In the mid and late 1930's MGM's main cartoon directors were Hugh Harmon and Rudolph Ising (also the founders of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies in the early 1930's). Harmon and Ising both had something many people working in animation at this time had. This was called the Disney syndrome. At this time the Disney studio was at the height of it's popularity, and all cartoons that weren't Disney were considered second rate in comparison, because of this the majority of American animation was trying to copy what they felt made Disney cartoons so popular. This was no truer of anyone than it was of Harmon and Ising, who had in fact worked for Walt Disney on the silent Alice Comedies and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series. They didn't only want to copy Disney's work, but to beat the Disney studio at it's on game. Because of this their cartoons for MGM, often went over budget and overschedule. Producer Fred Quimby was not happy about this and wanted directors who would turn in cartoons on time and on budget.
Two of the men who were chosen were William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. William Hanna had worked as an animator for Rudolph Ising and even co-directed the cartoon To Spring with Rudy, as well as directing three Captain and the Kids cartoons himself (Blue Monday, What A Lion and Old Smokey, all three from 1938). Joseph Barbera had worked as a writer. He had written five MGM cartoons (The Captain's Christmas (1938), Petunia National Park, Mama's New Hat, The Bookworm and The Mad Maestro (1939)). Bill and Joe would make the perfect team. Bill was incredibly good at timing, and Joe was extremely talented on the creative end. Like other great duos in film history (Laurel and Hardy for instance), though they were both very talented, they would complete each other. None of these films would have been anywhere near as good if just one of them was working on it.
William Hanna later recounted how the directing team would make Tom and Jerry films of this period. Bill would state, "I would do all the timing on the bar sheets, and [Joe] would do the sketches. We worked full size, and we didn't do storyboards .... I used to take those character layout sketches and time them, and then we would shoot them." William Hanna would also state that he was the one who assigned the animation to the animators. Throughout the Tom and Jerry shorts, the duo would make together, William Hanna was often in charge of the timing, while Joseph Barbera was heavily involved on the story and gag side. The two also had a different sense of cartoon comedy. Animator Michael Lah would later remember that William Hanna "loved cutesie stuff ... Joe was the other way, wild as hell."
The first film these two directors made as a team was Puss Gets the Boot, which also introduced two of the most popular cartoon characters of all time. This was of course Tom and Jerry. However, in this film the cat and mouse had not yet acquired their names. Their names here were Jasper (later Tom) and Jinks (later Jerry). Though Jinks' name was never said in this cartoon, Bill and Joe would later reuse the name for the Pixie Dixie and Mr. Jinks segment of The Huckleberry Hound Show. This cartoon also introduced Tom's owner, often called Mammy Two-Shoes. Her voice was provided by Lillian Randolph, who you can see in such live action films as It's A Wonderful Life and Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte.
The animators on this film are Jack Zander, Pete Burness, George Gordon, Tony Pabian, and Carl Urbano. This was the only Tom and Jerry film Tony Pabain would work on. George Gordon and Jack Zander would stay on until 1943. Carl Urbano would also work on the next two Tom and Jerry films. However Gordon and Pabian would later work on Hanna-Barbera's TV output. Pete Burness would stay until 1947 and then move to work at Warner Brothers on Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Despite all this and the fact that he did very little work for the short only Rudolph Ising was credited for the cartoon.
Still visually this film looks like one of Rudolph Ising's cartoons at this time. This is heavily due to a man named Bob Allen. Bob Allen drew the model sheets for the cat and the mouse here. He also did the character designs for many of Ising's films of the period.
The story is very simple. Jasper chasing Jinks breaks various things around the house. Mammy tells Jasper that if one more thing breaks, he is out of the house. Jinks overhearing this decides to try to break everything to which Jasper continuously tries to stop.
This cartoon is good, but later cartoons in the series would be much better. The animation here is so realistic that some slapstick gags seem almost painful, and the pacing is much slower than it would be later and due to this you can see slapstick gags coming too early and then they take too long to happen. These faults would be more than made up for in later Tom and Jerry cartoons, when the timing and humor would be near perfect. However, this film still features some great animation (even when it clashes with the humor), well thought out characters, and a good story. The series would get much better, but what is seen in this film is still good.
The following is an exhibitor's review from the Motion Picture Herald. "PUSS GETS THE BOOT: MGM Cartoons - This is a dandy color cartoon. A very different type of humor predominates this in which a mouse discovers one way to keep an advantage over a cat. You'll like it and so will your audience. Running time, eight minutes -W. Varrick Nevins III, Alfred Co-op Theatre, Alfred, N.Y. Small college town and rural patronage."
This short was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Its competition this year would only include two cartoons. These were The Milky Way (1940, MGM) and A Wild Hare (1940, Warner Brothers). The Oscar would go to The Milky Way, which would mark the first Oscar winner in this category to not go to a Disney film. A Wild Hare is another very historically important cartoon. That Tex Avery directed short is often considered to be the first true Bugs Bunny cartoon. That Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry (as well as Woody Woodpecker) premiered in the same year is nothing short of amazing.
Along with a group of other Tom and Jerry shorts this film would be reissued to theaters in 1963.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age by Michael Barrier
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032953/?ref_=rvi_tt
https://lantern.mediahist.org/
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