Tops With Pops marked the second of three Tom and Jerry CinemaScope remakes. These films would be shot for shot remakes of earlier Tom and Jerry shorts, only adapted for the CinemaScope format. Because they were so similar to the cartoons they were remaking these cartoons even reused the same audio for the earlier cartoons. The first of these remakes was The Egg and Jerry (1956), a remake of Hatch Up Your Troubles (1949). The third of these remakes would be Feedin' the Kiddie (1957), a remake of The Little Orphan (1949).
In this remake of Love That Pup (1949), Tom is chasing Jerry and while doing so, lifts up Tyke to see if Jerry is hiding underneath him. Spike gets very angry at this and tells Tom that if he catches Tom bugging his son, one more time, he will skin him alive. Naturally Jerry overhears this and decides to use this to his advantage framing Tom to make it look like he is bugging Tyke.
Today when Tom and Jerry play on TV every day and their films are widely available on DVD and Blu-ray, such a film like this can feel completely pointless. However, it is important to remember that these cartoons were originally made for movie theaters to play along with the feature films. Moviegoers at the time for the most part would either have never seen the cartoon this is remaking or would not have seen it in years. Because of this to many of them, this would have felt like a brand new short.
With this cartoon pretty much being a shot for shot remake of Love That Pup, my opinions on the two films are essentially the same. The gags are still clever and a lot of fun, the character animation is still wonderful, and the comic timing is still perfect. The biggest difference between the two cartoons is the background art, which is much more abstract here. I have conflicting opinions on the background art here. It is lovely to look, and the use of backgrounds made of collages of colors gives the film a very likable fun feel. At the same time, I am not sure if these more traditional looking characters look a little out of place among the more stylized backgrounds.
The credited animators on this film are Ed Barge, Ray Patterson, Irven Spence and Kenneth Muse. These were the same animators who were credited on Love That Pup. The credited background artist was Don Driscoll. Driscoll rarely worked on the Tom and Jerry cartoons but his name can be seen on the credits for the other two Tom and Jerry CinemaScope remakes. His credit also appears on the three non-Tom and Jerry CinemaScope remakes from MGM. These other three CinemaScope were Millionaire Droopy (1956, remake of the Droopy cartoon, Wags to Riches (1949)), Good Will to Men (1955; remake of the Hugh Harmon short, Peace on Earth (1939)) and Cat's Meow (1957; remake of the Tex Avery short Ventriloquist Cat (1950)). The credited layout artist was Richard Bickenbach. Richard Bickenbach not only worked on William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's Tom and Jerry shorts but also on their later TV work. He would work on such Hanna-Barbera TV series as Quick Draw McGraw, The Huckleberry Hound Show, Top Cat, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo Where Are You and many more. He would also work on the Hanna-Barbera feature films, The Man Called Flintstone (1966) and Charolette's Web (1973) as well as the Loopy the Loop theatrical shorts.
This film is available on the DVD sets, Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 5, Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection, Vol. 3 and Tom and Jerry: The Deluxe Anniversary Collection as well as the Laserdisc set, The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume II and the new Blu-ray set Tom and Jerry: The Complete CinemaScope Collection. This is the 105th Tom and Jerry cartoon overall and the last theatrical cartoon short to feature Tyke.
-Michael J. Ruhland