Mouse Trouble (1944)

Mouse Trouble was the second Tom and Jerry short to win for best animated short film at the Oscars. The first of these shorts was the previous year's Yankee Doodle Mouse. The next year a Tom and Jerry cartoon would again win the Oscar for Quiet Please making three years in a row where Tom and Jerry won an Oscar.

Mouse Trouble has one of the most simple and straightforward storylines for a Tom and Jerry cartoon. Often times the story for these cartoons would involve either Jerry or Tom befriending someone and getting help from that friend. Other times the story would involve Tom trying to do a simple task and Jerry sabotaging it. Still other times it would involve Tom and Jerry having to team up against a greater evil. None of this is seen here. The cartoon is plain and simple Tom trying to catch Jerry. In this cartoon Tom gets a new book entitled How to Catch a Mouse and tries to do just that with the books help leading to many great spot gag jokes.

Unlike a Disney cartoon where the animators would often times be assigned different characters to work with, in this film (and many other Tom and Jerry cartoons) the animators would be assigned lengthy segments (for a 7 minute cartoon that is) of the picture to handle themselves. Pete Burness animated the begging of the cartoon with Tom receiving the book in the mail and animates until Jerry runs in the hole and Tom turns to his book for advice. Ray Patterson animates Tom's failed attempts at using a mouse trap and a snare trap. Kenneth Muse animates Tom trying to use Jerry's sense of generosity against the mouse only to have Jerry end up tricking tom by engaging Tom's curiosity. Pete Burness animates Tom finding out a cornered mouse does sometimes fight back. Kenneth Muse animates Tom using a stethoscope to find Jerry. Irven Spence animates Tom's use of a gun, a tiger trap and a mallet to catch Jerry as well as him disguising himself a surprise package. Tom's use of a wind up toy girl mouse to catch Jerry is animated by Kenneth Muse. Tom tearing up the book is animated by Pete Burness. Tom using explosives by Kenneth Muse. The end of the film with Tom ascending to heaven was animated by Pete Burness.

This is one of my all time favorite Tom and Jerry cartoons. The jokes are extremely funny and perfectly timed. They are also pretty darn clever. I especially like the end gag with the wind up mouse toy that repeats Mae West's catchphrase "Come up and see me sometime" over and over (I don't know who does this voice if any of you do I would be glad to hear). The animation is great as well. Scott Bradley's musical score is one of his best. It is very jazzy and filled with great energy. More than this though it compliments the cartoon perfectly as this is one of the fastest paced Tom and Jerry films. Especially of note in this cartoon is Scott Bradley's excellent jazz filled rendition of the classic spiritual song All God's Children Got Rhythm. Bradley said he especially liked doing music for the Tom and Jerry cartoons, because with the lack of dialogue, his music could really shine and boy does it here. Most of all though I love that this cartoon strips Tom and Jerry down to the very basics of the idea and successeds fantastically at being an extremely fun cartoon.

Resources Used Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
The Cartoon Music Book  edited by Daniel Goldmark and Yuval Taylor
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037090/?ref_=ttsnd_snd_tt

- Michael J. Ruhland  

Puttin' On The Dog (1944)

After Spike really found his personality in the last Tom and Jerry cartoon (The Bodyguard) in Puttin' On the Dog he gets one of his best roles in the series (released just a few months later (The Bodyguard released on July 22, 1944. Puttin' On the Dog released on October 28th, 1944)) . This is a near perfect cartoon. Every joke hits home perfectly, the timing is sharp as can be, the characters are as vivid as ever, and this has one of Scott Bradley's best scores. One of my favorite jokes comes in this film (when Tom and Jerry dive into a hairy dog like a pool of water).

In this cartoon Tom is once again chasing Jerry. For protection Jerry runs into a dog pound. Where Spike and many other dogs get the best of Tom.

This cartoon once again features who had become William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's main animators, Pete Burness, Ray Patterson, Irv Spence, Kenneth Muse. All of them do amazing work here.

Overall this is one of my favorite Tom and Jerry cartoons and a must watch for everybody who loves cartoons.


-Michael J. Ruhland


Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
Hollywood Cartoons: American Animated Cartoons by Michael Barrier
https://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/3028-puttin-On-The-Dog

The Bodyguard (1944)

Though Spike the bulldog first appeared in the cartoon Dog Trouble his first appearance where he acts like the character we know is in The Bodyguard. He is now a friend of Jerry and an enemy to Tom. He protects his rodent friend from his feline enemy here like he would many times later. The only big difference is his voice. While in later cartoons, his voice would have been inspired by Jimmy Durante, here he has a tough deep voice, provided by Billy Bletcher (who is best known as the voice of the big bad wolf in Disney's The Three Little Pigs and as Papa Bear in Chuck Jones' Three Bears cartoons).

The story is simple Tom is chasing Jerry as usual. Spike has been captured by the dog catcher, and Jerry sets him free. Spike will now help protect the mouse every time he whistles. Jerry is therefore protected from Tom until Spike is once again caught by the dogcatcher and the chase begins all over again.

This is another great Tom and Jerry cartoon and features all that made this series great. The animation is fantastic and the characters can perfectly express any thought or emotion just through great character animation. On top of this, the characters again feel real and you would never think that they are just drawings on paper. While the short is very over the top and cartoony, this all comes so naturally out of the characters and stories, that it feels more believable then many more realistic films. Of course also important here is the gags. The are really funny, and they are all timed perfectly. The whole cartoon is just surrounded by a feeling of great energy and could not be more enjoyable.

The animators on this film are again those who had already become William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's main animators with Pete Burness, Ken Muse, Ray Patterson and Irven Spence. Three out of four of these main animators would later work with Bill and Joe on various television projects.

-Michael J. Ruhland    

The Million Dollar Cat (1944)

The Million Dollar Cat is the first Tom and Jerry cartoon where Tom has to be polite to Jerry against his wishes (the ones where they team up against a greater evil not included). An eccentric aunt to Mammy has left Tom a whole lot of money, provided he doesn't hurt any living thing, even a mouse. To get his money Tom decides to be nice to Jerry from now on. However Jerry sees this as the perfect opportunity to take advantage of his rival and drives the poor rich cat crazy. Eventually Tom gets fed up and resumes his rivalry with Jerry, trading money for something that will hopefully make him much more happy, trying to kill Jerry.

This is a great cartoon. The gags are funny, the timing is perfect and the ending is very satisfying. It is obvious that William Hanna has reached near perfection with his timing, and Joseph Barbera's story ideas are as sharp as ever when watching this film. Through out the whole picture the characters feel so real and relatable. Like many of the best Tom and Jerry cartoons, the very idea these characters are just drawings seems absurd. Also helping provide this film with great energy is a very enjoyable high energy music score by Scott Bradley. This is fast and really fun big band music. There is though a brief instance where the music seems at odds with what is happening on screen. This is when Tom and Jerry read the letter. The high energy music does not match the characters (and audience) reading a piece of paper. However this is really brief and the music matches the rest of the cartoon very well. All and all a delightful cartoon with a whole lot of energy.

This cartoon featured the team that had by this time firmly become Bill and Joe's regular group of animators, Irv Spence, Ken Muse, Pete Burness and Ray Patterson. The great final line was vocally delivered by William Hanna himself.

MGM seemed to have the ugliest movie posters to accompany their short subjects (both animated and live action). This film however happens to have one of the worst as you can see below. The poster's artwork was most likely done by Bela Reiger, who did the artwork for almost all the terrible MGM short subject posters.


By the way this is one of the few Tom and Jerry cartoons, that when it is shown on Boomerang or Cartoon Network, does not have the smoking scenes cut out.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/which-is-the-ugliest-mgm-cartoon-poster-nsfw/

The Zoot Cat (1944)

Well all reet, well all root, well all right. It is time to talk about one of the all time great Tom and Jerry cartoons The Zoot Cat. Do you hear me? Well latch on Jackson, and get hep to jive and I better stop talking like this before I won't be able to any more.

Tom wants to impress his girl so he bring her a present namely Jerry. The girl thinks Tom is too square and behind the times though, causing Tom to make zoot suit out of her curtains. She now thinks Tom is one hep cat, and invites him inside. However Jerry, not too happy with being wrapped as a present wants to sabotage Tom's romance. 

Unlike many Tom and Jerry cartoons there is actually quite a bit of dialogue. William Hanna himself voices Tom and Sara Berner voices Jerry and Tom's girlfriend. 

This cartoons features some fantastic animation. The film opens with Tom making himself look better through some great Pete Burness animation, and after that we are just treated to more and more great animation. The highlight of the animation came from a dance animated by Irv Spence, this animation is really funny and is just a joy to look at. There is specifically funny about them dancing but the way it's animated makes all the difference. The story of course all leads to Tom chasing Jerry which includes some high quality slapstick (including Jerry knocking Tom on the head with a shovel) animated by Ray Patterson.

Along with this the timing is just perfect. There is no doubt William Hanna was at this time one of the masters of cartoon timing. Every joke is timed perfectly to make the most impact possible. The film never feels too slow, and never feels too fast. The short is pretty fast paced though, but this just creates an amazing feeling of energy, and makes the whole film a delight to watch.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources UsedDVD commentary by Jerry Beck

   

Baby Puss (1943)

This was the first Tom and Jerry cartoon for animator Ray Patterson. Patterson started his animation career in 1929 as an inker. In the early 1940's he would become a Disney animator animating on such films as Fantasia and Dumbo. When he moved to MGM he would not only be an animator for Bill and Joe, but he would also work on the cartoons of Tex Avery and Dick Lundy. He had quite a future with Bill and Joe though when they formed their own studio, Hanna-Barbera. Though he started at Hanna-Barbera as an animator, he would later become one of the studio's main directors in the 1970's and 80's. Other animators on this film include Irv Spence, George Gordon, Pete Burness, who all had worked on Tom and Jerry before.

This cartoon also marked the debut of Butch and Topsy. Butch is a black alley cat, who though sometimes is on friendly terms with Tom, most often isn't. Often times him and Tom will fight over girls. Topsy is a small grey cat, who sometimes is Tom's friend and sometimes not. They appear as two of the alley cats here. The other alley cat is Meathead (the one shown in the picture above), who had previously appeared in Sufferin Cats.  

In this film Tom has a little girl for an owner, who makes Tom dress like a baby. Tom finds this embarrassing, but the milk is good so he stays. Jerry sees this and finds it very funny, and invites various alley cats to see Tom dressed up as a baby. Tom tries to get Jerry back, but the other cats have too much fun messing with Tom, for Tom to do that successfully (not that he could if the cats weren't there mind you).

This is a very funny cartoon. It starts off like a cute little cartoon, which leaves you unprepared for the great slapstick that is about to come. The slapstick is perfectly timed, and the facial expressions of the characters makes it even funnier.

-Michael J. Ruhland.

Resources Used
Who's Who in Animated Cartoons by Jeff Lenburg.

Yankee Doodle Mouse (1943)

Yankee Doodle Mouse marked the first time a Tom and Jerry cartoon would win an Academy Award. The series would go on to win seven of these awards. The other six would go to Mouse Trouble, Quiet Please, The Cat Concerto, The Little Orphan, The Two Mousketeers and Johan Mouse. All these awards would of course be for best animated short film.

Like many American cartoons made in this time period, this cartoon features plenty of references to World War Two. In fact the whole story is pretty much all inspired by World War Two (the working title was Jerry's Home Defense). In this film Tom and Jerry's fight blows into warlike proportions, involving many explosives, and a patriotic ending. However probably the most obvious World War Two reference won't be found in the film today. This was a joke involving ration stamps. After the scene where Jerry whacks Tom with a wooden board. Tom originally chased him. Tom gets his head stuck in Jerry's mouse hole, and Jerry whacks him with a wrench. This causes the cat's tongue to stick out. Jerry uses Tom's tongue to lick a ration stamp and then pastes it in his book. This would be followed by a war communique stating "Enemy gets in a few good licks". When this film was rereleased to theaters in 1951, this scene was cut out to fit the new time period. Unfortunately, the original version of the cartoon is believed to be lost, and only the 1951 version is available for viewing. So you won't see this scene watching the cartoon today.

All the animators on this cartoon had worked on previous Tom and Jerry films. The animators on this film were Irv Spence, Pete Burness, Jack Zander, Ken Muse and George Gordon. The opening of this cartoon is animated by Irv Spence. He is given an opening sequence of quite a bit of length (for an around 8 minute cartoon that is). He animates Jerry running into his cat raid shelter, hitting Tom with hen grenades, and attacking him with wine bottles. Pete Burness animates the film next. He animates Jerry watching Tom through his periscope, as well as him running over Tom with his jeep (actually a cheese grater with wheels). He also animates the jeep crashing and the flour falling Jerry's way. The next animator is Jack Zander, who animates Jerry using the flour as a smokescreen, and whacking Tom with the wooden board. I do not know who animated the missing scene that fits in here. George Gordon animates Tom and Jerry trying to pass a stick of dynamite to the other, as well as another gag involving explosives in which Tom puts an explosive in a coffee pot, only to lead to it blowing up in his face leaving him to look like a sunflower. He then animates the beginning of a scene. Here he animates Tom throwing an explosive in a paper airplane. The scene then goes back to Pete Burness who animates Jerry blowing the paper plane away, as well as the plane coming back and blowing up Tom. Ken Muse then animates Jerry giving Tom a huge lit firecracker, behind Toms back, as well as the firecracker turning into various smaller firecrackers before exploding Tom. The animation than goes back to Jack Zander, who animates another fairly lengthy segment. In this segment Jerry takes off in a plane (made of an egg carton) and drops bombs (light bulbs and a banana) on Tom. This is followed by Tom using a firecracker that shoot Jerry down. Jerry uses a bra as a parachute. Back on the ground Ken Muse takes over animation duties again. Ken Muse animates almost all of the rest of the film, except for the very end (after the rocket takes off), which is animated by Al Grandmain.

This cartoon show Tom and Jerry at their absolute best. Every gag is fantastic, the timing is near perfect, the animation is a joy to look at and Scott Bradley's music has never sounded better. Even more than that though this film abounds in a comic energy that is irresistible.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin
Tom and Jerry: The Definitive Guide to Their Animated Adventures by Patrick Brion
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mgms-the-yankee-doodle-mouse-1942/