom goes behind a wall and frees himself, then peeks his head around the corner to spot Jerry jogging. Both cat and mouse dig under the dream house during the chase, and Tom drags Spike with him until he is bopped on the head with the dog's hammer. Tom falls backwards out of control and dumps Spike on top of the dream house before the dog can avoid the collision; Spike drums his fingers as Tom escapes.

Spike is ever more vigilant as he paints the next iteration red; meanwhile, Tom is still giving chase through the garden. When Tom is tripped up by a rollerskate from Jerry and knocks the dream house out of position, Spike doesn't notice and continues painting. When he opens his eyes, Tom's tail is painted red, like a fox's. Tom proceeds to threaten the dream house with destruction by ax, and mocks the dog by using Spike's nose as a noisemaker. Spike attempts to attack Tom again, and is delayed until the blade falls off the ax handle, with a sound of " bimperdibim". Before he gets beat up by the angry dog, Tom slams Spike on the head with the handle and steals away as Spike falls on his own dream house, crushing it forever.

Tom hides, but comes across Jerry in no time. He spots a roller and attempts to mow Jerry down with it; Spike, sleeping in his completed house, spots the chase aimed right at him. He holds out his hand, ordering the cat to stop, but Tom mows right over him, making an arrow shape. Tom chases Jerry into his mousehole and lights a firework, which Jerry promptly approves of throwing into Spike's dog house. Tom tries to remove the firework, but Spike catches him. Tom retreats innocently while Spike starts to look inside; Tom discourages the dog from doing so, but Spike pushes him away and looks inside anyway. The firework explodes the dream house, leaving Spike in a blackface sunflower appearance.

Tom chases Jerry up the power pole seen earlier and chops it down. Spike is repairing his house when he spots the falling behemoth. He frantically moves to the front yard, where the very end of the pole falls and obliterates his home. Spike, annoyed, builds his next home in a tree and hammers "Home sweet home". Quite unfortunately for him, Tom has followed Jerry to this tree and chops it down with an ax as Jerry climbs to the top of it; Spike mutters "Timber" in frustration.

Spike has finally achieved peace and quiet in his house, and Jerry is sleeping on top of it. Tom spots the mouse from through a hole in the fence and lassoes him. Jerry wakes up as he's being pulled off the house and pulls the rope back, launching Tom into the fence. Extremely miffed, Tom pulls back, but Jerry has hooked the rope to Spike's house and the dog is pulled all the way into the fence, destroying his house again. Tom tries five more times to get Spike through the fence, jolting the dog each time, and then uses the nearby fire hydrant as a pulley to squeeze Spike through the hole in the fence. The weight of Spike flattens Tom into the fence, which causes the cat to realize who he is holding. Tom tosses Spike over the fence and runs away, but his tail is grabbed through the hole by Spike and the dog pulls him back repeatedly just as Tom had done to him. Then Spike works as partners with Jerry to get the cat to finish Spike's house for good, with Tom as his slave being ready to receive whippings from the dog. Tom is forced to do every single task such as hammering the nails into the wooden planks used to build the doghouse and sawing the bottom of it at once.

Voice cast

 * Daws Butler as Spike

Censorship
Much like The Yankee Doodle Mouse, the dog house exploding on Spike's face causing him to be in blackface is censored. However, the scene remains to be shown uncensored on Boomerang.

Availability

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