The Wild Goose Chase

Rare Tom & Jerry treasures.

A group of anthropomorphic animals are having fun in the snow, and steal Farmer Al Falfa's door. After fighting with his water pump and later his hand, Al Falfa wakes up from a drunken dream and has trouble getting inside his house. The animals invite the farmer to have fun with them.

A Terrytoons cartoon released 17 March 1944. An elderly couple (human, not animal) dies, leaving their substantial estate to their mice, who had befriended them. A distant nephew, Willy the Spender, is outraged, and he takes the mice to court in an effort to destroy them! The judge decides in favor of the mice. This really whizzes off Willy the Spender, and he goes after the mice! Can Mighty Mouse save them in time?

Tom and Jerry are ambulance-chasing lawyers in search of more business.

A Terrytoons cartoon released 29 June 1945.

Mighty Mouse rescues a Sultan and all his palace residents from an attack by evil cats on flying carpets.

A very tough gang of alley cats are running a black-market operation in a big city, filled with little mice and gangster cats, and are making the streets mean indeed. And they have a hit-order out on Mighty Mouse.

The origin story of Super Mouse (later changed to "Mighty Mouse").

Waffles the Cat and Don the Dog fiddle around with a magic pencil, producing drawings that come to life.

A Terrytoons cartoon released March 1950. With Victor the Volunteer.

Mighty Mouse" cartoon. Cat and gang are ousted by Mighty Mouse. The mice in a big city are being ravaged by a vicious gang of cats led by notorious gang leader Kilkenny. The mice create assembled military units (tanks and planes and infantry... it's World War II, after all) to take on the cats... but they fail, and Mighty Mouse must rescue them! What? You were expecting they could win without him?

Tom and Jerry are police officers, driving around in their car and enjoying listening to some music on their police radio, when they hear a bulletin announcing another theft of a mummy from the local museum. They stumble upon the culprit, a mysterious and ghoulish man who is carrying a coffin through a secret door in a cemetery. They sneak in after him and watch him command the mummy to life; it is a beautiful woman, who he then commands to sing for his audience of skeletal theatre-goers.

A Terrytoons cartoon released 20 July 1945. A twisted version of some famous fairy tales! The Wolf introduces himself and explains that he's misunderstood! Red Riding Hood comes along, and the Wolf changes into his zoot suit, grabs Red and makes her do a jive boogie-woogie dance with him! Mighty Mouse sees this, and he clobbers the Wolf. Then the Wolf cross-dresses to impersonate Little Bo Peep, and lures a flock of lambs into his trap. He whips out a gun and makes the sheep take their wool off! Mighty Mouse sees this, and he beats the heck out of the Wolf. The Wolf then tries to get into the Three Little Pigs' house by pretending to be a cowboy. He calls for backup. The Wolves attack the pigs, Mighty Mouse trounces them, and all is well in Cartoonland!

Tom and Jerry go fishing, where they encounter an affectionate but annoying fish who won't leave them alone. They hear a piano-playing octopus (with twelve arms!) and have a run-in with a sword fish who cuts their boat in half. Other hijinks ensue, and the two eventually catch a tiny fish, which is in turn swallowed by a larger fish, and this process continues until they've caught a veritable whale. They row ashore triumphant, but when one of them puts their reel (still holding the fish) over their shoulder, the larger fish slip off, unbeknownst to them, leaving them with the runt they started with.

A pirate cat has his eyes set on a beautiful island mouse princess. He and his fellow pirates kidnap the beautiful girl. When singing cat pirates decide to kill all the mice on board for the buried treasure, the natives call to Mighty Mouse for help. Singing his way from the skies, Mighty Mouse flies to the pirate ship, fights buccaneers to the death, and saves the young beauty. He returns her to her people, to their thunderous applause. Lots of opera singing in this one.

This early Mighty Mouse cartoon -- actually, he was still called 'Super Mouse' at this point -- is one of the better ones, due to the large number of good comedy gags inserted -- cats hiding behind skinny trees, mice running down cats' gullets and into their tails, and so forth.