Fraidy Cat (1942)

This cartoon begins with Tom listening to a spooky radio show called The Witching Hour and being frightened out of his wits. This was in fact a real radio show (it was also known as The Witch's Tale) from the 1930's (it started in 1931). This show helped create the fad of spooky hosts introducing scary stories, a trend which we associate with television personalities like Elvira. The spooky hosts here were Old Nancy, The Witch of Salem, with her black cat, Satan. The original voice of Old Nancy was a woman named Adelaide Fitz-Allen. She however died in 1935 at the age of 75. The voice was then briefly taken over by a 13 year old girl named Miriam Wolfe. She was a part of a children's radio show called Let's Pretend, and never auditioned for the role of Old Nancy. However one time just for fun she did the Old Nancy voice for radio producer Alonzo Dean Cole (who some say did the voice of Satan for the series). She got the part. She did this part briefly, but for some reason unknown to me she eventually stopped doing the voice, and the part was taken over by a woman named Martha Wentworth. Martha Wentworth is actually heard here doing the voice of Old Nancy for this Tom and Jerry cartoon. Back to the story Jerry sees how scared Tom is and decides to have a little fun with Tom, by scaring the poor cat even more out of his wits.

The animation for this film was done by George Gordon, Irven Spence, Cecil Surrey and Jack Zander. All of the had worked on previous Tom and Jerry cartoons and would work on more in the future. Though Tom and Jerry don't talk in this cartoon, their screams, laughs and other noises were provided by William Hanna himself. Bill would continue doing the voices clear into the 1950's. Lillian Randolph returns as the voice of Mammy Two-Shoes and Scott Bradley is still doing the music. Despite all this people working on the film again only William Hanna, Joseph Barbera and Fred Quimby would get credit.

This is an excellent cartoon. The jokes all work great (particularly one about Tom's nine lives), the animation is fantastic and the characters are as well written as ever. The pace here is still slower than future cartoons would be but the pace works perfectly with the material given, and the material is still pure Tom and Jerry slapstick.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
Tom and Jerry: The Definitive Guide to Their Animated Adventures by Patrick Brion
https://www.otrcat.com/p/witchs-tale
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034753/?ref_=rvi_tt

The Night Before Christmas (1941)

 

T'was the Night Before Christmas and all through the house
not a creature was stirring except Tom Cat and Jerry mouse.
 Jerry is playing around the Christmas tree with care
Not knowing Tom was still there.
Tom chases Jerry.
Making Christmas anything but merry.
Tom throws Jerry out of the house.
Letting the weather freeze the mouse.
Tom feels bad and wants to make amends.
Tom helps Jerry and now they are friends.

The Night Before Christmas was the third Tom and Jerry cartoon and one of the best. It is clear that Bill, Joe and the rest of the team were now fully understanding how to use these characters just right.

The animators on the film included some of those who had worked on the previous two cartoons. These were Jack Zander, George Gordon and Pete Burness. It also introduced some new animators to the series. These included Irven Spence  Irven Spence would stay with the studio until 1957. Other new animators for the series included Bill Littlejohn and Cecil Surry, both of whom would only stay with the series one more year.

The opening scenes with Jerry playing around the tree, the mistletoe scene and the ending were all animated by Jack Zander. George Gordon animated the scene of Jerry bouncing on Tom, and a very funny sequence involving boxing gloves. Cecil Surry animates Jerry freezing outside. Bill Littlejohn animates the scene of Jerry pretending to be a toy solider. Irven Spence who would later become one of the most prominent Tom and Jerry animators (known for animating over the top reactions) has a very limited role here. He animates Tom feeling guilty about Jerry freezing outside, while he is trying to sleep and a very brief scene of Tom shaking snow off of Jerry. Even his animation of Tom feeling guilty is interrupted by Cecil Surry animating Jerry freezing.

This is one of the best Tom and Jerry cartoons. The pace has picked up a lot since the last two films, and the timing couldn't be more perfect. William Hanna (who did most of the timing for these cartoons) is completely at his element here. The animation is fantastic, and the characters are as likable as ever.

This film was nominated for an Oscar. Its competition this year was Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B (1941, Walter Lantz), Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt (1941, Warner Brothers, starring Bugs Bunny), How War Came (1941, Columbia), Lend a Paw (1941, Disney, starring Mickey Mouse and Pluto), Rhapsody in Rivets (1941, Warner Brothers), The Rookie Bear (1941, MGM, starring Barney Bear), Rhythm in the Ranks (1941, George Pal Puppetoon), Superman (1941, Fleischer Studios) and Truant Officer Donald (1941, Disney). Lend a Paw won the Oscar this year. 

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
Tom and Jerry: The Definitive Guide to Their Animated Adventures by Patrick Brion
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mgms-the-night-before-christmas-1941-with-tom-jerry/ 

The Midnight Snack (1941)

 

The Midnight Snack was the second Tom and Jerry cartoon, and the first where they were called Tom and Jerry. Joseph Barbera later wrote that he and William Hanna invited people working at the studio to write down names for the characters. These names were put into a hat, and whichever one was pulled out would be the characters' names. Naturally Tom and Jerry were pulled out. These names were written by an MGM animator named John Carr. He got fifty dollars for these names.

Producer Fred Quimby was not a big fan of the first Tom and Jerry cartoon, and didn't want it to become a series originally. Because of this William Hanna and Joseph Barbera made various cartoons with one shot characters after Puss Gets the Boot (the first cat and mouse cartoon). However after that first cartoon was released it became a huge hit, and even spent larger than normal amounts of time in one theater (it is important to remember that these cartoons were short films shown before feature films in theaters) and nominated for an Oscar, Quimby asked for more cat and mouse cartoons.

The animators on this film had all worked on Puss Gets the Boot. These animators were Pete Burness, Carl Urbano, Jack Zander and George Gordon. The only animator from the first cartoon that didn't work on this film was Tony Pabian.

Unlike Puss Gets the Boot, Bill and Joe along with Fred Quimby would receive credit here. However the animators, Composer Scott Bradley and Mammy Two Shoes' voice Lillian Randolph would remain uncredited.

The story is once again very simple. Jerry tries to get a midnight snack and Tom tries to stop him and fails.

This cartoon is a definite improvement over the first film. The designs look much more like the ones we know and love and the jokes are funnier. However the pace is still too slow and therefore it lacks the punch of later Tom and Jerry films. However this cartoon is still quite good.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
Tom and Jerry: The Definitive Guide to Their Animated Adventures by Patrick Brion
Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin
My Life in Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Less Than a Century by Joseph Barbera