The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit
We see the box set of the title, including “one mean, stupid cat”; “one sweet, lovable mouse” and other items. We see them used in two sequences, set against blank backdrops. First, the two have a battle of watermelon seed spitting. When they run out of ammo, Jerry goes back to the box, where there’s a book, “Judo for Mice.” He studies quickly, and takes on Tom. Tom studies boxing, to no avail. He then studies judo himself and then comes out demonstrating karate-style board/brick breaking, with him and Jerry bringing on ever-larger targets. The last is so large it has to be brought in with a crane, and it crashes through the floor.
A Gene Deitch short and easily the most interesting of the Prague films: it presents the series as a boxed kit of interchangeable parts — one stupid cat, one lovable mouse, assorted weapons — and then demonstrates the assembly. Self-parody was unusual in 1962, and the joke that the formula could be reduced to a components list is sharper and more honest than anything else in that run.