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  

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/      

Sufferin' Cats (1943)

The idea of Tom fighting another cat for Jerry was an idea the series would use very often. Sufferin' Cats was the first Tom and Jerry film to use this story.

In this film Tom and Jerry are once again fighting. Jerry runs away from Tom, until he runs into another cat. Jerry starts a feud between Tom and this other cat.

This is an excellent cartoon. It may not be one of the best Tom and Jerry films, but that is because the other cartoons are so good. William Hanna was often in charge of the timing of these cartoons and here you can see just how good he was at it by this time. The timing is just perfect here. Unlike in Dog Trouble and Puss N' Toots there are plenty of jokes along with the great timing. The jokes are very funny as well. The animation is fantastic and the facial expressions of the characters get quite a few laughs. 

The animators on this film are Pete Burness, George Gordon, Kenneth Muse, and Jack Zander. All of who had worked on previous Tom and Jerry cartoons. This is the second cartoon in which they rightful receive screen credit (as well as Music director Scott Bradley). However Frank Graham who does the voice of the devil on Tom's shoulder does not receive any credit. It is worth noting however at this time no voice actor received on screen credit at any of the major Hollywood cartoon studios. Mel Blanc would break that unfortunate reality the next year by receiving credit for doing voices in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons (though the other voice artists for those series still received no credit).

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036399/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt

Fine Feathered Friend (1942)

With Fine Feathered Friend, finally people other than William Hanna, Joseph Barbera and Fred Quimby receive screen credit. Now credited as well are animators Kenneth Muse, Pete Burness (as Peter Burness), George Gordon, Jack Zander and Bill Littlejohn (who doesn't receive credit on the later re-issue of the film  and musical composer Scott Bradley. Most of these people had worked on previous Tom and Jerry cartoons, and it is good to see them finally credited for what they brought to the series. This was however the first Tom and Jerry short to feature Kenneth Muse as an animator (he had come from Disney where he animated for Pinocchio (the I've Got No Strings Number), Fantasia (he worked on The Sorcerer's Apprentice segment) and various Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck cartoons). He would stay with the Tom and Jerry series until Tot Watchers the last one Bill and Joe directed. Cecil Surry also animated on this cartoon but receives no credit.

In this cartoon Tom is chasing Jerry across a farm. Here Jerry uses a protective hen, to protect him from Tom.

This cartoon is well paced, and the animation is excellent. However like Dog Trouble and Puss N' Toots, this film features too few gags, to be considered one of the cat and mouse's best outings. However the gags that do appear in this cartoon are quite funny, such as when Tom accidently catches a little chick instead of Jerry. The cartoon is fun and the characters are quite likable. Also helping is Scott Bradley's great musical score. This may not be one of the best Tom and Jerry cartoons but it is still a good one.

 -Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin
http://www.bcdb.com/bcdb/cartoon.cgi?film=3145

The Bowling Alley Cat (1942)

Tom and Jerry cartoons seem to have improving with each individual film (the kind of exception being The Night Before Christmas as that was an early masterpiece) at this point and this cartoon only helps set that trend.

This cartoon marks the first Tom and Jerry cartoon not take place inside house. This instead takes place at a bowling alley as hinted at by the title. The story however remains basically the same as tom spends the film trying to catch Jerry and failing at it.

This film not only showed an improvement over previous Tom and Jerry films, but the series reaching it's full height. This film shows the chase cartoon at it's best. Not only does this show the improvements in pacing that Dog Trouble and Puss n' Toots, but this cartoon features much more gags than both those put together. Every gag here works great. Jerry using a pin as a baseball bat, Tom turning into a pin, a mountain of cigarette ashes turning into a volcano, and Tom being used to make a strike is the series at it's best. This is the first Tom and Jerry cartoon without dialogue and it's never missed because the pantomime is so good. An early scene with Jerry skating on the bowling alley floor is extremely well animated and makes one think of later more elaborate scenes in Mice Follies and Mouse in Manhattan. Scott Bradley's music is also very important to why this cartoon works so well. Using train music as bowling balls are chasing Jerry is fantastic. 

The animators on this film include Pete Burness, Bill Littlejohn, George Gordon, Irven Spence, Jack Zander. All of them have been animators on previous Tom and Jerry cartoons. Unfortunately again only Bill, Joe and Fred Quimby received credit.

A fantastic cartoon and a must watch for every cartoon fan.

-Michael J. Ruhland


Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: The History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034547/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Puss 'n Toots (1942)

Puss n' Toots marks the first of many cartoons in which Tom falls for a girl cat. In this film Mammy Two Shoes is asked to take care of a female cat, who Tom instantly gets a crush on. Tom tries to offer Jerry as a present to her, which doesn't work at all how Tom planned.

The pacing had been continuing to improve and by this film, it was near perfect. This pacing was mainly handled by William Hanna, and it is obvious that even this early in the series he had worked his craft to near perfection. The character's reaction here are funnier and more wild than they had been previously. They may not be at their height in this cartoon but by the next year those reactions would reach perfection. This is definitely a big step in the direction of the comedic brilliance of the cartoons to come.

Fitting the great pacing perfectly is Scott Bradley's music. Scott Bradley felt that working for cartoons was not only a privilege but an advantage he had over other composers. He had a particularly  strong love for Tom and Jerry, because the cartoons' lack of dialogue. He felt this allowed him to experiment with music more than other directors would. This passion for what he did shows why his scores are so good. Unlike Carl Stalling (who composed music for Warner Brothers cartoons at this time), Bradley was not interested in using songs as puns to comment directly on the action. His scores instead were focused mostly on keeping the momentum of the cartoons going. Since the Tom and Jerry cartoons were speeding up so was the music. Bradley would state "... the average amount of music in a cartoon, due to it's fast tempo, is about 500 measures". This faster music fit this new faster pace perfectly.

However there aren't as many jokes as their would be in later Tom and Jerry cartoons, despite these other huge improvements. However this film is funnier than the previous cartoon Dog Trouble which had the same problem. A scene involving a record player is laugh out loud funny. The quality of the humor and the great pacing and character reactions make up for the fact that (strangely for such a fast paced cartoon) there just aren't many actual gags.

The animators on this film are George Gordon, Irven Spence, Jack Zander and Bill Littlejohn. All of them had worked on previous Tom and Jerry cartoons. However George Gordon, Bill Littlejohn and Jack Zander wouldn't stay with the series much longer. Bill Littlejohn would leave the series later the same year, while George Gordon and Jack Zander would leave the next year. Irven Spence would stay with Tom and Jerry until 1957.  Again only William Hanna, Joseph Barbera and Fred Quimby would receive credit.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: The History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035226/
The Cartoon Music Book by Daniel Goldmark and Yuval Taylor

Dog Trouble (1942)

Dog Trouble marked the first cartoon where Tom and Jerry had to team up to fight a greater evil. This evil was Spike the bulldog in his film debut.  Spike here is quite different from the Spike who would come later. For one thing here he hates Jerry as much as he does Tom. Also he does not speak yet. Of course many of us cartoon lovers associate him with the Jimmy Durante-esque voice he was later given (often provided by Daws Butler, who had a future with Bill and Joe voicing many of their TV characters).

The film begins with Tom chases Jerry and the usual slapstick ensuing. However when they run across Spike, he decides to make both their lives miserable. Tom and Jerry call a brief truce and put their minds together to help get rid of this dog.

The animators on this film were George Gordon, Bill Littlejohn, Irven Spence, Cecil Surry and Jack Zander. All of them had worked on previous Tom and Jerry cartoons. Sadly again only directors William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and producer Fred Quimby receive screen credit.

This cartoon show the pace picking up. This contains some of the fastest action to appear in one of these films at this time. Also it shows some of the best facial expressions of Tom and Jerry at this time. These facial expressions and reactions are often the funniest part of this cartoon and quite a few future ones. Though I do not know for sure who animated these scenes, my guess would be Irven Spence, who was a master at comic reactions. However sadly this cartoon seems to have less gags than a normal Tom and Jerry cartoon for some reason, because of this it does not rank as one of the duo's funniest outings. However this cartoon still manages to be a good one due to great animation, characters and energy.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources UsedTom and Jerry: The Definitive Guide to Their Animated Adventures by Patrick Brion
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034657/?ref_=nm_flmg_anm_183

Fraidy Cat (1942)

This cartoon begins with Tom listening to a spooky radio show called The Witching Hour and being frightened out of his wits. This was in fact a real radio show (it was also known as The Witch's Tale) from the 1930's (it started in 1931). This show helped create the fad of spooky hosts introducing scary stories, a trend which we associate with television personalities like Elvira. The spooky hosts here were Old Nancy, The Witch of Salem, with her black cat, Satan. The original voice of Old Nancy was a woman named Adelaide Fitz-Allen. She however died in 1935 at the age of 75. The voice was then briefly taken over by a 13 year old girl named Miriam Wolfe. She was a part of a children's radio show called Let's Pretend, and never auditioned for the role of Old Nancy. However one time just for fun she did the Old Nancy voice for radio producer Alonzo Dean Cole (who some say did the voice of Satan for the series). She got the part. She did this part briefly, but for some reason unknown to me she eventually stopped doing the voice, and the part was taken over by a woman named Martha Wentworth. Martha Wentworth is actually heard here doing the voice of Old Nancy for this Tom and Jerry cartoon. Back to the story Jerry sees how scared Tom is and decides to have a little fun with Tom, by scaring the poor cat even more out of his wits.

The animation for this film was done by George Gordon, Irven Spence, Cecil Surrey and Jack Zander. All of the had worked on previous Tom and Jerry cartoons and would work on more in the future. Though Tom and Jerry don't talk in this cartoon, their screams, laughs and other noises were provided by William Hanna himself. Bill would continue doing the voices clear into the 1950's. Lillian Randolph returns as the voice of Mammy Two-Shoes and Scott Bradley is still doing the music. Despite all this people working on the film again only William Hanna, Joseph Barbera and Fred Quimby would get credit.

This is an excellent cartoon. The jokes all work great (particularly one about Tom's nine lives), the animation is fantastic and the characters are as well written as ever. The pace here is still slower than future cartoons would be but the pace works perfectly with the material given, and the material is still pure Tom and Jerry slapstick.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
Tom and Jerry: The Definitive Guide to Their Animated Adventures by Patrick Brion
https://www.otrcat.com/p/witchs-tale
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034753/?ref_=rvi_tt

The Night Before Christmas (1941)

T'was the Night Before Christmas and all through the house
not a creature was stirring except Tom Cat and Jerry mouse.
 Jerry is playing around the Christmas tree with care
Not knowing Tom was still there.
Tom chases Jerry.
Making Christmas anything but merry.
Tom throws Jerry out of the house.
Letting the weather freeze the mouse.
Tom feels bad and wants to make amends.
Tom helps Jerry and now they are friends.

The Night Before Christmas was the third Tom and Jerry cartoon and one of the best. It is clear that Bill, Joe and the rest of the team were now fully understanding how to use these characters just right.

The animators on the film included some of those who had worked on the previous two cartoons. These were Jack Zander, George Gordon and Pete Burness. It also introduced some new animators to the series. These included Irven Spence  Irven Spence would stay with the studio until 1957. Other new animators for the series included Bill Littlejohn and Cecil Surry, both of whom would only stay with the series one more year.

The opening scenes with Jerry playing around the tree, the mistletoe scene and the ending were all animated by Jack Zander. George Gordon animated the scene of Jerry bouncing on Tom, and a very funny sequence involving boxing gloves. Cecil Surry animates Jerry freezing outside. Bill Littlejohn animates the scene of Jerry pretending to be a toy solider. Irven Spence who would later become one of the most prominent Tom and Jerry animators (known for animating over the top reactions) has a very limited role here. He animates Tom feeling guilty about Jerry freezing outside, while he is trying to sleep and a very brief scene of Tom shaking snow off of Jerry. Even his animation of Tom feeling guilty is interrupted by Cecil Surry animating Jerry freezing.

This is one of the best Tom and Jerry cartoons. The pace has picked up a lot since the last two films, and the timing couldn't be more perfect. William Hanna (who did most of the timing for these cartoons) is completely at his element here. The animation is fantastic, and the characters are as likable as ever. This film was also nominated (though it didn't win) for an Oscar.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
Tom and Jerry: The Definitive Guide to Their Animated Adventures by Patrick Brion
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mgms-the-night-before-christmas-1941-with-tom-jerry/ 

The Midnight Snack (1941)

The Midnight Snack was the second Tom and Jerry cartoon, and the first where they were called Tom and Jerry. Joseph Barbera later wrote that he and William Hanna invited people working at the studio to write down names for the characters. These names were put into a hat, and whichever one was pulled out would be the characters' names. Naturally Tom and Jerry were pulled out. These names were written by an MGM animator named John Carr. He got fifty dollars for these names.

Producer Fred Quimby was not a big fan of the first Tom and Jerry cartoon, and didn't want it to become a series originally. Because of this William Hanna and Joseph Barbera made various cartoons with one shot characters after Puss Gets the Boot (the first cat and mouse cartoon). However after that first cartoon was released it became a huge hit, and even spent larger than normal amounts of time in one theater (it is important to remember that these cartoons were short films shown before feature films in theaters) and nominated for an Oscar, Quimby asked for more cat and mouse cartoons.

The animators on this film had all worked on Puss Gets the Boot. These animators were Pete Burness, Carl Urbano, Jack Zander and George Gordon. The only animator from the first cartoon that didn't work on this film was Tony Pabian.

Unlike Puss Gets the Boot, Bill and Joe along with Fred Quimby would receive credit here. However the animators, Composer Scott Bradley and Mammy Two Shoes' voice Lillian Randolph would remain uncredited.

The story is once again very simple. Jerry tries to get a midnight snack and Tom tries to stop him and fails.

This cartoon is a definite improvement over the first film. The designs look much more like the ones we know and love and the jokes are funnier. However the pace is still too slow and therefore it lacks the punch of later Tom and Jerry films. However this cartoon is still quite good.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
Tom and Jerry: The Definitive Guide to Their Animated Adventures by Patrick Brion
Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin
My Life in Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Less Than a Century by Joseph Barbera 

Puss Gets The Boot (1940)

Hello and welcome to Tom and Jerry Toon by Toon. Here I will discuss each Tom and Jerry cartoon individually and in order. I will give background information, story descriptions and my thoughts on each film, along with some general discussion. This will cover all of Tom and Jerry's theatrical short films. Because of this feature films and cartoons from TV will not be discussed here. I hope you will enjoy this blog, as much as I enjoy writing about it.

In the mid and late 1930's MGM's main cartoon directors were Hugh Harmon and Rudolph Ising (also the founders of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies in the early 1930's). Harmon and Ising both had something many people working in animation at this time had. This was called the Disney syndrome. At this time the Disney studio was at the height of it's popularity, and all cartoons that weren't Disney were considered second rate in comparison, because of this the majority of American animation was trying to copy what they felt made Disney cartoons so popular. This was no truer of anyone than it was of Harmon and Ising, who had in fact worked for Walt Disney on the silent Alice Comedies and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series. They didn't only want to copy Disney's work, but to beat the Disney studio at it's on game. Because of this their cartoons for MGM, often went over budget and overschedule. Producer Fred Quimby was not happy about this and wanted directors who would turn in cartoons on time and on budget.

Two of the men who were chosen were William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. William Hanna had worked as an animator for Rudolph Ising and even co-directed the cartoon To Spring with Rudy, as well as directing three Captain and the Kids cartoons himself (Blue Monday, What A Lion and Old Smokey, all three from 1938). Joseph Barbera had worked as a writer. He had written five MGM cartoons (The Captain's Christmas (1938), Petunia National Park, Mama's New Hat, The Bookworm and The Mad Maestro (1939)). Bill and Joe would make the perfect team. Bill was incredibly good at timing, and Joe was extremely talented on the creative end. Like other great duos in film history (Laurel and Hardy for instance), though they were both very talented, they would complete each other. None of these films would have been anywhere near as good if just one of them was working on it.

The first film these two directors made as a team was Puss Gets the Boot, which also introduced two of the most popular cartoon characters of all time. This was of course Tom and Jerry. However in this film the cat and mouse had not yet acquired there names. Their names here were Jasper (later Tom) and Jinks (later Jerry). Though Jinks' name was never said in this cartoon, Bill and Joe would later reuse the name for the Pixie Dixie and Mr. Jinks segment of The Huckleberry Hound Show. This cartoon also introduced Tom's owner, often called Mammy Two-Shoes. Her voice was provided by Lillian Randolph, who you can see in such live action films as It's A Wonderful Life and Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte.

The animators on this film are Jack Zander, Pete Burness, George Gordon, Tony Pabian, and Carl Urbano. This was the only Tom and Jerry film Tony Pabain would work on. George Gordon and Jack Zander would stay on until 1943. Carl Urbano would also work on the next two Tom and Jerry films. However Gordon and Pabian would later work on Hanna-Barbera's TV output. Pete Burness would stay until 1947 and then move to work at Warner Brothers on Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Despite all this and the fact that he did very little work for the short only Rudolph Ising was credited for the cartoon.

The story is very simple. Jasper chasing Jinks breaks various things around the house. Mammy tells Jasper that if one more thing breaks he is out of the house. Jinks overhearing this decides to try to break everything to which Jasper continuously tries to stop.

This cartoon is good, but later cartoons in the series would be much better. The animation here is so realistic that some slapstick gags seem almost painful, and the pacing is much slower than it would be later and due to this you can see slapstick gags coming too early and then they take too long to happen. These faults would be more than made up for in later Tom and Jerry cartoons, when the timing and humor would be near perfect. However this film still features some great animation (even when it clashes with the humor), well thought out characters, and a good story. The series would get much better, but what is seen in this film is still good.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032953/?ref_=rvi_tt