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Director: Chuck Jones
Release Date: March 24, 1964
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★★
Review:
In ‘Is There a Doctor in the Mouse?’ Jerry invents a potion, which makes him lightning fast.
Jerry uses his new speed to eat everything that Tom wants to eat. When he runs out of speed he drinks a potion, which makes him enormous, thus abruptly ending the film.
Like the Hanna-Barbera Tom & Jerry cartoon ‘The Invisible Mouse‘ (1947), ‘Is There a Doctor in the Mouse?’ suffers from an all too powerful Jerry. When Tom is bullied, it’s not comical, it’s sad. The result is one of the weaker entries in Jones’ Tom & Jerry series.
‘Is There A Doctor in the Mouse’ has the questionable honor to be the first Chuck Jones Tom & Jerry cartoon with a pun in the title. Titles like these would dominate the Chuck Jones Tom & Jerries. They were not their best feature. Apart from being rather trite, they more often than not had nothing to do with the content, at all.
Watch ‘Is There a Doctor in the Mouse?’ yourself and tell me what you think:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ofixi
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 130
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: The Cat Above, The Mouse Below
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Much Ado About Mousing
Director: Chuck Jones
Release Date: February 25, 1964
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
In ‘The Cat Above, The Mouse Below’ Tom is a successful opera singer performing Figaro’s famous aria ‘Largo el factotum’ from Gioachino Rossini’s ‘Il barbiere de Sevilla’ (what else?) at a grand theater, but awakening Jerry by doing so.
In this short Tom displays some fantastic facial expressions, director Chuck Jones’ trademark. It’s also probably the best of all Chuck Jones’s Tom & Jerry cartoons, albeit not as funny as Jones’ earlier ‘Long-haired Hare‘ (1949) or Tex Avery’s ‘Magical Maestro’ (1952), which both use the same theme.
Watch ‘The Cat Above, The Mouse Below’ yourself and tell me what you think:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6eg8vi
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 129
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Penthouse Mouse
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Is There a Doctor in the Mouse?
Director: Chuck Jones
Release Date: July 27, 1963
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★★
Review:
‘Penthouse Mouse’ was the first cartoon in a series of 34 Tom & Jerry cartoons produced by Chuck Jones, after he was fired by Warner Brothers.
Jones had taken all his staff with him, including writer Michael Maltese and co-director Maurice Noble. Even Warner Bros. voice Mel Blanc contributes to the film. The result is typical Chuck Jones: highly stylized backgrounds, excellent animation, and great facial expressions and poses. All this makes a great improvement on the Gene Deitch films.
Oddly enough ‘Penthouse Mouse’ borrows its theme precisely from one of Jones’ predecessor’s films: the Gene Deitch’s Tom & Jerry short ‘Buddies Thicker than Water‘ (1962). But now the story is reversed: Tom has made it on the top floor of a skyscraper, while Jerry is the hungry tramp, roaming the streets. Unfortunately, the story is not very consistent, and the result is not really good. Jones could do better as he was going to show in his next Tom & Jerry cartoon, ‘The Cat Above, The Mouse Below‘.
Watch ‘Penthouse Mouse’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 128
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Carmen Get It
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: The Cat Above, The Mouse Below
Director: Gene Deitch
Release Date: December 1962
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★
Review:
‘Carmen Get It’ opens with a busy New York street scene. From here Tom chases Jerry into the Metropolitian opera house, where a performance of Georges Bizet’s opera ‘Carmen’ is about to start.
The rest of the cartoon takes place within the opera setting, during the playing of the Carmen overture, and a little bit of the opera itself. Unfortunately, the whole cartoon is terribly tiresome and unfunny, making ‘Carmen Get It’ probably the worst of all concert cartoons. This is a sad irony, because Tom & Jerry are also responsible for one of the all time best: ‘The Cat Concerto‘ (1947).
Particularly annoying is the conductor, who is clearly modeled after Arturo Toscanini (1867-1957), but so badly designed and so awfully animated he gets on one’s nerves. Steven Konichek’s music, meanwhile, tries to get an American flavor by mixing ‘Yankee Doodle’, ‘Dixie’ and ‘There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight’ into the music. The latter tune was most probably still under copyright at the time, but I wonder if anyone noticed.
‘Carmen get it’ was the last of the Gene Deitch Tom & Jerries, a poor and unfunny series of cartoons, which during their short existence never came even within a reasonable distance of the quality of the original ones by Hanna and Barbera. Gene Deitch had outlasted its welcome within one year and moved over to produce cartoons for Paramount, directing a.o. Popeye and Krazy Cat cartoons.
Tom & Jerry were already revived once again the next year, by Chuck Jones, whose Tom & Jerry cartoons were to be a great improvement on Gene Deitch’s ones, albeit nowhere near the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons…
Watch an excerpt from ‘Carmen Get It’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 127
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Buddies Thicker than Water
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Penthouse Mouse
‘Carmen Get It’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Tom and Jerry – The Gene Deitch Collection’ and the European DVD-Box ‘Tom and Jerry Collection’
Director: Gene Deitch
Release Date: November 1962
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★
Review:
In ‘Buddies Thicker than Water’ Jerry has it made, living in a luxury penthouse on the top of a huge skyscraper. Meanwhile Tom is freezing in the snow below.
Tom calls his former foe for help and Jerry is willing to take him in. But Tom double-crosses his savior and in return the mouse haunts Tom out of the house.
This cartoon has got one of the best and most straightforward stories of all Gene Deitch’s Tom & Jerry cartoons, which makes it stand out of the series. Unfortunately the short is very low on gags, and the animation and staging are very poor, as always in Gene Deitch’s Tom and Jerries. I guess the cartoon’s highlight is the modernly designed interior of the apartment.
Watch an excerpt from ‘Buddies Thicker than Water’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 126
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Sorry Safari
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Carmen Get It
‘Buddies Thicker than Water’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Tom and Jerry – The Gene Deitch Collection’ and the European DVD-Box ‘Tom and Jerry Collection’
Director: Gene Deitch
Release Date: October 1962
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★
Review:
In ‘Sorry Safari’ we meet the fat man from ‘Down and outing‘ and ‘High Steaks‘ for the last time. In this cartoon he is on a safari in Kenya.
Tom and Jerry perform uninspired antics reminiscent of the former two cartoons. Never sympathetic in the Gene Deitch cartoons, Jerry is particularly nasty in this one. The whole affair is a tiresome watch and one has ample time to gaze at the charming cartoon modern background art of the jungle. The cartoon’s only highlight is its strangely designed elephant.
But notice the piece of animation when Tom tries to get Jerry out of one of the guns: suddenly he looks and moves like his old self again. This sequence does only last a second, but how did the marvel get in there? Did the animator trace a Hanna-Barbera cartoon for just these few frames? I guess we’ll never know.
Watch ‘Sorry Safari’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 125
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Tall in the Trap
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Buddies Thicker than Water
‘Sorry Safari’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Tom and Jerry – The Gene Deitch Collection’ and the European DVD-Box ‘Tom and Jerry Collection’
Director: Gene Deitch
Release Date: September, 1962
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★½
Review:
‘Tall in the Trap’ is a typical Tom and Jerry chase, brought as a classic western.
The talkative sheriff and cheese shop owner could be missed, but luckily most of the cartoon is devoted to the silent comedy of Tom and Jerry themselves. Co-written by Tedd Pierce at least the gags are good, even if their execution is not. The best gag undoubtedly is the light switch and stairs gag, but this one is ‘borrowed’ straight from the Bugs Bunny cartoon ‘Windblown Hare’ (1949). In fact, the most enjoyable aspects of this cartoon are its opening credits and Steven Konichek’s soundtrack, which for once is scored for solo guitar only (played by George Jirmal). Unfortunately, the Czech composer’s melodies sound more Viennese than American, and add little to the Western atmosphere.
Watch and excerpt from ‘Tall in the Trap’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 124
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Sorry Safari
‘Tall in the Trap’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Tom and Jerry – The Gene Deitch Collection’ and the European DVD-Box ‘Tom and Jerry Collection’
Director: Gene Deitch
Release Date: August, 1962
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
‘The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit’ is based on an original idea and this makes the short arguably the best of the Gene Deitch Tom & Jerry cartoons.
Nevertheless, the initial idea of a ‘Tom and Jerry cartoon kit’ is badly developed, as it is based on two extended gag routines: one featuring water melon seeds, and another focusing on Jerry’s judo skills (which the animators confuse with karate).
The cartoon is rescued by some clever gags and by daring monochrome featureless backgrounds, creating a fairly surreal atmosphere. The dancing animation, too, is nice to watch, and the montage in which Tom learns boxing is well-timed for a change. Moreover, this short contains probably the most original gag of all Gene Deitch’s Tom & Jerry cartoons: the one in which Tom’s thinking process makes his eyebrows knit a sweater.
Watch ‘The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 123
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Dicky Moe
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Tall in the Trap
‘The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Tom and Jerry – The Gene Deitch Collection’
Director: Gene Deitch
Release Date: July, 1962
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★
Review:
Tom is involuntarily drafted on a whaling ship of an Ahab-like character in search of the whale ‘Dicky Moe’. On board Tom encounters Jerry, who makes life at sea extra hard for Tom.
Although ‘Dicky Moe’ could have been a nice take on ‘Moby Dick’ , the cartoon completely fails to deliver its promise. Most of the gags have nothing to do with Moby Dick, and the titular whale only arrives after six minutes. The best gag is the one in which a black Tom pretends to be the captain’s shadow, but I guess most viewers will remember this cartoon for the captain repeatedly exclaiming ‘Dicky Moe!’.
Nevertheless, the short is slightly more interesting to look at than most Gene Deitch Tom & Jerry cartoons, because of its nice etch-like backgrounds.
Watch an excerpt from ‘Dicky Moe’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 122
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Calypso Cat
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit
‘Dicky Moe’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Tom and Jerry – The Gene Deitch Collection’
Director: Gene Deitch
Release Date: June, 1962
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★½
Review:
Tom chases Jerry at the harbor. There he falls in love with a kitten and he follows her on a cruise ship to the Caribbean. All the time Jerry tries to break their love. He succeeds in the end, and Tom chases Jerry back into the harbor.
Although Jerry is quite unsympathetic in all Gene Deitch’s Tom & Jerry films, his character is particularly nasty in this one. Unlike a Hanna-Barbera Tom & Jerry like ‘Springtime for Thomas’ (1946), one cannot sympathize with Jerry’s actions, as his motive remains unclear.
The calypso cat from the title only plays a small role as Tom’s rival on a Caribbean island, to witch the cat loses his love interest. Nevertheless, the animation of the calypso cat dancing to his own steeldrumming forms the highlight of the cartoon.
Watch ‘Calypso Cat’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 121
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Landing Stripling
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Dicky Moe
‘Calypso Cat’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Tom and Jerry – The Gene Deitch Collection’
Director: Gene Deitch
Release Date: April, 1962
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★½
Review:
In ‘Landing Stripling’ Jerry helps a small helmeted bird against Tom.
‘Landing Stripling’ is a classic chase cartoon, reminiscent of some Hanna-Barbera Tom & Jerry cartoons, like ‘Little Quacker’ (1950) or ‘The Flying Cat‘ (1952). Unfortunately, the short is too unappealing to stand the comparison. The gags are not that bad, but the silent comedy is ruined by bad timing. Moreover, the sound effect and vocalizations are particularly annoying in this short.
Watch ‘Landing Stripling’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 120
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Mouse into Space
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Calypso Cat
‘Landing Stripling’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Tom and Jerry – The Gene Deitch Collection’
Director: Gene Deitch
Release Date: February, 1962
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★
Review:
In ‘Mouse Into Space’, the fifth of the Gene Deitch Tom & Jerry cartoons, Jerry becomes an “astro mouse”, because there are no cats in space.
By a strange accident, Tom ends up in the same rocket. He apparently has no problems with the void in this directionless, rather weird and unfunny cartoon.
Watch ‘Mouse Into Space’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 119
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: High Steaks
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Landing Stripling
Director: Gene Deitch
Release Date: January, 1962
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★
Review:
‘High Steaks’ can be summarized as ‘Down and Outing‘ at a barbecue brawl.
The film reuses the fat man from ‘Down and outing’, and like in the former film, Tom tries to get rid of Jerry.
Despite some clever gags, this film suffers greatly from the terrible animation, music etc., problems typical of the Gene Deitch Tom & Jerry cartoons. This was the second of three cartoons featuring the unnamed fat man. He would return in ‘Sorry Safari‘, later that year.
Watch ‘High Steaks’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 118
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: It’s Greek To Me-Ow!
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Mouse into Space
Director: Gene Deitch
Release Date: December 12, 1961
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★
Review:
In ‘It’s Greek To Me-Ow!’ we see Tom and Jerry as citizens of ancient Greece.
Tom tries to enter a building (we don’t know why) and Jerry hinders him in doing that (why he does that we don’t know, either).
‘It’s Greek To Me-Ow!’ is the third Tom & Jerry-cartoon directed by Gene Deitch and animated by his Czech studio, and this time even the plot is terrible. This cartoon also painfully shows the complete lack of character in the Czech Tom and Jerry designs. The sad result is one of the worst Tom & Jerry cartoons ever made.
Watch ‘It’s Greek To Me-Ow!’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 117
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Down and Outing
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: High Steaks
Director: Gene Deitch
Release Date: October 26, 1961
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★
Review:
In ‘Down and Outing’ Tom and Jerry join a fat man who goes fishing. During the cartoon Tom tries to get rid of Jerry, mostly on expense of the man.
‘Down And Outing’ is the second of thirteen Tom & Jerry films by Gene Deitch, and like in the first, ‘Switchin’ Kitten‘, a rather inspired story (by Larz Bourne) is ruined by bad design, bad timing, bad animation and bad sounds. The fat man would become Gene Deitch’s best attempt on a recurring character, returning in ‘High Steaks‘ and ‘Sorry Safari‘ (both from 1962).
Watch ‘Down and Outing’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 116
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Switchin’ Kitten
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: It’s Greek to Me-Ow!
Director: Gene Deitch
Release Date: September 1, 1961
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★½
Review:
In ‘Switchin’ Kitten’ Tom visits an eerie castle, where Jerry helps a mad scientist with an experiment changing cats into dogs and vice versa. An anonymous cat, thinking he’s a dog, protects Jerry against an incomprehensible Tom.
‘Switchin’ Kitten’ is the first of a series of thirteen Tom & Jerry shorts directed by Gene Deitch, three years after the MGM animation studio had shut down and Hanna & Barbera had left for television. Gene Deitch’s animation team was based in Czechoslovakia, and it had only seen a handful of the classic Hanna & Barbera films.
‘Switchin’ Kitten’ immediately shows their problems: there’s a fairly good story with some great gags, but these are smothered in ugly designs (especially that of Jerry), bad timing, unappealing animation, terrible sound effects and unimaginative music, resulting in a surprisingly unfunny film. One cannot help but thinking that this short was made only to cash in on Tom & Jerry’s popularity. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t get better…
Watch an excerpt from ‘Switchin’ Kitten’ yourself and tell me what you think:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2oflaq
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 115
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Tot Watchers
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Down and Outing
‘Switchin’ Kitten’ is available on the European DVD Box set ‘Tom and Jerry Collection’ and on the DVD-set ‘Tom and Jerry: The Gene Deitch Collection’
Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Release Date: April 26, 1947
Stars: Tom & Jerry
Rating: ★★★★★ ♕
Review:
In ‘The Cat Concerto’ Tom unexpectedly appears to be a star pianist, playing Franz Liszt’s second rhapsody in concert, and doing it with enjoyable flair.
Unfortunately his playing awakes Jerry, who sleeps inside the grand piano. This leads to a hilarious chase in and around the piano, while the playing of the music continues.
‘The Cat Concerto’ almost looks like a remake of Friz Freleng’s ‘Rhapsody Rabbit‘ from 1946. However, it shares only two gags with the earlier film: that of the mouse suddenly interjecting a boogie-woogie theme and the final gag in which the mouse steals the show. The main difference between the two films is The Cat Concerto’s higher sense of realism and its integrated story, in which every gag follows from the one preceding it in almost continuous action.
‘Rhapsody Rabbit’, in contrast, is more absurd and contains more totally unrelated black-out gags. In the end, ‘The Cat Concerto’ is the better cartoon, because of its great characterization, its outstanding animation, its perfect timing. Indeed, it won an Academy Award, and together with ‘The Band Concert‘ (1935) it can be considered the best concert cartoon of all time.
Nevertheless, there seems to be something fishy about ‘The Cat Concerto’, when compared with ‘Rhapsody Rabbit’. For more on the controversy about these two all too similar cartoons, see Thad Komorowski’s excellent blogpost on the issue.
Watch ‘The Cat Concerto’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Tom & Jerry cartoon No. 29
To the previous Tom & Jerry cartoon: Part Time Pal
To the next Tom & Jerry cartoon: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 