Tom & Jerry are Hanging Out 'In the Park'

In the Park (1933)
Starring: Anonymous Voice Actor (although this is basically a silent movie)
Directors: Frank Sherman and George Rufle
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Tom and Jerry's quiet afternoon in the park is disrupted by a bratty baby.

"In the Park" is another Tom & Jerry adventure that shows those in charge of this series weren't clear on who the target audience for this series was. We have a little mature humor at the beginning and end, framing a series of cute and mildly amusing antics by our heroes and the baby they find themselves suddenly taking care of. I suspect that if I were nine years old, I would find the various visual gags absolute screamers, but at well over five times that age, they just make me smile. It's not that the jokes are bad... they're just juvenile and not set up as effectively as they could be. All that said, the gags come in a steady, constant stream and none drag on past the point of being funny. Even if the baby is annoying.

(The adult in me--and possibly because I'm a 2020s adult instead of a 1930s adult--also kept thinking that our heroes were going to be arrested for kidnapping or for being perverts, since they just started playing with a random baby that showed up. There was also a brief twinge of "don't they see the baby carriage 20 feet their right", but then I decided I was REALLY overthinking things. Plus, the cute squirrels that Jerry was feeding were coming from the opposite direction, so they never really looked that way. [Yeah... still overthinking...])

As with many of the "Tom & Jerry" films, the music is excellent. It's not a mini-musical like some of them are, but rather a silent movie with a great score that's perfectly timed to what unfolds on screen. For all the inconsistencies that plagued this series vis-à-vis tone, possible target audiences, and animation- and story-quality, the musical scores were almost always of the highest quality.

Animation-wise, this is both one of the best AND worst in the Tom & Jerry series. In the positive column, the sequences involving the cute squirrels are well done and very cute. We are also treated to honest-to-god backgrounds throughout most of this episode, something the animators working on "Tom & Jerry" too-often didn't bother with. In the negative column, the characters are sloppily drawn, especially Tom. He literally changes shape more than once and for no reason, with his arms and legs sometimes getting longer or shorter even within the same sequence. Similarly, the obnoxious baby seems to be bigger or smaller from scene to scene. It's distracting, and it's incomprehensible as to why there wasn't a little more quality control going on... especially when the extra effort to draw backgrounds.

And speaking of that obnoxious baby... I wonder if the Van Beuren company wasn't testing out a possible headliner for another series. It's one of only two recurring characters in the series--aside from Tom & Jerry themselves--and it always had a major role. (The Bratty Baby can also be found in "Pots and Pans" and "Puzzled Pals". The other recurring, more minor character, was a horse that appeared in "Rabid Hunters", "In the Bag", and "Hook and Ladder Hokum".)

In balance, "In the Park" isn't a brilliant effort, but it's among the better "Tom & Jerry" installments. It's worth checking out if you have nothing better to do with the next few minutes. Just click below and sit back.

And with this, every installment in Van Beuren's Tom & Jerry series has been reviewed and can be watched here at Shades of Gray. Click here to see an index of all them, as well as easy links through which to check them out.

Tom & Jerry's Spanish Twist

A Spanish Twist (1932)
Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors

Directors: John Foster and George Stallings

Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

World-travelers Tom & Jerry find themselves in Spain where they dance the flamenco and are forced to become bullfighters after committing a cultural faux pas.

"A Spanish Twist" is one of several "Tom & Jerry" cartoons where our heroes are in a foreign land and interacting with the people who live there, such as "Jungle Jam" and "A Swiss Trick". It's not only the best example of these, but it's among the very best of all the "Tom & Jerry" episodes.

As is the case with all the really strong installments in this series, we're treated to some nice music and some kooky animation to go along with it. Here, Tom & Jerry are first entertained by a flamenco dancer, then join in the dance, and ultimately start engaging in the sort of physically impossible antics are are also common features of the strongest episodes of the series.

The real strength of "A Spanish Twist" is with its unpredictability. From the opening scene--where Tom & Jerry adrift at sea on a raft and come under attack by a slingshot-wielding octopus--through the flamenco routine and onto the bizarre bullfighting sequence, there is a steady stream of strange and unpredictable gags that keeps viewers engaged because it's impossible to know what's going to come next.

The only flaws with "A Spanish Twist" are also ones that are common to the "Tom & Jerry" series--even the best installments. There are times where the characters are running around on completely blank surfaces with empty backgrounds, and the animators really needed to have put in at least the minimal effort of a few lines here and there. Also, the bullfight sequence just sort of sputters to a close after a hilarious opening and a crazy middle section. (I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by the weak close, as the bullfight is also where the animators stopped doing scenery. This appears to be another example of a fun bunch of ideas that are not property attached to a story.)

Speaking of the bullfight, when Tom & Jerry emerged into the arena dressed as matadors, I was fully expecting to be irritated by what was going to follow and that whatever amusement I'd felt up to this point would be completely overridden. If there's one thing I find it hard to see humor in, it's animal cruelty--like what is so rampant in bullfights. However, the bullfight here is so ridiculous that I couldn't help but chuckle at it.

Although the climactic fight sequence just sort of fizzles, "A Spanish Twist" still manages to close on a high note with a denouement and final joke that may be lost on modern viewers but which was probably very funny to audiences in 1932: Tom & Jerry hear that Prohibition has been lifted in the U.S., so they rush right home for a drink! (This ending is also, in a backdoor kind of way, gives character and motivation to Tom & Jerry like almost no other moment in the series has... the pair were so desperate for a stiff drink that they went globetrotting because the U.S. went dry.)

 As always with my reviews of "Tom & Jerry", you can check out the subject for yourself. Why don't you take a moment to enjoy yourself by clicking below?

And if you disagree with my take, please let the world know by leaving a comment to this post. Heck, you can even to that if you agree!

'Plane Dumb' is... well... it's complicated

Plane Dumb (1932)
Starring: F.E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles

Directors: John Foster and George Rufle

Rating: Four of Ten Stars

While trying to circumnavigate the globe in a plane, Tom & Jerry (Miller and Lyles) crash in the ocean near Africa. Disguised as black people, they hope to blend in with the natives... with predictable results.

I've been putting off reviewing "Plane Dumb" for quite some time. I decided to post about all the "Tom & Jerry" cartoons here at Shades of Gray, partly because I wasn't clear on how I would accurately describe something that's both innovative and absolutely awful at the same time; it goes in a direction that no other entries in the series go... but it is also terribly stupid and inexplicably racist in so many ways that it must have even surprised many audience members even back in 1932. 

It turns out that putting this one off was a Good Thing, because a little research and reading the excellent book by Hal Erickson about the Van Beuren productions gave me insight into how "Plane Dumb" came to be that softened by stance as a reviewer (but not necessarily as a viewer): The fact is that this cartoon didn't start out as "Tom & Jerry" cartoon goes a long way to explain a number of its flaws.

According to Erickson's book, and other sources, the Tom & Jerry cartoon we know as "Plane Dumb" actually began production as "All Wet". There is some speculation that it may have been intended as part of a series featuring animated versions of the popular African-American comedy team Miller & Lyles, but the project fell apart... most likely due to Aubrey Lyles' death shortly after voice work on "All Wet" is believed to have been completed. Not wanting effort (and money) to go to waste, Van Beuren seems to have had the existing footage and recorded dialog from Miller & Lyles combined with an ill-considered opening scene where Tom and Jerry transform themselves into two black guys.

Anyone who's seen more than one "Tom & Jerry" installment before this one--and who paid attention--will find their transformation baffling and annoying. Unlike what some commentators may lead you to believe, Tom & Jerry did actually have distinct personalities. Through all the ups and downs of inconsistent quality across the various installments, you could always count on Tom to be the more grounded and cautious (even cowardly on many occasions) of the two, while Jerry is an aggressive risk-taker whose actions often create more chaos than is good for anyone. In "Plane Dumb", however, their personalities have inexplicably changed--inexplicable until you learn that this tall and short duo were never intended to be Tom & Jerry. The personalities exhibited line up with the characters usually portrayed by Miller and Lyles, with the tall one being the aggressor and the short one being the reactor, so, given the fact these characters weren't originally Tom & Jerry. (Actually, what I am saying is not completely accurate; when it comes right down it, both Tom and Jerry are somewhat cowardly, but overall, their personalities are reversed when considered in the context of the overall series.)

Part of me wants to excuse the shift in personalities, because, back before I realized that this cartoon is a patchwork of fresh and recycled material, I thought it was something of an innovation for the series: Most "Tom & Jerry" cartoons might as well be silent films there is so little meaningful dialog--but here there are back-and-forth comedy routines, spoken jokes, and puns that tie into visual gags. It was an amazing departure for an entry in this series--which, of course, is because most of the material here didn't start out as a "Tom & Jerry" episode--but even apart from that, "Plane Dumb" is remarkable because of the nature of the dialog. 

Few cartoons were driven by spoken exchanges in the early 1930s, so it was quite remarkable that Van Beuren teamed up with a pair of comedians known for their verbal back-and-forths for what COULD have been a bit of trail-blazing. The Miller & Lyles bits are interspersed among the usual surreal, visual nonsense consumers of Van Beuren cartoons would be accustomed to, but the main driver was the dialog. 

Why Van Beuren's deal with Miller & Lyles fell apart remains unknown to me. I found a couple explanations, but nothing solid. One suggestion is that the pair were simply too busy and broke the contract, while another posited that they were unhappy with the quality Van Beuren's animators were producing, as well as the rate at which the pair was being paid. Either explanation seems plausible to me. At the end of it all, what we're left with is a cartoon that's equal parts awful and innovative... and one that has NOT aged well. The bits with Tom and Jerry stranded at sea and their battle with the creatures there is fun (even if the bit with the octopus is a bit of headscratcher), but it's mostly downhill from there... with rock-bottom being our heroes fleeing from hostile African natives who are literally spear-chuckers.

The Four Rating I'm assigning "Plane Dumb" is the lowest possible, and even that may be generous--and it's entirely because of the innovative nature of the use of dialog. It's interesting to consider if this cartoon had seemed as outrageously racist if whatever the original set-up that caused Miller & Lyles' fast-talking jokesters crash their plane in the ocean had been intact. Would it have seemed less racist?

"Plane Dumb" is the worst entry in the "Tom & Jerry" series. I can't recommend watching it, but I am embedding it below anyway, so you can form your own opinion. (And if it differs from mine, I hope you leave a comment to tell the world what it is.)

Tom & Jerry engage in 'Barnyard Bunk'

Barnyard Bunk (1932)
Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors (but there are no sensible lines of dialog)

Directors: John Forster and George Rufle

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Tom & Jerry show that music not only soothes the savage beasts, but it also fixes the failing farm.

"Barnyard Bunk" is one of those Tom & Jerry cartoons that's just about plot free, but is just a series of strange visual gags strung together and connected by music. The music isn't bad--not great like it's been in some of the "Tom & Jerry" episodes, but it's pleasant enough.

The most interesting, as well as mystifying thing about "Barnyard Bunk" are the villainous mice that are actively demolishing the farm as the cartoon starts and who later appear to be the only animals who aren't impacted by Tom & Jerry's magic saxophones. While all the other animals either become the best farm animals they can be, or, in the case of woodpeckers, start pitching in with random chores around the farm just because they can, the mice continue their mischievous, destructive ways unabated. Maybe the Pied Piper had been through recently and all the weak-willed mice followed him and all that remained were the super-evil, super-destructive ones? Or maybe I should stop trying to apply story logic to what is just a bunch of loosely connected gags--just a bunch of barnyard bunk?

As "Tom & Jerry" fare goes, "Barnyard Bunk" is neither among the worst of their excursions, nor is it among their best. As mentioned, the music is passable. The jokes are also consistently amusing. The surreal bits are okay. The problem is that it all feels directionless. In the best Tom & Jerry cartoons, the gags and the action build to a climax of some sort, and you can feel that build taking place, even in plot-free exercises in chaos like "Pencil Mania" there's a sense of momentum that builds straight up to the cartoon's finale. You never get that feeling from "Barnyard Bunk" and it suffers for it.

As always with my comments on "Tom & Jerry", I invite you to check out the subject of review for yourself, right here from the post. I also invite you to leave your own comments in the section below. Let me (and the world) know if you think I'm right or wrong in my estimation while sharing your opinion with us!

Tom & Jerry flame out as firemen

Hook & Ladder Hokum (1933)
Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors
Directors: George Stallings and Frank Tashlin
Rating: Four of Ten Stars

Tom and Jerry are firemen trying to rescue top floor residents of a building that's burning down.

The Tom & Jerry series was erratic in quality level and apparent target audience from, literally, the very beginning of the series, but few feel as uninspired as "Hook and Ladder Hokum". The gags are tepid and repeative; the jazzy wall-to-wall music, which is often the saving grace of the weaker entries, serves its purpose but is mostly unremarkable; and the whole affair feels derivative of previous Tom & Jerry adventures, as if no one involved with the series was even trying anymore. 

Perhaps "Hook and Ladder Hokum" was more entertaining to 1930s audiences than it is the modern viewer, because of some of its relevance by the passage of time? Much of the material here is poking fun at silent comedies and dramas about firemen (like "The Garage" from 1920), and there's one bit that feels like a reference to a public figure that movie goers in 1933 was assumed to know: A portrait comes to life and mocks Jerry for losing to Tom in a game of checkers, and it's animated in a different style than all other characters in the film, and the voice sounds like it's intended to be a spoof of someone, but this 21st century viewer has no idea who that someone was. (If some of you out there better versed in 1930s pop culture can identify the mystery target of spoofing, please fill me in down below, in the comments sections... after watching the cartoon embedded right here in this post.)

Given the inconsistent nature of the Tom & Jerry series, it's impossible for me to tell whether the lackluster nature of "Hook and Ladder Hokum" was there from the beginning or is the result of eighty years of pop culture evolution. On the one hand, there is some fine animation here--Tom & Jerry have rarely looked better--but on the other hand, there's the recycled gags. Whatever the reasons, this fourth-from-final entry in the series is among the weakest. 

This Swiss Trick is no Swiss Miss

A Swiss Trick (1931)

Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors

Directors: John Foster and George Stallings

Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

World-travelers Tom and Jerry are stranded in Switzerland, where learn about the strange local culture and discover the side effects of eating too much Swiss cheese.

"A Swiss Trick" is one of handful of entries in the "Tom and Jerry" series that see our heroes traveling to faraway lands and meeting the people and creatures that dwell there. This one starts a bit weak--with an extended Alps-related train gag that is more repetitive than amusing--but gets funnier and more surreal as it goes. By the time we get to the end, with our heroes having angered the Swiss villagers and having learned an unpleasant secret about their much-celebrated cheese, this emerges as one of the best entries in the series. The catchy music throughout and the nutty musical routines add greatly to the entertainment value.

This is another of those Tom and Jerry cartoons that needs to be experienced, and the longer I go on the greater the chance of me spoiling something. So... why don't you grab a soda, click on the embedded video below, and lean back for seven minutes of Swiss-inspired weirdness? 

Trivia: On the day this review was originally posted--December 19, 2020--it was exactly 89 years since "A Swiss Trick" originally appeared in theatres.

Be Very Quiet--Tom & Jerry are 'Rabid Hunters'

Rabid Hunters (1932)

Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors

Directors: John Foster and George Stallings

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Tom and Jerry (together with their faithful hound and horse) go hunting.

"Rabid Hunters" is an slightly-above-average entry in the Tom and Jerry series. It starts a bit slow, the music is generally unremarkable (except for the variations on the predictable use of "A-Hunting We Will Go"), and a few of the gag sequences go on for too long, but at about the halfway mark, all weakness is left behind and the cartoon careens with ever-increasing zaniness toward its conclusion and a nonsensical but very funny plot-twist.

In what could be a drawback or a plus, depending on your tastes, "Rabid Hunters" is one of the episodes in this series that feels like it was squarely directed at kids. The gags, while amusing for the most part, are accurately described as juvenile with no double meanings or commentary beyond what is right there on the screen  It's another example of the inconsistent tone of the series, with some episodes being directed squarely at kids and others at a more adult audience. The straight-forwardness of the jokes here doesn't hurt anything, but they are a sign of the overall lack of thought given to who the Tom & Jerry cartoons were made for.

One interesting detail in "Rabid Hunters" is the rabbit who turns the tables on Tom & Jerry in the second half of the film. He may seem familiar to those who have seen early Bugs Bunny cartoons--or even later ones. An assumption might be made that the Van Beuren Team was "borrowing" from others yet again (as they did when Mickey and Minnie Mouse and Felix the Cat clones appeared in some of their efforts), but this may be an instance where they were borrowed from, since "Rabid Hunters" predates the first appearance of Bugs Bunny by roughly seven years.

Take a few minutes to check out Tom & Jerry on the prowl, right here from this very post! 

Tom and Jerry are in a 'Jungle Jam'

Jungle Jam (1932)

Starring: Unknown Voice Actors (although spoken lines are minimal)

Directors: John Foster and George Rufle

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Tom and Jerry are jungle explorers who run afoul a village of hostile cannibals.

"Jungle Jam" joins Tom & Jerry installments like "The Tuba Tooter" and "Pots and Pans" as a nearly plot-free mini-musical where the song and dance numbers are loosely connected by scenes of featuring gags and a varying degree of surreal nonsense. Some of the gags featured here will be refined and repeated in "Redskin Blues", as well the theme of our heroes being captured by a hostile tribe. In addition to the improved "second take" on gags, "Redskin Blues" has a little more story than what we get here.

Although "Jungle Jam" ends up being an average entry in the Tom & Jerry episode, it opens strong, with one of the cutest sequences in the entire series involving our heroes in a canoe, crocodiles, and dancing monkeys. The cartoon remains amusing throughout, but it never quite reaches the level of the opening musical number. (In fact, it comes dangerously close to nose-diving into pure awfulness when Jerry sometime capricious and stupid and our heroes could easily escape the danger of cannibals by simply running away. If you've watched any Tom & Jerry cartoons, you probably know that "capricious and stupid" are pretty much standard, but what happens here is beyond the Pale.) 

One thing I should mention in this day and age of people being overly sensitive and/or looking for reasons to be offended is that there's a fair amount of ethnic and racial humor in the second half of "Jungle Jam". Again, this is something that anyone who's seen more than a couple installments in this series will expect, the content here may easily draw cries of racism and racist portrayals (if the mention of cannibals at the top, or the screen-shot illustrating this article, didn't make it clear). I don't think that's completely accurate though, although I understand the impulse; the character designs of the tribesmen aren't that different from that of Jerry, and even Tom in some of the cartoons. Is there racial and ethnic mockery and stereotyping here--yes. Is it racist--I don't think so.

But--why don't you check out "Jungle Jam for yourself? There are worse ways to spend a few minutes--and certainly ones that are far less amusing!

For a detailed history of the Van Beuren Company and more background on the development of Milton discussed above, you should get a copy of Hal Erickson's very detailed, yet entertaining, book "A Van Beuren Production".

'Tom & Jerry' get off to a great start

Wot a Night (1931)

Starring: Uncredited Voice Actors and Singers

Director: John Foster and George Stallings

Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

After their weird fares skip out without paying for the ride, cabbies Tom & Jerry chase them into a creepy castle with even creepier inhabitants.

"Wot a Night" was the first of what would become a series of 26 cartoons of wildly varying quality, with this one being among the top four or five of them all. It's crammed full of random weirdness, surreal humor, transformations of characters, and inanimate objects coming to life, as well as featuring some catchy music. It's not the mini-musical that some of the installments that follow will be, but it's close.

Like so many of these short cartoons from the 1930s, I feel like too much talking about the content on my part will spoil your experience in watching it; "Wot a Night" is best experienced with as little foreknowledge of what's coming as possible. 

I will say that my favorite elements of the inaugural Tom & Jerry adventure is the way is plays with gothic horror tropes, from the dark and stormy night to the creepy castle, and all the way through to the scientists conducting experiments that go against the laws of men, nature, and gods. That last bit gives rise to what is something else I love about this cartoon, even if it's a aspect that springs entirely from my own imagination: It provides an explanation for where all those singing and dancing skeletons in early Disney cartoons (like "Skeleton Dance") or early Fleischer Betty Boop (like "Minnie the Moocher") come from. Also, the only real complaint I can mount is the sound effects and the voice acting. It all feels overwrought and more jarring than anything else. I can't say for sure if I would have felt the same way if this had been the first "Tom & Jerry" cartoon I'd seen, or if I'm reacting to the fact that several of my favorites in the series are, aside from musical interludes and songs, virtual silent movies. 

Regardless of my feeling of the sound design, this is a fun cartoon that will keep you entertained for its eight-minute running time. It's particularly great viewing if you're looking for a little something to jump-start your Halloween Spirit! You can even watch it right now, from the very post, by clicking below! (And if you feel inclined, you can leave a comment telling us about YOUR favorite part of "Wot a Night" and if you agree or disagree with this review.) 

Halloween Warm-up: Magic Mummy

Magic Mummy (1933)
Starring: Margie Hines (as the voice of the Mummy)
Directors: John Foster and George Stallings
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Tom and Jerry are police officers working the graveyard shift when they get a call about a stolen mummy. While working the case, they find their way to an underground theatre where a lich puts on performances for the undead.

"The Magic Mummy" is one of those 1930s animated romps that's a wild mix of visual puns, crazy humor, and horror that add up to a dreamlike, borderline nightmarish flight of fancy. From a playful opening scene with the heroes of our story patrolling the city streets in a literal radio car; to the portrayal of the jazziest, most laid-back jail in all of cartoon land; through the heroes invading the villains lair and discovering his plans for the mummy and ultimately disrupting them, this is a bit of animation that needs to be seen to be experienced. Any details I could describe here will ruin the surprising visuals and quirky little twists that will unfold before your eyes as you watch. I feel the ending could have been stronger, but getting to it was such a trip that I am mostly able to forgive the stumble at the finish.

I encourage you to take a few minutes and watch this great little cartoon right now. It's a perfect warm-up for Halloween, and it may also be the most fun you'll have today!

Trivia: Margie Hines also did the voices of Betty Boop and Olive Oyle during the late 1930s and early 1940s in some 50 cartoons.. She was, in fact, also the very first voice of Betty Boop in 1930, but was replaced for a number of years by Mae Questel.

'Happy Hoboes' will bring you joy

Happy Hoboes (1933)

Starring: Unknown Voice Actor (delivering a single spoken line)

Directors: George Stallings and George Rufle

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

They've tried their hands at plumbing and instrument repair, and they've even been partners in their own law firm. They've owned and operated a bakery and a diner. They've even been test pilots. But now Tom & Jerry have fallen on hard times, and are living in homeless camps and riding the rails when the locals chase them out. Despite it all, they are as full of mischief and music as ever....

"Happy Hoboes" has a bit more plot than most Tom & Jerry, but ultimately it also counts among the most nonsensical and surreal ones with visual gags coming at the viewer non-stop and many impossible and weird. My favorites include the explanation of what causes snowstorms, Tom & Jerry's luxurious lifestyle while they ride the rails, and the lumberjack who is so strong that he wanders through the forest chopping down trees with a single swing of s scythe. (I also appreciated a cooking gag that did not go where I was expecting it to; it's always nice to be surprised!)

Out of all the Tom & Jerry cartoons I've watched so far, this might also be the one that will feel most relevant to modern viewers, so long as those above the age of 7 can look past some of the more juvenile gags. That said, some modern viewers might also feel put out by the appearance of the Chinese cook at a lumber camp in the second half of the film, but it makes sense within a pop cultural context of the 1930s and the basic genre being spoofed here... and I suppose it wouldn't be a Tom & Jerry cartoon without some sort of racial stereotype to pull modern-day triggers.

As always with these posts, I invite you to take a few minutes and check out "Happy Hoboes" for yourself. It's embedded below, via YouTube. I think you'll have fun.

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.)

Tom and Jerry meet 'Jolly Fish'

Jolly Fish (1932)

Starring: No one... this is almost a silent movie

Director: John Foster and George Stallings

Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

While relaxing on the lake, Tom and Jerry observe the strange life of the creatures who dwell in the water... before they decide to do a little fishing.

"Jolly Fish" is five-and-half minutes of nonsense and non-stop gags. There is no plot to get in the way of the action, as we move rapidly through a series of loosely connected events and situations that could only occur in a bizarre cartoon world. 

I rank this among the best Tom & Jerry cartoons, because it, for the most part, is just pure, goofy fun. Although it's not the sort of mini-musical that some of my other favorites are, it's got a musical theme that carries through the whole cartoon and which you will probably find yourself humming afterwards. Also, the simple, mostly background-free animation works in this film's favor, because the curious setting for most of the action--under water--and because the characters are constantly moving and doing wacky things so our attention is always focus on them.

As for the details of those "wacky things", this is one those films where too much talk on my part will ruin the fun. I will mention, thought, that there's one rather disturbing bit where underwater parents are trying to teach their baby fish how to swim, and the worm on Jerry's fishing hook tries to lure it away with candy. It's a bit that feels out of place with the rest of the film--but I suppose it wouldn't be a "Tom and Jerry" cartoon if there wasn't some sort of screw-up or misstep somewhere in it.

"Jolly Fish" debuted in theaters on August 19, 1932, the 14th in the Tom & Jerry series. As this post goes live, it's exactly 88 years since movie-goers were first entertained by it. I think it's help up nicely, and I recommend you take a few minutes to check it out, right now, by clicking below. 

It's the final bow for Tom and Jerry

The Phantom Rocket (1933)

Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors and Singers

Directors: Frank Sherman and George Rufle

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

An escaped convict hijacks Tom and Jerry's experimental space ship and turns their maiden voyage into his getaway... with disastrous results.

"The Phantom Rocket" is a kinda-sorta sequel to "Rocketeers" where Tom and Jerry are also heroic test pilots about to travel into space on a rocket ship. While this one covers some of the same ground as its predecessor--a space rocket that misfires and ends up in the ocean, for example--it's a much more capably executed space launch, as if the cartoon characters learned lessons from their previous attempt at space exploration. The production team at Van Beuren in the Real World also learned lessons from the previous adventure it is more focused in its story and humor, and the pacing is fit for a cartoon about a rocket with the action and gags coming at the viewer non-stop from beginning to end. Unlike entirely too many of the installments in this series, the jokes don't get repetitive and there is very little in the way of looped animation.  

Another strength of "The Phantom Rocket" is the music, which more often than not is the case with the installments in this series. Here, the action opens with a cute and catchy song performed by all the engineers and scientists and mechanics and technicians who made the space flight possible, as well as the press covering it... and, of course, the "two chumps" who will be undertaking the dangerous flight--Tom and Jerry. The music continues to be top-notch throughout this piece--both underscoring and helping to drive the action, as Tom and Jerry and the thug who has taken them hostage careen about in the out-of-control rocket ship, leaving all manner to surreal chaos in their wake. Eventually, they come crashing back to earth, with get a closing song that declares "Hurray for Tom and Jerry", and the film closes on a joyous high note.

In the Real World, however, Van Beuren was not cheering and celebrating the duo. As July 1933 came to an end, so did the adventures of Tom and Jerry. After 26 episodes released over a two year span (from August 1931 through July 1933), Van Beuren closed the book on them. Whether it was the inconsistent quality and tone of the series, the, quite frankly, better cartoons being produced by Walt Disney and the Fleischer Brothers, or factors that are not obvious to surface-skimmers like yours truly, Tom and Jerry never gained any market traction nor popularity. At least they went out on a high note.

As usual, you can check out the subject of this review, right here by clicking on the embedded video below. (And while this was the last cartoon to be produced, I still have 12 more "Tom and Jerry" installments to review. Watch this space for more!

The Return of the Tuba Tooter

The Tuba Tooter (1932)
Starring: Uncredited Voice Actors and Singers
Directors: John Foster and George Stallings
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

The whole city celebrates, with Tom and Jerry leading the festivities, when famous tuba player Schultz returns to his hometown in Germany.

"The Tuba Tooter" is one of the best "Tom and Jerry" cartoons. It's got the catchy music that most of them have (I find myself humming the main song, "Schultz is Back Again", as I type these words), it's got some cute bits... but, more importantly than almost anything, the animators seem to have actually put in the time and effort to move this from merely good to excellent. All the characters in any given scene are moving, very few are in obvious loops, and the backgrounds are detailed and also animated in some cases. If this much care had gone into all the installments in this series, maybe it wouldn't be a mostly forgotten relic and commercial failure.

(The rest of my review swerves into "spoiler territory" as I comment on the ending. As is my habit with these "Tom and Jerry" posts, I invite you to watch the subject I am commenting on. In case you want to enjoy the wacky cuteness without me ruining the fun by overthinking it, I am embedding the cartoon right here. My comments continue afterwards.)



As good a job as the Van Beuren crew did on this outing, it wouldn't be "Tom and Jerry" if they didn't drop the ball in some kind of major way. In this case, following five minutes viewers watching cheerful and/or surreal scenes of an community setting aside differences and coming together in celebration of music and the musician who creates it, the police show up, break up the celebration, and arrest Schultz. There's no logical reason for this that I can see--even if authorities were upset with the noise, I would think they'd appreciate that everyone in the city--including those who should be fighting or preying upon each other like dogs and cats and mice--are united in harmony and love of Schultz's music. Perhaps I'm naïve, or perhaps I don't understand the totalitarian mindset that is probably being mocked with this film's ending, but I just can't wrap my mind around how it fits in with what has gone before. The police officers even appear to be sad that they are arresting Schultz, based on the look on their faces as they drive away with him. (And yet, Tom and Jerry are as cheerful with Schultz being hauled off as they were with him coming back...).

Perhaps I'm just looking for meaning where there is not--this IS a "Tom and Jerry" cartoon after all. Maybe I would have been better off just enjoying the spectacle of a singing dog and his tuba-tooting owner who can bring everyone together in harmony. (Well, until a bunch of sad-faced cops break it all up...)

'Polar Pals' may leave you a bit cold

Polar Pals (1931)
Starring: Anonymous singers and voice actors
Directors: John Foster and George Rufle
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

Tom and Jerry are shipwrecked and wash up on the frozen shores of a land inhabited by music-loving animals, such as walruses, penguins, and bears

"Polar Pals" is at the middle-to-low end of the quality scale of the episodes in the Tom & Jerry series. There is no plot to speak of, the gags are simple (simplistic even), and nothing makes any sense, even within a world where animals are fully sentient and they just happen to have pianos around for if humans get shipwrecked who are able to play them. And then there's the way the film deals with the environment: Characters are swimming in the frigid polar waters, but don't get cold until they notice they are in a polar environment. It makes no sense.

Even more damning is the indifferent quality of the animation. Simple or non-existent backgrounds are common in "Tom & Jerry" cartoons, but the character animation here is as sloppy as anything I've seen in any entries in this series. It's so bad that a walrus's tusks disappear, reappear, and disappear again, because they reuse cells where the animators couldn't be bothered to draw the tusks and no one would be bothered to fix the error. (I thought initially that perhaps I was missing a joke, but I watched that bit three times, and I am convinced it was just a sloppy error that no cared to spend the time or money to fix.)

I think the nature of this, the second "Tom & Jerry" cartoon, is also the first sign that the Van Beuren team didn't have a clear idea of who the target audience was for this series. The level of humor and story-telling in this cartoon seems squarely aimed at young children, while the opening installment felt more like something for older kids or young teenagers. Other entries in the series feel like they are for older teens, or, perhaps still for a young audience with some multi-layered jokes thrown in to keep adults entertained as well, like "Doughnuts". Finally, a few, such as "Spanish Twist" and "Piano Tooners" feel like they were going for the same adult audience that the Fleischer Studio was trying to appeal to with the "Betty Boop" cartoons. 

Ultimately, the highlight of "Polar Pals" is the musical number that forms its climax. The animation is nothing to cheer about, but the music is upbeat and the animal dance party it brings about it cute. As with many of the "Tom and Jerry" episodes, the music is the primary reason for watching. No matter how weak everything else may be, generally the songs are enough of a reward for the time spent watching the screen. Also, for all my complaining above about the mostly non-existent and completely nonsensical plot, I did appreciate the fact that this film actually gives a solid ending. (It's even sort of amusing.)

But why don't you check out "Polar Pals" for yourself and see if you agree with my take on it. It's only seven minutes long, and who knows? My estimation may be completely offbase, and you may find this to be the greatest cartoon you've ever seen. If that's the case, be sure to tell me below, or on my Facebook page.

You don't have to be baked to enjoy 'Doughnuts'

Doughnuts (1933)
Starring: Unknown Singers
Directors: George Rufle and Frank Sherman
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Tom & Jerry are doughnut-makers attending a bakers' convention along side a host of oddball competitors. They hope to impress attendees and the snooty judges who may award them a prize.

"Doughnuts" is another bit of fast-moving, nonsensical fun that's basically a seven-minute cartoon operetta. The animation is crisp and fluid, and there's not a static moment as the gags, visual puns, and health code violations flow across the screen. Highlights include a drunken sailor that looks like a cross between Popeye and Bluto; the revelation of the real reason people attend fairs; and Tom & Jerry's innovative method of making donuts. The non-stop, snappy, hilarious music also makes this one worth checking out.

One thing about this cartoon--the second-to-last entry in Van Beuren's "Tom & Jerry" series--which may offend particularly sensitive viewers out there since it seems like the writers and animators were trying to cram more ethnic stereotypes and gay jokes into seven minutes than had ever been done before. The material here is more playful than the straight-up racist stuff in "Plane Dumb" (the second "Tom & Jerry" adventure I watched, and one that I am still trying to figure out how to write a review that properly describes how it is both horribly backwards and incredibly innovative for its time), and the mockery is spread around to a broad range of people, I think the sheer volume of it may even raise an eyebrow or two among even the least uncaring and unWoke among us. See if YOU can find all the ethnic and gay jokes that are included! Watch "Doughnuts" below, then tell us how many you spotted!

Tom and Jerry are cookin' with 'Pots and Pans'

Pots and Pans (1932)
Starring: Unknown Singers
Directors: John Foster and George Rufle
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

Another day dawns at Tom and Jerry's Diner. Hash is slung and songs are sung.

"Pots and Pans" debuted in movie theaters on May 15, 1932, and it was the tenth installment in the "Tom and Jerry" series. Our heroes are engaged in yet another business venture in this one--they operate a diner inside a converted railroad car. Subsequently, all the gags and zany action revolve around short-order cooking and the odd characters who are demanding to be fed.

Like most "Tom and Jerry" cartoons, this is essentially an animated music video, with the songs being the main attraction. There is almost no spoken dialogue in the film, and there is one scene where it's disposed of with silent movie-style pantomime. Further, this installment is almost entirely plot-free, with the music and the diner setting serving to string together a series of more-or-less self-contained gags. It's a mostly swift-moving film, and if you have enjoyed other "Tom and Jerry" adventures, you'll enjoy this one as well. The animation is a bit more simplistic than the norm, and the pace falters a bit as the climax is building, but overall it's a solid bit of fun.

But don't just take my word for it... I've embedded "Pots and Pans for your viewing pleasure below!

Tom & Jerry are here for what's 'In the Bag'

In the Bag (1932)
Directors: John Foster and George Rufle
Rating: Five of Ten Stars

Tom and Jerry crash their plane in the cartoon wild, wild west. Surreal hi-jinx involving robbery and a vicious outlaw ensue.

"In the Bag" isn't exactly bad... but it isn't exactly good either. It's an unfocused scatter-shot collection of ideas and situations, some of which are related to the western setting, but most of which are generic gags that could work in any picture. Unfortunately, those generic gags are also nonsensical and unfunny; I expect non-sensical in a "Tom and Jerry" cartoon, but I also expect there to be more chuckles than this one delivered. The film also suffers from a sense of being padded, with several, otherwise amusing bits being dragged out to the point of almost outstaying their welcome while the animation loops two or three times with no variation.

The funniest sequences and bits of "In the Bag" come at the very beginning of the film--in the form of the disaster that causes our heroes to crash their plane in the wild west; at roughly the musical number at roughly halfway point involving some very unusual can-can dancers and scat-singing cowboys; and Jerry's heroic chase and capture of film's villain. The film's final series of jokes--in which Jerry designs to double-cross Tom and abscond with a bag full of cash--begin promising but they ultimately fall victim to the same lack of focus that crippled the picture overall and we're left in a closing bit that fizzles instead of sizzles. It's cute, but it doesn't provide a good close to the film, and it's the weakest ending to any of the "Tom and Jerry" cartoons I've watched so far.

"In the Bag" is neither among the best nor the worst entries in this series. I see glimmers of greatness here, but I think it was slapped together either in too big a hurry or with too little care for that greatness to be fully manifested. This causes me to give it the lowest possible rating of Five (on my usual 0-10 scale) that I can award it. It also causes me to observe that this is an all-too-common problem with "Tom and Jerry" and one of the reasons why they are not well-remembered today.

But how about you take a look at "In the Bag" and share what you think of it? You can watch it below, and leave a comment to this post, or pop on over to my Facebook page and speak up there!

Tom & Jerry destroy the fourth wall

Pencil Mania (1932)

Starring: Margie Hines (various voices)

Directors: John Foster and Geo. Stallings

Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

To Tom's amazement (and annoyance), Jerry uses a pencil to alter the reality of their cartoon universe in extreme ways.

"Pencil Mania" starts with Tom painting a portrait of a dancing cow, which is really not that strange an activity for a character who's flirted with mermaids at the bottom of the ocean. It's when Jerry pulls out a pencil and starts creating animations within the animated world, dispelling the 3D illusion of the animated world and revealing it's just flat lines moving at 32 frames a second.

This is one of those films that really needs to be experienced cold, and I can only spoil it by saying too much. In fact, the moment I chose to illustrate this post is a bit of a spoiler in itself--but it's milder than some of the things that precede it.

While an animated character breaking the fourth wall by taking advantage of the fact he exists in a two dimensional world where lines are put down to create an illusion of depth--Felix the Cat did it on a regular basis during the second half of the 1920s-- the extremes to which this idea is taken in "Pencil Mania" keep compounding until the film's finale where the fourth wall isn't just broken, it's completely demolished and the fragments are ground to dust and scattered on the four winds.

"Pencil Mania" is a wild and unpredictable ride from beginning to end. If you enjoy cartoons from the early sound era, surreal humor, or are just in the mood for something a strange and funny, you won't regret watching it from this very post, right here and now.