Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Release Date: June 14, 1947
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★★★★
Review:
This cartoon starts with Tom’s attempts to prevent Jerry from lapping his milk.
In ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse’ Jerry has attained a Droopy-like ability to be everywhere, giving Tom a hard time. In order to defeat the omnipresent mouse, Tom mixes a poisonous drink. Unfortunately, it renders the mouse muscular and extremely strong.
Later, Jerry tries to mix the same drink to get strong again, but it’s Tom who drinks it. However, it makes him smaller and in the final shot watch see Jerry chasing a tiny Tom.
‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse’ covers similar grounds as the Mickey Mouse cartoon ‘The Worm Turns‘ (1937), but with better results. The highlight of the cartoon is the animation of the effects of Tom’s potion on Jerry. Especially the animation of a threatening, marching muscular Jerry is grandiose, and in this scene Scott Bradley’s outstanding music is particularly powerful.
Watch ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 30
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Part Time Pal
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Salt Water Tabby
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 
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March 12, 2014 at 04:21
Bobb Edwards
Here’s one classic cartoon that doesn’t sit well with the present PC crowd. The idea of Tom trying to poison Jerry (as opposed to eating him, crushing him, etc.) seems to be too much for them. That wasn’t an issue in 1947 – it was nominated for an Academy Award.
I’d like to clear up a common misconception about this film. At the start Tom doesn’t steal a bottle of milk, but the smaller, more expensive bottle of cream. Sounds like a trivial detail, but it goes to motive. Cream would’ve been a rare, special treat for Tom – and for Jerry. That’s why both were so determined to have it for themselves. Also keep in mind that for American audiences in 1947, memories of wartime food rationing – when things like dairy products were hard to come by – were still pretty fresh, so they would’ve understood the tug-of-war between cat and mouse over something they themselves had been deprived of. What seems arbitrary to us now would have had resonance for folks back then. But the days of the milkman are long gone and some things get lost in the sands of time…unless you look for them.
The animation is terrific throughout but what sticks with me is the great use of “force vectors”. Watch Jerry’s figure as he body slams Tom by his whiskers. Bill Tytla could not have done it better. Hanna-Barbera clearly learned from the competition.
Now for a little music trivia: for the menacing march that accompanies “Evil Jerry” stalking Tom, Scott Bradley parodied the theme from the popular 1940s radio serial “Superman”. It is played on 4 French horns, an instrument Bradley rarely used in his MGM cartoon scores.