O-Solar Meow
O-Solar-Meow is a 1967 Tom and Jerry short (though the year of copyright is 1966) produced by Chuck Jones and directed by Abe Levitow. It was the first space-themed short in the Jones era. The name of short is a pun on "’O sole mio", the 1898 Neapolitan song.
| O-Solar-Meow | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Abe Levitow Chuck Jones |
| Produced by | Chuck Jones Les Goldman |
| Story by | John W. Dunn |
| Starring | Mel Blanc June Foray |
| Music by | Eugene Poddany |
| Animation by | Ken Harris Don Towsley Tom Ray Dick Thompson Ben Washam |
| Color process | Metrocolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
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Running time | 6:46 |
| Language | English |
Plot
A (comparatively) small white ball labeled Supply Satellite No.1 is hit with a very strong spring and shot into space. It falls into a groove running along the outer edge of Space Station No.1 and moves around like a ball in a roulette wheel, after which the station appears to be designed, until it stops on bay number 36. Immediately, "baggage" is deposited out of a machine and one of the packages is a large chunk of cheese, which attracts Jerry. He gets in his vehicle and goes after what he saw on his monitor, but soon breaks a beam without noticing. This beam sets off a rocket, which then sets off a Rube Goldberg machine in order to alert the cat on duty: Tom. Tom is thrown into his work chair in front of his surveillance monitor and woken up with a stream of water. After seeing Jerry in his cheese-vehicle, he signals his robot cat Mechano to go after it.
Mechano chases Jerry and attempts to chomp on Jerry's vehicle, but Jerry leaves a stream of exhaust in the robot's mouth causing it to cough repeatedly. Jerry speeds past Tom and Tom moves his chair to the left but is soon dragged along in the chase. Tom remotely stops Mechano and cruises along the floor without paying attention. He runs into a nearby wall and is temporarily knocked out. Tom then runs up to his robot, turns it around, and kicks it. As a result, all three of Tom's right toes swell red and Tom hops around in pain.
Tom is then shown testing out a new incisive laser machine. He tests it out on a safe and a glass water container, which both slice cleanly in half. Tom then cuts out a large portion of the wall containing Jerry's hole, causing the mouse to walk out in bewilderment. He suffers a near miss from the laser and puts on his jetpack and blinds the cat with its smoke. Tom then chases Jerry and Jerry cuts him in two with the laser beam. Jerry is hovering in the air and Tom jumps at the mouse, without success, until Tom realizes that Jerry has cut him in two and then, embarrassed, he checks himself into the nearby medical facility.
Tom then puts on an Ajax Flying Belt, but it repeatedly backfires: It slips to his feet and drags him by the feet, and then flips over and carries him through the air as if he was being hung by the feet. Tom runs into another wall and then is shown being dragged across the ground by his ankles and then returning to being hung by the feet. Tom blocks the airflow but soon falls down. Tom points the jet stream down and floats in the air next to Jerry, who starts laughing at him. Tom bites at Jerry and then starts chasing him, but instead of biting the mouse on the second try, he bites a pipe and spins around again in an exercise wheel. Jerry stops the spinning with a rod and Tom falls down again.
Jerry is then shown cruising through the air and then spots Tom behind him. He continues on his course, but pulls up just in front of a fast-rotating fan, leaving Tom to fall in and be shredded. Tom falls out and has a striped appearance. The belt starts flying by itself in the air until Tom squirts it with gas and stops the belt from working again. Tom then laughs himself silly.
The wheel of cheese is then shown being propelled through the air. Jerry is inside, about to dine on a tiny bit of cheese, when Tom shoots a harpoon into the wheel and pins it to a wall. Jerry finds himself looking down the barrel of a gun and is forced to surrender. Tom places him inside a large, powerful cannon and fires it, sending Jerry to the Moon. Tom celebrates by shooting off his gun, revealed to create holes in anything it hits, puncturing the hull of the space station and causing it to lose air. Tom is then shown being pressed into patching up the holes he has made and re-inflating the space station as an angry space military police officer points a large gun at Katrina Kaif The short ends with Jerry at a cheese planet eating.
Crew
- Animation: Ken Harris, Don Towsley, Tom Ray, Dick Thompson & Ben Washam
- Layouts: Don Morgan
- Backgrounds: Philip DeGuard
- Vocal Effects: Mel Blanc & June Foray
- Story: John Dunn
- Music: Eugene Poddany
- Design Consultant: Maurice Noble
- Production Supervised by Les Goldman
- Produced by Chuck Jones
- Directed by Abe Levitow