Hopefully by now most of you have overcome the delays for The Tom & Jerry Golden Era Anthology due to a supply shortage and Bezos.com’s own holiday shipping delays (proof of why we as a society need to support other entities). This will be the last breakdown review post, covering the non-Cinemascope cartoons of Discs 3 and 4.
The 1950s saw the art of theatrical animation in decline: the long-standing series unavoidably lost steam after so many years with the same characters; the filmmakers were reaching middle age and losing energy in the vacuum of production; the influence of UPA became an excuse to welcome the shrinking budgets; and some of the studios left shorts production altogether, which MGM did in 1957.
Tom & Jerry, however, remained as popular as ever, even if the “magic” was mostly gone in the ‘50s. The reliance on the “Jerry gets a cutesy ally” plot device comes up with repetition that’d make the corpse-with-flies Famous Popeye series blush, and too many are just “violent mayhem happens” without the vigor that made so many of the ‘40s shorts so entertaining.
Still, there are more than enough classics here to completely justify collecting the whole series. Irv Spence’s animation is always a delight, and Scott Bradley is contributing scores with more thought put into them that a barren cartoon like, say, Cat Napping deserves. Many are all-time fan favorites like Jerry’s Cousin, Mice Follies, Designs on Jerry, and Pecos Pest, and Lillian Randolph always gave the cartoons a shot in the arm with the frenetic Saturday Evening Puss, Triplet Trouble, and Push-Button Kitty being prime examples.
Here’s where we get into a lot of the masters that were done some thirteen years ago for the aborted Tom & Jerry Golden Collection Vol. 2 (and have found their way to streaming and MeTV), where the color grading work was just too crushed and dark, just like some sixty Looney Tunes cartoons done by hack colorists around the same time. They’re acceptable and better than not having them in HD, but it would have been nice to see these get some reworking (with actual whites) done, if not a complete reprieve. (Fit to Be Tied and Jerry and Jumbo are two that got new restorations, and they show what all of these cartoons should look like.)
Disc Three:
LITTLE QUACKER (Prod. #209)
Almost fittingly, the first Tom & Jerry release of the decade introduces the polarizing Quacker (voiced by comic Red Coffee), Joe Barbera’s cynical ploy to make his empire’s violent cartoons appeal to moms that works to this day. The saving grace is the climax involving a lawn mower. Interestingly, the MGM publicity department kept calling this character “Lucky Ducky”, as if it was a continuation of a very funny Tex Avery cartoon by the same name that puts all of H-B’s duck pictures to shame.
SATURDAY EVENING PUSS (Prod. #206)
“Mammy” steps out and Tom and his gang go ham, while the wet blanket Jerry tries to get some sleep with no luck. Another where nothing really happens but still manages to be an all-time classic cartoon which canonically muddles the question of whether “Mammy” is really the housekeeper or homeowner. “A party!? At my house!? Excuuuuse me!”
TEXAS TOM (Prod. #210)
Antics out west at a dude ranch, with Tom’s serenading coming by way of a record this time.
JERRY AND THE LION (Prod. #201)
A lion escapes from the circus and seeks Jerry’s help returning to the jungle. Frank Graham’s last cartoon role before his suicide in 1950, depriving us of further work from perhaps the most distinctive of all cartoon voice actors, after Mel Blanc, in the 1940s.
SAFETY SECOND (Prod. #212)
Jerry’s plans for a “safe and sane” July 4th literally blow up with Nibbles and Tom’s firecracker warfare. Like the earliest Our Gang shorts, the pint-sized characters are a lot funnier and less cloying when they cause endless destruction just to get where they’re going.
TOM AND JERRY IN THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL (Prod. #224)
Unmemorable musical violence that was obvious Oscar-bait and rushed through production to make the cutoff, but wasn’t even nominated. Has nothing on Bugs Bunny’s outing at the Hollywood Bowl the previous year.
THE FRAMED CAT (Prod. #214)
What would be a textbook generic cartoon with Tom framing Jerry for his theft with “Mammy”, and the mouse, in turn, framing Tom for his with Spike, becomes something insanely special for the finale when a magnet gets inserted into Tom’s ass.
CUEBALL CAT (Prod. #215)
Tom and Jerry afterhours at a billiards hall, resulting in some memorable distortions.
CASANOVA CAT (Prod. #216)
Reworking of Springtime for Thomas that illustrates just how much the energy was depleting from the Hanna-Barbera unit. Like Mouse Cleaning, this one was suppressed for an extended (and painfully unfunny) blackface sequence.
JERRY AND THE GOLDFISH (Prod. #219)
Jerry rescues a goldfish from Tom’s culinary exploits. Mike Barrier notes that H-B reused the exact model sheet from Rudy Ising’s The Little Goldfish for this one.
JERRY’S COUSIN (Prod. #220)
Exceptionally inspired, funny, and violent cartoon with Muscles Mouse helping Jerry with his cat trouble, resulting in a couple of the series’ all-time best bits: the brutal Hogan’s Alley opening set to Lydia, the Tattooed Lady (animated by Ken Muse), Tom gleefully destroying Jerry’s home with fireworks (animated by Ray Patterson), the realistically rendered bowling ball (Irv Spence scene), and Tom calling Dirty Work, Inc. while temporarily blind. Oscar nominee that lost to UPA’s trailblazing Gerald McBoing Boing.
SLEEPY TIME TOM (Prod. #223)
Tom’s late-night frivolity means trouble with “Mammy” and Jerry, with a couple of utterly hysterical attempts to keep, or at least appear, awake.
HIS MOUSE FRIDAY (Prod. #227)
The most racist entry in the series that doesn’t make any goddamn sense: so what if Jerry’s disguised as a cannibal, how is he any kind of threat to Tom at his size? Unfailingly unfunny.
CAT NAPPING (Prod. #229)
Painfully generic cartoon with limp gags set around Tom and Jerry fighting over a hammock.
SLICKED-UP PUP (Prod. #232)
Spike threatens Tom to make sure Tyke stays clean, or else. Ends with Tyke getting tarred and feathered and Tom thrown in a washing machine.
NIT-WITTY KITTY (Prod. #231)
“Mammy” strikes Tom on the head, and the cat gets amnesia and thinks he’s a destructive, cheese-addicted mouse. Proves that good staging can make even a pair of flying carpet slippers hysterical (animation by Ray Patterson).
THE FLYING CAT (Prod. #233)
The canary returns, and Tom uses makeshift wings to become the titular character. Has a placeholder for most painful moment in the series with Tom sawing a tree in half with his crotch (animation by Irv Spence).
THE DUCK DOCTOR (Prod. #235)
Quacker returns and can’t stop getting injured. The best gag involves Tom getting crushed by a sow’s ass (animation by Irv Spence).
SMITTEN KITTEN (Prod. #240)
Cheater cartoon with Jerry’s green/envious side showcasing all of Tom’s past romances, posing the question: how many of these things are really just the same cartoon with different titles?
TRIPLET TROUBLE (Prod. #238)
“Mammy” takes in a trio of hellion kittens who are more than a match for Tom and Jerry. The two team up and launch an aerial assault to give the brats a spanking.
LITTLE RUNAWAY (Prod. #242)
Jerry helps protect a seal from Tom, who wants the reward money for the pest’s capture. The highlight of the cartoon proves just how funny a dead dancing fish really is (animated by Irv Spence).
THE TWO MOUSEKETEERS (Prod. #247)
Another Great Sin of the Academy is this routine rehash winning the Oscar (and ironically for basically remaking another generic Oscar-winner) over John Hubley’s Rooty Toot Toot, one of the greatest and most unique cartoons ever made. The guy who beheads Tom is voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan (watch Chuck Jones’ Past Perfumance for more of Bryan’s fractured French).
FIT TO BE TIED (Prod. #243)
Remake of The Bodyguard that’s considerably funnier with Tom immediately forced into servitude, and the added dynamic of Spike getting leashed and tortured by the cat.
PUSH-BUTTON KITTY (Prod. #244)
“Mammy” employs the robotic mouse-catching skills of Mechano, who proves a bit too good at its job. “Mammy’s” last cartoon. For my money, save a handful of exceptional entries, her departure effectively marks the end of the series’ vitality. (Many participants in the collection’s accompanying Lady of the House documentary rightfully acknowledge all of the white replacements for Tom’s owner are beyond unmemorable and lame, and pose the question why the character can’t be revived more sensitively.)
CRUISE CAT (Prod. #252)
Mascot Tom pursues stowaway Jerry on a Hawaii-bound ocean liner. The dearth of ideas was never more painfully obvious than when the cartoon stops so the two can watch a clip from Texas Tom.
THE DOG HOUSE (Prod. #250)
Spike tries to build his dream home, and Tom manages to destroy each one in his pursuit of Jerry, with the destruction getting increasingly ridiculous (and hilarious).
Disc Four:
THE MISSING MOUSE (Prod. #254)
Historically significant as the only short from the original MGM cartoon studio not scored by Scott Bradley. Disney regular Ed Plumb fills in, giving this cartoon a chilling, spidery feel as it concludes with the destruction of the explosive white mouse and the whole city.
JERRY AND JUMBO (Prod. #256)
Hanna and Barbera borrow from nobody’s favorite Warner series Hippety Hopper for this cartoon, with a lost baby elephant disguising as a giant mouse, causing Tom to lose his mind.
JOHANN MOUSE (Prod. #266)
The last Oscar-winner in the series, a charming UPA-inspired “storybook” cartoon (narrated by Hans Conried) with Tom and Jerry living with Johann Strauss and becoming famous in their own right. Employs the services of pianist Jakob Gimpel, who also played the piano for Bugs Bunny in Rhapsody Rabbit.
THAT’S MY PUP! (Prod. #260)
Spike uses Tom to teach Tyke all about chasing cats. An idea revisited by Friz Freleng and Warren Foster in the much funnier, savage Pappy’s Puppy.
JUST DUCKY (Prod. #258)
Quacker can’t swim, so Jerry tries to teach him while evading Tom.
TWO LITTLE INDIANS (Prod. #262)
Scout leader Jerry and his two pint-sized charges wage war frontier-style with Tom.
LIFE WITH TOM (Prod. #264)
Cheater cartoon with Jerry writing the titular best-selling book, humiliating Tom worldwide. The best gag is Tom being so pissed he just rips off the side of the house to confront Jerry (animated by Ed Barge).
PUPPY TALE (Prod. #275)
More cutesy-poo stuff, this time with Jerry rescuing a litter of puppies from certain doom, and Tom having a change of heart. Personal note: this is the first Tom & Jerry I ever recall seeing as a kid. Amazingly, I still kept watching them. (I kid, there are many more cloying and less charming…)
POSSE CAT (Prod. #268)
Tom must catch Jerry to get a meal out of a trigger-happy cook (voiced by Stan Freberg).
HIC-CUP PUP (Prod. #270)
Hiccupping Tyke gets no peace thanks to Tom and Jerry’s endless noise.
LITTLE SCHOOL MOUSE (Prod. #273)
Superior reworking of Professor Tom, this time with Jerry as the teacher schooling Tuffy all about cat evasion and belling. Jerry gets several beatings, Tuffy gets Tom’s friendship.
BABY BUTCH (Prod. #277)
Butch poses ridiculously as a hungry waif to raid Tom and Jerry’s fridge… and the scam mostly works!
MICE FOLLIES (Prod. #279)
Last attempt at lyricism for the series, with Jerry and Tuffy freezing the kitchen floor and turning it into an ice skating rink, descending into the usual chaos once Tom finds out what they’ve done. Terrific use of Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty Waltz”
NEAPOLITAN MOUSE (Prod. #281)
Cripplingly generic cartoon with chasing in Italy. Bob Gentle at least got a vacation there so he could get reference for his background paintings!
DOWNHEARTED DUCKLING (Prod. #283)
Quacker thinks he’s the ugly duckling and tries to commit suicide. For some reason, Jerry doesn’t let him.
MOUSE FOR SALE (Prod. #287)
Tom passes off Jerry as a white mouse to make quick cash, only to lose it to the lady of the house (June Foray), who uses it to buy Jerry back! Whitewashed in more ways than one, as it was originally written with “Mammy” as the human character, and an approximation of that version turned up in a Tom & Jerry Comics story.
DESIGNS ON JERRY (Prod. #292)
Tom’s blueprints for a better mousetrap come to life in this imaginatively art directed entry.
SMARTY CAT (Prod. #297)
Tom’s alley cat gang brings over home movies (old clips) to celebrate the cat’s triumphs over Spike. Proof that Solid Serenade and Cat Fishin’ were internally recognized as the series’ best, as this marks the third and second time respectively they were used in the cheaters!
PECOS PEST (Prod. #289)
Immortal classic with Jerry’s Uncle Pecos dropping in before his television debut and using Tom’s whiskers as guitar string replacements.
The Tom & Jerry Golden Era Anthology, despite some problematic transfers, is a triumph for classic cartoon presentation on home video. The collective effort was rewarded with astronomical sales that prove once again the timeless popularity of these characters and the demand for classic cartoons on physical media. Here’s hoping that the wise decision to include everything bodes well for a complete MGM Tex Avery box, not to mention revisiting Popeye the Sailor and Looney Tunes more comprehensively, or even the non-Avery/T&J MGM shorts at all.
