Two Little Indians is an animated Tom and Jerry short released on October 17th, 1953 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and produced by Fred Quimby.
Two grey mice reminiscent of Tuffy and dressed as Indians pay Jerry a visit. Jerry had previously accepted to take them to a hiking trip, so he prepares to do so with gusto... too bad the little mice are very mischievous, for as soon as they're left waiting they start inspecting the whole place, putting them in danger constantly.
Rarely airs on TV due to Native American stereotyping, in particular it gets very little airtime on Cartoon Network and Boomerang.
This animated feature provides examples of:
- Arrows on Fire: One of the two Indian mice uses a bow to shoot a lit match at a chair where Tom is hiding.
- Babysitting Episode: Jerry is entrusted the task of taking care of two little mice dressed like Indians and go with them to a hiking trip. The little mice are very curious and mischievous, so they expose themselves to danger more often than not.
- Face Doodling: Shortly before the climax, the two Indian mice paint a sleeping Spike's face and put on him a horned tribal hat, to make him look like he's an angry American Indian chief. The doodling isn't done to annoy Spike, but to scare Tom.
- Gag Haircut: One of the Indian mice hastily cuts the fur from the top of Tom's head when the cat catches the other Indian mouse. This leaves Tom bald.
- Gideon Ploy: When Tom seizes Jerry, the two Indian mice prepare a series of tactics to defeat the cat. The first one is to make several dummies modeled after Native American warriors and put them behind a fence in order to make Tom believe he's being outnumbered. It works, but this is only the first of many necessary steps to win the fight.
- Oh, Crap!: Jerry struggles to keep the two little mice that are under his custody safe, so whenever he sees either of them try to do something stupid or dangerous, he shows an expression of shock and does his best to prevent the incoming misfortune.
- Pain to the Ass: At one point, one of the Indian mice tries to shoot an arrow at a sleeping bird. He misses, and then Jerry rushes into the scene to hastily take the bow away from him. In the meantime, the shot arrow goes upward and then falls down, going through the house's gutter and squarely hitting Jerry's butt.
- Peace Pipe: The episode ends with Tom, Jerry, and the guest mice sharing a peace pipe. Tom has problems exhaling the smoke— then coughs and blows smoke rings out his ears.
- Powder Trail: During the climax, the episode's eponymous Indian mice open the powder horn Tom is carrying to reload his rifle. So when one of them taunts Tom with an attack in order to get his attention and aggro him for a chase, the other one ignites the resulting trail of powder with a lit match. The chase takes Tom and the first mouse to a garage; the cat then positions himself next to a window with some containers of gas and oil to shoot at his target from afar, not noticing at first that the trail of powder is being burned and heading towards him. Tom finally realizes what's going on and tries to escape, but due to how he's carrying the rifle he's unable to get past the exit, and gets hit by the resulting explosion.
- Squashed Flat: Halfway during the episode, the two Indian mice approach Tom when the latter seizes Jerry, but the cat grabs a fly swatter and squashes both of them with it, forcing them to retreat.