The Truce Hurts

The Truce Hurts is a 1948 one-reel animated cartoon and is the 35th Tom and Jerry short.

Main

 * Tom Cat
 * Jerry Mouse
 * Spike Bulldog

Minor

 * Butch Cat
 * Unnamed Dog

Plot
Jerry is chased off the house by Tom and Spike. The mouse grabs a pipe, the cat grabs a frying pan and the dog grabs a baseball bat. They start to fight, but Spike suddenly stops it. He questions, "What's all this fighting gettin us, huh? Cats can love dogs, can't they? And mice can get along with cats, can't they?" The three animals agree to become friends in the future, they sign a peace treaty in the house.

Tom, Jerry, and Spike take a nap after this, sharing a blanket, and a flower then falls from a tree near the house and that goes into Tom's mouth. He then puts the blanket on Jerry. Jerry then closes Spike's mouth to stop him snoring. Spike manages to stop the alarm clock and sneaks off to the kitchen. While Tom helps Jerry brush his teeth, Spike prepares the milk. They seat each other, lick the lid of the milk, drink the milk and then share a tooth pick for their teeth.

Later, Jerry is taking a stroll outside, when Butch who happens to be scouring for food in trash cans, spots him and decides that he will make a delightful appetizer. Fortunately, Tom, who is nearby, immediately rushes to Jerry's rescue and subdues Butch by slamming a trash can lid into his face. Butch stares at him angrily, as if he is thinking that Tom is trying to mess with him. But then Tom brushes Jerry and kisses the little mouse on the cheek before sending him off, which leaves Butch looking on and screams terrifyingly, and repetitively knocks himself silly with a brick out of shock.

Tom is soon walking along the sidewalk where a dog is gnawing on a bone. He decides to make a meal out of Tom when he sees him, but Spike screams like a man and makes the save just in time by punching the dog and knocking out a mouth full of teeth. Spike tries to get Tom to speak before Tom points to the apple in his mouth. Spike pushes it down and accidentally knocks Tom out while trying to help him swallow it.

Later, the trio are walking until they come across a mud puddle. Spike uses his coat as a way of crossing before a delivery truck splashes them with mud, leaving them in blackface. The delivery truck drops a package leaving Tom, Jerry and Spike to see what's in it. They see that it is a steak and take it home to grill it. Before they decide to eat it, they draw lines on it each with a chalk to determine on which one can have which size. After Spike gives Jerry a small piece, he gives Tom the bone which angers the cat into putting a fork in Spike's hand. Spike then hits Tom's nose. Then they spot Jerry running away with the steak but Spike catches them with his mouth then Tom takes the steak and Jerry out again. The trio fight over the steak before the steak flies out of the house, breaking the window and lands in a stream. The trio tries to catch it, but it falls into the sewers. Anguished by what happened, Tom, Jerry, and Spike realize that all of them no longer can be good pals. Spike shreds the peace treaty and then runs to the outside of the house, picking the baseball bat again up, while once again Tom picks up the pan and Jerry takes the pipe up one more time to resume their earlier fight.

Voice Actors

 * Billy Bletcher as Spike Bulldog (dialogue)
 * William Hanna as Jerry's screams, Tom Cat's screams, Butch Cat's screams, Spike Bulldog's screams

Trivia

 * The title is a pun on the phrase "the truth hurts", a truce being a treaty, or agreement between multiple people/groups.
 * The theme "We're Off to See The Wizard", from The Wizard of Oz, was used in the soundtrack like in Professor Tom.
 * This episode features a new screaming effect, pitch changing
 * This is one of the 5 cartoons where Tom rescues Jerry. Healso saves him in The Night Before Christmas, Snowbody Loves Me, The Missing Mouse, and Dog Trouble.
 * When signing the peace treaty, Spike's name is written as "Butch", which should not be confused with Butch the black cat, who is also present in this episode, but his name is not revealed.
 * This is the first time that Spike saves Tom, the second was in the 2014 episode Cruisin' for a Bruisin'.
 * In It: Chapter 2, when Henry Bowers is being detained by hospital guards after seeing one of Pennywise's balloons outside the window, a television can be seen playing the segment of this short when the steak falls into the sewer; alluding how Georgie Denborough met his fate with the clown.

Censorship

 * The scene where the meat truck splatters mud all over Tom, Jerry, and Spike, leaving them in blackface, is edited out on Cartoon Network and the version sold on iTunes digital download store.
 * At least one televised version (the redrawn version done in the 1960s when Chuck Jones was hired to make new Tom and Jerry shorts, as well as make alternate edited versions for TV syndication) keeps in the part where Spike, Tom, and Jerry are splashed in mud, but covers their reddish-pink lips and gets rid of the pigtails to make it look like they're covered in mud rather than in blackface.