Tom & Jerry battle the Baby from Hell

Puzzled Pals (1933)
Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors

Directors: Frank Sherman and George Stallings

Rating: Five of Ten Stars

Tom and Jerry become the instant fathers when the stork leaves a baby on their doorstep. 

"Puzzled Pals" is a mildly amusing entry in the "Tom and Jerry" series. It has a lot of potential, but that ends up being mostly unrealized, as the middle section is dragged down by repetitive gags.

The focal point of this installment is the baby that gets dropped off with these two confirmed bachelor roommates by a stork who grew frustrated at being unable to find a more suitable place for it--because not only does there appear to be a pandemic going on in Tom & Jerry's world (just like today), but households already jam-packed with children fight the stork off with literal gunfire. The stork eventually recognizes the error of its ways, but not before our two heroes show themselves to be so inept at taking care of a baby that if the stork hadn't returned, social workers would have taken the child away and Tom & Jerry would undoubtedly be looking at jail-time for child neglect or abuse.

Still, their inability to control and care for their unexpected "bundle of joy" isn't entirely their fault, as this baby is a demon-child on the magnitude of something out of an "Evil Dead" movie or television episode. This "baby" is so clever and so destructive that it must have been spawned in Hell and the very act of bringing it to the earthly plane was some sort of cosmic paperwork mix-up. Basically, once thie hell-child gets his hands on the industrial strength vacuum cleaner that Tom and Jerry keep in their house, they are fighting for their lives.

The combination of the vacuum cleaner and the hell-baby is why I'm rating "Puzzled Pas" at the low end of average. The gags with the vacuum cleaner are repetitive, go on and on, and get boring after awhile. Perhaps, because vacuum cleaners were just becoming common household items in 1933, the audience back then would have been more entertained by the humor involving one, but it began to think that it sucked when it kept going. And the baby... oh, that baby. Obnoxious children doing obnoxious and downright deadly stuff is a mainstay in cartoons from the this period, but they usually have an innocent quality about them that gives them a degree of cuteness that makes their antics palatable. The baby that gets dropped on Tom and Jerry has nothing innocent about it; it seems motivated by malice from the moment it enters the home. Perhaps some viewers will find this funny, but I found it more disturbing than anything else.

Although I dislike of the central action of "Puzzled Pals", I adored the stork character whose baby-delivering activities bookend this episode. He may actually be the most appealing character in all the Tom & Jerry cartoons!

But why don't you take a few minutes and check out the film for yourself? It's embedded below. Just click and sit back and watch. (And if you feel inclined, leave a comment and let me and everyone else know what you liked or disliked about the film.)