The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit

The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit is a Tom and Jerry cartoon produced and released in 1962. It was directed by Gene Deitch and produced by William L. Snyder. Despite mixed reception, it is mainly known as the most critically acclaimed of the Gene Deitch Tom and Jerry shorts among members of the Tom and Jerry fanbase. The ninth of thirteen Rembrandt Films cartoons indirectly makes fun of the violence in the original William Hanna and Joseph Barbera shorts.

Plot
The cartoon begins with a demonstration for the Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit, with which "anyone can now enter the lucrative field of animated cartoons." The items in the kit include the following:


 * Tom (or "one mean, stupid cat")
 * Jerry (or "one sweet, lovable mouse")
 * A hammer, knife, and stick of dynamite (or "assorted deadly weapons")
 * Coffee and cigarettes (removed from kit and described as being "for the cartoonists")
 * A slice of watermelon

The narrator points out, "The result may not make sense, but it will last long enough for you to be comfortably seated before the feature begins." This statement refers to the original theatrical exhibition of the cartoon, in which it ran ahead of a feature film.

At first, Jerry eats the watermelon and spits the seeds out, hitting and waking Tom, who initially grabs the hammer to hit Jerry but instead flicks him in the back of the head. This causes Jerry to swallow his mouthful of seeds, whereupon he starts dancing and shaking his body to make tango sounds. Tom catches him in a metal can and uses him as a shaker for his own dance; when the effect suddenly stops, Tom peeks in and gets a mouthful of seeds spat into his face. He devours the rest of the watermelon and turns his head into a cannon to fire blasts of seeds at Jerry, who takes cover in the kit box just before Tom hits it, destroying the stick of dynamite.

Jerry winds up lying beneath a book named Judo for Mice, studies it, and emerges with enough fighting skill to easily overpower Tom. Even a stint of training at a boxing gym and use of the knife do not give Tom any advantage against Jerry. Finally Tom goes to a judo school in order to face him again. The two have a breaking contest, in which each tries to outdo the other: Jerry with a wooden board, Tom with a brick, then Jerry again with a cement block. The contest ends abruptly when Tom tries to break a huge block of marble, which crashes through the floor and takes him with it.

The unconscious Tom ends up in the battered box. Jerry replaces the lid as the narrator explains, "Our next film will be for the kiddies, and will demonstrate a new poison gas. Thank you and good night." The music winds to a stop as if it was being played on a slowing phonograph record, and Jerry bows to the audience in typical Japanese fashion.