Like many American cartoons made in this time period, this cartoon features plenty of references to World War Two. In fact the whole story is pretty much all inspired by World War Two (the working title was Jerry's Home Defense). In this film Tom and Jerry's fight blows into warlike proportions, involving many explosives, and a patriotic ending. However probably the most obvious World War Two reference won't be found in the film today. This was a joke involving ration stamps. After the scene where Jerry whacks Tom with a wooden board. Tom originally chased him. Tom gets his head stuck in Jerry's mouse hole, and Jerry whacks him with a wrench. This causes the cat's tongue to stick out. Jerry uses Tom's tongue to lick a ration stamp and then pastes it in his book. This would be followed by a war communique stating "Enemy gets in a few good licks". When this film was rereleased to theaters in 1951, this scene was cut out to fit the new time period. Unfortunately, the original version of the cartoon is believed to be lost, and only the 1951 version is available for viewing. So you won't see this scene watching the cartoon today.
All the animators on this cartoon had worked on previous Tom and Jerry films. The animators on this film were Irv Spence, Pete Burness, Jack Zander, Ken Muse and George Gordon. The opening of this cartoon is animated by Irv Spence. He is given an opening sequence of quite a bit of length (for an around 8 minute cartoon that is). He animates Jerry running into his cat raid shelter, hitting Tom with hen grenades, and attacking him with wine bottles. Pete Burness animates the film next. He animates Jerry watching Tom through his periscope, as well as him running over Tom with his jeep (actually a cheese grater with wheels). He also animates the jeep crashing and the flour falling Jerry's way. The next animator is Jack Zander, who animates Jerry using the flour as a smokescreen, and whacking Tom with the wooden board. I do not know who animated the missing scene that fits in here. George Gordon animates Tom and Jerry trying to pass a stick of dynamite to the other, as well as another gag involving explosives in which Tom puts an explosive in a coffee pot, only to lead to it blowing up in his face leaving him to look like a sunflower. He then animates the beginning of a scene. Here he animates Tom throwing an explosive in a paper airplane. The scene then goes back to Pete Burness who animates Jerry blowing the paper plane away, as well as the plane coming back and blowing up Tom. Ken Muse then animates Jerry giving Tom a huge lit firecracker, behind Toms back, as well as the firecracker turning into various smaller firecrackers before exploding Tom. The animation than goes back to Jack Zander, who animates another fairly lengthy segment. In this segment Jerry takes off in a plane (made of an egg carton) and drops bombs (light bulbs and a banana) on Tom. This is followed by Tom using a firecracker that shoot Jerry down. Jerry uses a bra as a parachute. Back on the ground Ken Muse takes over animation duties again. Ken Muse animates almost all of the rest of the film, except for the very end (after the rocket takes off), which is animated by Al Grandmain.
This cartoon show Tom and Jerry at their absolute best. Every gag is fantastic, the timing is near perfect, the animation is a joy to look at and Scott Bradley's music has never sounded better. Even more than that though this film abounds in a comic energy that is irresistible.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin
Tom and Jerry: The Definitive Guide to Their Animated Adventures by Patrick Brion
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mgms-the-yankee-doodle-mouse-1942/
