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Tom-ic Energy is a 1965 cartoon directed and produced by Chuck Jones. The cartoon is essentially plotless, consisting of various gags held together by a chase that is already underway at the start of the cartoon and still going at the end.
Plot
Tom chases Jerry on top of a building and then through the A/C vent and into the building. The audience hears sounds of struggle, but the duo are not seen for a while until the camera zooms in on a balcony. Jerry shakes off Tom by walking through the window, and satisfied, starts the other way. Tom scares Jerry's spirit out of him by poking his head through the other window, screaming, and making a scary face. Jerry's spirit catches its host and then gets its revenge on a laughing Tom. The mere sight of the "ghost" causes Tom to turn white; then it returns to its host body. Jerry recovers and runs off as Tom recovers by shaking it off.
Tom chases the mouse up a series of work steps and into the air, where somehow they still chase in a zigzag pattern until Jerry stops him and points to the empty abyss. Tom panics and falls through the piped balcony, splitting himself into 19 pieces in mid-air, but they re-form the cat when they hit the ground.
Jerry zigzags back down to comparatively solid ground and jumps through a water duct, but Tom sees him and locates himself at the bottom, intending to swallow the mouse. Jerry is traveling so fast that he busts through Tom and opens his tail. Tom then ties the end of his tail and pursues the mouse on terra firma.
Jerry takes the chase out to the street and the chase is stopped by a red light to allow "traffic" which consists of other onngoing cat-mouse chases to pass. The light turns yellow and Tom and Jerry prepare to run like 100-meter dashers at the starting line. Tom dashes off before the green light and Jerry whistles, then points at the lights, which are changing. Tom gets mowed over by a large red truck.
Tom pursues the mouse around a street corner, braking themselves with their feet in a similar fashion to the start of the cartoon. Jerry stops behind an open manhole and signals for Tom to stop. Tom literally falls for it. Jerry then runs away, but Tom pops out of a second manhole as Jerry is passing over it, which keeps the mouse from going anywhere. However, the manhole cover twists Tom's head. Tom removes it and unwinds his head. Jerry spots Tom and manages to reach the outside of the manhole cover such that he punches Tom's nose upon every revolution. Tom clutches his nose in pain, but ends up dropping the manhole cover on his own foot. Tom lets out with a gut-wrenching bellow, and dances around in pain and sees that his toes are flattened.
Jerry fakes sympathy for Tom and offers to inflate his toes with an air compressor, but Jerry goes beyond that and inflates the whole of Tom, then releases him. Tom is launched 1,000 feet into the air, then runs out of air and falls back down. He falls into some gorgeous female clothes and is thrown back up to the top of the building where the chase began. A male cat pursues Tom and kisses him while he recites French poetry. Jerry imitates a violin as he watches. Tom escapes, beats up the alley cat and flees. The alley cat has a black eye and moans, "C'est...la guerre." Tom discovers Jerry on the way. Jerry switches to a few seconds of "The William Tell Overture" and then dashes off. Tom chases Jerry through the building a second time and down to the street again.
While running down the street, Jerry is able to run under a dog walking down the street. The dog is puzzled and does not see Tom run into him. Tom kicks the dog in the face and dashes off; the dog is shown brimming with rage. He chases the cat and misses biting him several times. Annoyed at this turn of events, Jerry places a manhole cover between Tom and the dog, causing the dog to run into it and limp away in the form of a centipede. The chase between Tom and Jerry then continues, although Tom does shake Jerry's hand to thank him for taking care of the dog.
Notes
- The alley cat that Tom beats up in one scene watches Tom walk away and comments, "C'est la guerre." This phrase was a catch phrase used by Tuffy at the end of most of The Two Mouseketeers cartoons made during the Hanna and Barbera era. Likewise, when Tom is being chased by the dog, the biting noises it makes are similar to the ones used to convey said action mainly during the Fred Quimby era.
- The short bird's-eye view of Tom falling down the manhole was reused for the opening credits of the following cartoon, Bad Day at Cat Rock.
- The alley cat speaks in a French accent strongly reminscient of Warner Bros character Pepe Le Pew; not surprisingly, both characters are voiced by Mel Blanc and created by Chuck Jones.
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