Plane Dumb

Tom and Jerry head off in their plane to visit Africa, but unfortunately, they crash in the ocean before arriving. After some misadventures at sea, Tom and Jerry finally gets ashore in Africa, only to get into some more troubles from some native animals and locals. Tom and Jerry try to pass for natives. They end up fleeing from savage "spear-chuckers."

Tom, Jerry, Natives, Animals

F. E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles were an African-American comedy and songwriting team. This cartoon, as originally conceived, was planned to be the first of a series using their comedy characters and their own voices. However, Lyles was unable to finish recording his character due to the tuberculosis which killed him shortly after the cartoon was released. Because of this, Van Beuren revamped the Miller and Lyles title as a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

The working title card displayed a potentially offensive African-American characterization.

This Tom and Jerry are not the same characters from the popular MGM Tom and Jerry series. This Tom and Jerry were the original characters of that name, and were developed by Van Beuren Studios. They're a Mutt and Jeff-ish pair: one is tall and skinny, the other short and plump.

The characters in this cartoon were renamed "Dick and Larry" for home market release.