Advance and Be Mechanized
Advance and Be Mechanized, released in 1967, was the penultimate Tom and Jerry cartoon. It was directed by Ben Washam and produced by Chuck Jones, and is the third and final outer space themed shorts from the Chuck Jones era, following O-Solar Meow, and Guided Mouse-ille both released earlier in 1967.
| Advance and Be Mechanized | |
|---|---|
 Title Card | |
| Directed by | Ben Washam Abe Levitow Chuck Jones |
| Produced by | Chuck Jones |
| Story by | Bob Ogle |
| Starring | Mel Blanc June Foray William Hanna |
| Music by | Dean Elliott |
| Animation by | Dick Thompson Ben Washam Don Towsley Philip Roman |
| Backgrounds by | Phil DeGuard Thelma Witmer |
| Color process | Metrocolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date | August 25, 1967 |
Running time | 6:33 |
| Language | English |
Plot
The cartoon starts from another planet. One day, Jerry wants to get some cheese from the other room. He uses his robotic counterpart (Robot-Jerry) to enter the room and fetch him some cheese. The robot mouse goes in the room, taking a pile of cheese before leaving.
Meanwhile, Tom is a policeman, as he tries to look at the situation in panoramic parea, sees the mouse toy from the camera. He calls for his robotic counterpart (Mechano) to get rid of him for the last time. The mouse robot returns to the hole, but Mechano grabs his tail and unscrews him bit by bit until he has been destroyed, then he takes the cheese. After this scene, Jerry is disappointing that his robot's mission had failed and that he had lost his meal. Tom is seen laughing at Jerry's misfortune as Mechano returns to his master, and then he pats the robot cat, as if to praise him for his success.
The next scene, Tom is hungry when a lunch whistle starts to blow loudly. Tom runs to a line of robots, who are waiting at a machine to give them some oil. When Tom is fed, and realizes that it tastes bad, he knocks the can off in the robot arm and bangs on the machine in an attempt to either get his money back or be served a regular food. When he gets no response, he gets set to kick it until it "grabs" and kicks him.
Tom returns to work until he sees Jerry coming outside from his hole, he chases the mouse so that only allowed to eat him as he enters the same machine with Tom to ate from. He goes over a coin slot, ends up stuttered in a hamburger with an arm to put some spicy chilli sauce on him. After it explodes in hotness, Jerry puts the sauce bottle in the hamburger. Tom eats without knowing what Jerry did and it explodes in spiciness before the machine gives him a glass of water.
In the same scene, following on the other space-age shorts as Tom sees the robot-Jerry again continues. After being spotted robot-Jerry rushes once again from the camera, Tom calls for his minion. Then Mechano chases robot-Jerry, but robot-Jerry levitates himself into the air. Mechano extends his legs up and tries again, but then the robot-Jerry drops himself. Mechano continues his chase until he is almost wrecked over some obstacles. Mechano crouches to avoid a large fixture, and then extends himself high to avoid the second one. He chases robot-Jerry again until he hits over a doorjamb.
Mechano gets angry with Tom's gasps when his robot-cat takes control of his machine and trying to scold his robot-cat fails then turns him into the minion. Jerry sees this was laughing as a good thing, but the robot-Jerry was injured when he fails again to grab the cheese before the real Jerry becomes the robot-Jerry's minion. Both the robots control furry leaders as Jerry slaps Tom first, but Tom hits back and return to Jerry slaps Tom battling each other. This repeats over and over again and never stops before the cartoon closes.
Crew[1]
- Animation: Dick Thompson, Ben Washam, Don Towsley & Philip Roman
- Layouts: Don Morgan
- Backgrounds: Philip DeGuard & Thelma Witmer
- Design Consultant: Maurice Noble
- Vocal Effects: Mel Blanc, June Foray & William Hanna
- Production Manager: Earl Jonas
- Story: Bob Ogle & John Dunn
- Music: Dean Elliott
- Co-ordinator: Nick Iuppa
- Production Supervised by Les Goldman
- Produced by Chuck Jones
- Directed by Ben Washam & Abe Levitow