Tom and Jerry:1966

Zzzzz...huh? Wha? Sorry, I must have dozed off there. "Filet Meow" has Jerry once more in charge of protecting a goldfish from Tom's starving belly. A simple needle to the feline's rear thwarts his first attempt.


Tom discovers that by wearing a trashcan, he can now be protected from any future needle attacks. Bear with me, folks. Tom attacks Jerry with an axe but (as I have pointed out before) Tom apparently has no feeling in his tail, which allows Jerry to place it on the chopping block without his knowledge. Luckily it screws right back in place.


Still wearing the trashcan, Tom is mistaken by the garbage man for actual trash and is thrown out. Tom returns and rigs up a hose system beneath the fishbowl to suck out his prey.


In order to accept the ending of this cartoon, you would have to accept the fact that Jerry finds a pet store that delivers a man-eating shark to his bathtub. Tom unknowingly sucks the shark through the tube and is forced to flee for his life.


Oh...and the shark apparently falls in love with the goldfish...or something.

Tom and Jerry:1965

In sifting through the Tom and Jerry cartoons from this period, I can come across a few that are more tolerable than the others. "Tom-ic Energy" is one. I think I enjoy the films where Tom is simply chasing Jerry. No fancy backdrops, no real plot, no forced situations...just a simple chase.


One little detail that I like from Chuck's films is that he sometimes has action occuring during the title sequence. Yes, it results in the eye being distracted from actually reading the names of the people who worked on the film, but I feel it gives things that extra boost of energy right from the start.


Some gags are typical (a stoplight momentarily interrupts the chase, for example). Not to mention a strange sequence where Tom is mistaken for a female by an amorous cat. Pepe Le Pew would be proud.


A seemingly helpful act from Jerry is anything but, as the overzealous mouse inflats Tom's body with an air pump, resulting in the classic "deflating balloon" gag.


Jerry saves Tom from an angry dog, proving that the two characters actually need each other, filling the void in thier otherwise meaningless existances.

Tom and Jerry:1964

We all know that Tom is able to sing. He does so in "Solid Serenade" for example. The difference between that cartoon and "The Cat above and the Mouse Below", however, is that the former is actually entertaining.


Concert halls are also nothing new as a backdrop for Tom and Jerry's feuding. "Cat Concerto" and "The Hollywood Bowl" come to mind. The difference between those cartoons and this one? I think you know the answer.


Tom sings excerpts from "Barber of Seville", annoying Jerry, who lives beneath the stage. Jerry attempts many unfunny ways to silence Tom, including a rubber band and publically licking a lemon.


A plunger to the face and a sack to the head, which sends Tom crashing through the stage floor, result in Jerry concluding the opera, which is odd because I thought he was looking for peace and quiet.


It will only get harder for me to pick cartoons from this period because they are so unmemorable that I have forgotten what most of them are about, and I'm not really in the mood to watch them in order to find out. I've been a bit moody lately, folks. Bear with me.

Tom and Jerry:1963

As I said, I enjoy Chuck Jones films very much, but it is clear that he never quite knew what to do with Tom and Jerry. The films have that great Jones look to them but the stories are rather flat and they are anything but funny.


The title of Pent-House Mouse comes from the fact that Tom lives in a penthouse (and it conveniently rhymes with mouse, I suppose). A starving Jerry comes across an unwatched lunchbox at a construction site near Tom's house.


Typical construction site physics ensure that Jerry is dropped into Tom's waiting hand. Jerry escapes back to the work zone only to figure that Tom's mouth offers a more safe place to be.


There is a strange flyswatter sequence that needs no more attention here. Finally Jerry manages to dump Tom off the roof, into the construction site, where an out of control barrel ride lands the cat into a dog show. Offscreen violence ensues.


Jerry takes command of Tom's penthouse and should be grateful that ice cubes melt. Chuck Jones, Mike Maltese, Ken Harris, Ben Washam...what could possibly go wrong? Several things apparently.

Tom and Jerry:1962

Has it been this long already? Wow. First, I need to apologize yet again for my absence. Life has been very busy and the days go by very fast. I appreciate the kind words I have received from folks and the gentle reminders about my poor, neglected blog. I will try to get back on track with it.


So we move on to 1962 and wrap up this horrible period in Tom and Jerry's career. "High Steaks" is yet another glimpse into the abusive relationship between Tom and his owner. Tom's pain does not really come from Jerry, but rather his hot-tempered owner.


A backyard cookout is disrupted by Jerry's attempts to swipe some of the food and by Tom's attempts to stop him, which always result in Tom pissing off his owner, who inflicts disturbing punishment upon the cat.


Tom gets his face pressed in a grill and an agitated soda bottle in his mouth before getting tied to a recliner, which I think Jerry hooks onto a car to tow the helpless cat away...or something. I honestly stopped watching after I snagged the last screenshot. It's that bad.


The Tom and Jerry reins would be handed over to Chuck Jones. Jones is one of my favorite directors, but even he could only slightly improve the series. Emphasis on slightly.

Tom and Jerry:1961

Once the amazing H-B Tom and Jerry cartoons came to an end, the series was placed in the hands of Gene Deitch. To say that the films took a bizarre turn would be an understatement. Watching these cartoons is like watching an eerie T&J nightmare.


"Down and Outing" sounds like it would be typical fare for H-B (Tom goes fishing with his owner and Jerry tags along), but in the hands of Deitch, who had never seen a Tom and Jerry cartoon before taking over the series, the situation becomes creepy.


Shaky animation, off-model characters and a tin-like soundtrack all contribute to the cartoon's lackluster quality. Am I being too harsh? Possibly since I am comparing the films to what had come before, and let's face it, there is no comparison.


Anyway, Tom is abused severly by his owner, even though some might say the cat brings it upon himself. After a hellish car ride to the lake, we are now ready for some fishng-type shenanigans.


However, we never really get any. The potential for such a set-up never pays off as Tom's owner opts to fish with Jerry while Tom is bound with rope in the boat.

A Year Already?

Well, it seems this blog is a year old today. I just wanted to take a moment to thank those of you who stop by here. I do appreciate it.
Again, I am sorry for the lack of updates but life is busy. Feel free to leave some comments as it might jump-start me into digging through my vhs tapes in order to continue with the Tom and Jerry tribute. Maybe I can actually finish it by the next anniversary.
I'll get to work on that, but I couldn't let one year and 10,000 visitors go by without saying thanks. Peace!

Tom and Jerry:1958

The final Hanna-Barbera directed Tom and Jerry cartoon from the Golden Age is "Tot Watchers". All that would follow in the long career of the famous cat and mouse would pale in comparison to the films from 1940-1958.


A negligent babysitter (who is more interested in talking on the phone than watching the baby) continuously mistakes Tom's attempts at maintaining the child's safety as a threat.


Tom and Jerry working as a team never sits too well with me, since they make much better adversaries, but I guess it is nice to see that they can put aside thier differences for a moment when a baby's life is at stake.


The obligatory construction site is always the perfect place for two heros to prove how far they will go to keep a child safe. The typical violence is absent here (well, except for Tom's run-in with Spike, but the thrashing is left to our imaginations as it takes place off screen).


A weary Tom and Jerry return home with the baby, only to be blamed for his kidnapping, and they are carted off to jail.
Is this the end of our Tom and Jerry tribute? Nope. Come back and bear the pain with me as we continue on to a rather disturbing phase of the cat and mouse's career.

Tom and Jerry:1957

Since I passed up the opportunity to feature "The Little Orphan" here, I will do the next best thing now by featuring the 1957 remake, "Feedin' the Kiddie".


This is almost an exact remake of "Little Orphan" (a brief shot of Mammy in the original film has been oddly omitted. Poor Mammy gets no respect.) Also, the backgrounds have been redesigned to accomodate the widescreen format of Cinemascope.


Nibbles, the ever-hungry relative of Jerry pays a visit just in time for Thanksgiving dinner...and we all know what happens when a Tom and Jerry film features a lavishly adorned dinner table, right? Yep, food fight!


Plenty of messy and dangerous fun ensues, leaving Tom broken and defeated, of course. Oh, and then there is this...


[Insert "these films are a product of thier time" disclaimer here.]

Tom and Jerry:1956

Probably the most depressing tone in a Tom and Jerry cartoon can be found in "Blue Cat Blues". The film opens with Tom sitting upon train tracks attempting to commit suicide. Jerry watches from above and, through a voice-over track, tells us what brought Tom to this low end.


Tom and Jerry are apparently friends this time, that is until a female cat saunters by. Tom is smitten and becomes the brunt of several visual gags. He is magnetically drawn to her and he is literally putty in her hands, as she sculpts his face into a donkey's.


Of course, in every romance there is a rival and in this case, the rival is Butch, who continuously upstages Tom for the female cat's affections.


Exhausting all of his money to impress the girl, Tom is left broke, beaten and defeated as he realizes that the female cat has married Butch. Jerry concludes the tale of heartbreak, glad that his girlfriend is true to him...or is she? Nope, she too has eloped with another mouse.


Tom makes room for the despondent mouse next to him on the train tracks. As the two await the end of thier lives, a train whistle can be heard approaching just before the iris out.

Tom and Jerry:1955

A memorable film from 1955 would be "Pecos Pest", if for nothing other than Uncle Peco's rendition of "Froggy went a-courtin'".


Uncle Pecos pays Jerry a visit before his big tv debut. While demonstrating his country stylings, Peco's guitar string breaks. The western mouse (who's face is obscured by his mustache and hat) sees a replacement guitar string in the form of Tom's whisker.


The rest of the cartoon deals with Pecos breaking guitar strings and hunting down Tom in order to rip another whisker from his face, with Jerry trying to protect his uncle from himself.


When at the mercy of Pecos weilding an axe, Tom finally surrenders and plucks his own whisker to give to the mouse, leaving him with only one left.


During his tv performance, Pecos breaks another guitar string. Tom's mocking laughter is cut short when Pecos reaches through the tv screen and plucks the feline's final whisker and finishes his song.