Tom and Jerry: Santa's Little Helpers is a direct-to-video Christmas special starring Tom and Jerry, which also serves as a half-hour Christmas episode of The Tom and Jerry Show, produced by Warner Bros. Animation. It was first released on DVD on October 7, 2014, and later made its broadcast debut on Cartoon Network during December of the same year.
Synopsis[]
At a post office somewhere in the desert, a kid named Joey and his mother show up to drop off a postcard for Santa Claus. Tom, who apparently lives at the post office, looks at the postcard after it has been dropped off, and then notices on the calendar that today is December 23rd. He starts writing a letter to Santa himself, but hesitates because he feels he hasn't really been good this year due to a series of accidents he caused (including a failure to deliver the mail, causing a traffic pile-up, and a power outage) that got him banned from the city. His shoulder devil convinces him that he should at least ask Santa to find him a good home. Tom then notices the sign saying that all outgoing mail must have a stamp, but he cannot find one. Although he considers removing the stamp from Joey's postcard, his shoulder devil actually advises against that and just gives him a different stamp himself. After Tom sticks it on his envelope, though, he finds the envelope won't stay sealed now and he has no tape or glue to shut it with. He decides to use the post office's super-sealer machine to seal the envelope, but ends up going through the machine along with his envelope. Noticing it's almost 3:00, Tom, now stuck in a box shape with his letter, jumps into the mail pickup box, resulting in the mailman unknowingly bringing him to the airport.
Once on board the mail cargo plane, Tom reforms to his normal shape right before the pilot drops off his cargo. Upon hitting the ground, Tom is delighted to find that he's landed at the North Pole and runs about. He then follows the scent of some cookies that Mrs. Claus has just baked. We then see that Jerry and his nappy-wearing ward, Tuffy, are living in a mouse hole somewhere in Santa's workshop. Tuffy helps himself to one of the cookies, despite Jerry warning him not to (and Tom snatching the cookie for himself, which results in Jerry smashing his face with a rolling pin), but Mrs. Claus is pleased that Tuffy approves of her baking. After Mrs. Claus leaves the kitchen, Tom sneaks in to eat some of her baked goods himself, but Jerry stomps on his toe and gives him a scolding gesture. After a brief scuffle between the two, Mrs. Claus comes back and sees Tom, guessing that he came in from the cold (which is technically true). She allows him to sit by the fireplace and gives him a bowl of milk.
After finishing the milk, Tom starts to take a nap when Jerry approaches him and challenges him. Tom instead just opens a nearby box of toy soldiers and has them chase Jerry back into his mouse hole. Thinking that's taken care of his rival, Tom goes looking around Santa's workshop, during which he accidentally wanders into the "puppy depot" where Santa keeps the puppies he also gives out to kids who asked for them. He manages to get out, but not without being followed by one particular puppy named Jingles (meant for a girl named Cindy), and eventually finds Santa himself, who's taking a nap. As he's about to give his letter, Tom notices that Santa has his naughty and nice lists on hand and wants to take a peek, though his shoulder angel reminds him that it's better to give than receive. Just then, the toy soldiers come back, with one of them presenting a gift box for him. When he opens it up, out comes Jerry, who blasts a mouse-sized pop gun in his face. Tom chases Jerry into the living room, where he knocks down the Christmas tree after Jerry hides in it, and then gets his tail bitten by Jingles. After getting the puppy out of the way, Tom uses a fishing rod to catch Jerry, who somehow switches himself out with a log from the fireplace.
Outside, Santa's elves are finishing packing the presents onto the sleigh and go inside to have hot cocoa. Almost as soon as they've left, however, Tom chases Jerry outside, and the latter hides inside the sack of gifts. Tom chases his adversary into the bag, emptying it in the process, and then makes the mistake of activating a toy rocket that takes him flying through the sky and then crashing into the sleigh, wrecking the toys. Tom and Jerry are panicked at the mess they've made and see that there's only twenty minutes before Santa's supposed to leave. They immediately gather up the broken toys and rush into the workshop to fix them, despite that they're not very good at it. Afterward, the pair bring the not-quite-fixed toys back to the sleigh just in time for Santa to come outside.
As Santa is congratulating his elves on their work (oblivious to the currently poor condition of the gifts), Tuffy asks Jerry if he can ride with Santa this year, but Jerry denies his request. During this, Tom finds Jingles pestering him again, having taken a liking to the cat, and gets him to go into Santa's bag of toys. But after Santa has taken off into the sky, Tom sees Jingles having somehow teleported back to the ground. After a failed attempt to yell out to Santa that he forgot Cindy's puppy, Tuffy says to Tom and Jerry that maybe they can deliver Jingles to Cindy themselves, but the silent rivals tell him they don't know where she lives. Tuffy then realizes Cindy's letter provides her address, so they go to Santa's mailroom to find it, though Tom opts to instead take a nap again. The mice soon find Cindy's letter, which gives her hometown as being in Pleasanton, California, but Tom isn't keen on helping the mice any further. However, Tuffy then reads him Cindy's letter, which says that Cindy actually wants the puppy for her mom, because their old dog disappeared a long time ago. Tom is moved to tears by this and agrees to help.
The trio go to Santa's garage to find Santa's previous sleigh, which they plan to use as their transportation, despite it being in pretty bad shape. Tuffy figures they need to find some of Santa's back-up reindeer, but none of them are around. Just then, Jingles starts eating some of the reindeer food, which causes him to start flying, to the surprise of the mice. Shortly after, we see Jingles pulling Tom, pretending to be a makeshift sleigh with Jerry and Tuffy piloting, into the sky. They manage to fly all the way to Pleasanton just in time for the Christmas morning sunrise. They go down one the chimney of the house they've landed in front of, only to find that they're at the wrong house when they're almost attacked by a doberman who lives there. After eluding the doberman, the trio walk through town until they find Cindy's address. They place Jingles under Cindy's Christmas tree, though the puppy is reluctant to part ways with Tom. After finally getting Jingles to stop following him, Tom accidentally trips over a box of Christmas decorations, which wakes up Cindy and causes her to come in to the living room. She somehow doesn't notice Tom, but is delighted to find Jingles, which causes Tom to reflect on the advice his shoulder angel gave him earlier. Tom and the mice head back up Cindy's chimney, with Tuffy saying they did a pretty good job being elves and hopes Santa doesn't find out. However, they then see that Santa is standing right in front of them. Fortunately, it turns out that the big guy is proud of all three of them for their efforts in making Cindy's Christmas merry, and offers to make them official elves and allow them to live at his workshop, which they (especially Tom) are happy to accept.
Availability[]
The cover to the DVD release.
The special was initially released on a two-disc DVD set of the same name, which also contained 29 other Tom and Jerry cartoons (including The Night Before Christmas and the Tom and Jerry Tales episode "Ho Ho Horrors"). The special itself was later included as a bonus feature on the 2020 Special Edition Blu-ray release of Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale.
Cast[]
| Voice actor | Character(s) |
|---|---|
| Rich Danhakl | Tom Cat (vocal noises) Jerry Mouse (vocal noises) |
| Nickie Bryar | Cindy |
| Mark Hamill | Santa Claus |
| Edie McClurg | Mrs. Claus |
| Kath Soucie | Tuffy Mouse |
| Rick Zieff | Devil Tom Angel Tom |
| Tom Kenny Eric Bauza |
Additional character(s) |
| William Hanna (archived audio [uncredited]) | Tom Cat (vocal noises) Jerry Mouse (vocal noises) |
| Frank Welker (archived audio [uncredited]) | Jingles |
See also[]
- "The Night Before Christmas"
- "Ho Ho Horrors"
- Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale
- "The Plight Before Christmas"
- Tom and Jerry: Snowman's Land
External links[]
| Warner Bros. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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