Baby Puss (1943)

 

This was the first Tom and Jerry cartoon for animator Ray Patterson. Patterson started his animation career in 1929 as an inker. In the early 1940's he would become a Disney animator animating on such films as Fantasia and Dumbo. When he moved to MGM he would not only be an animator for Bill and Joe, but he would also work on the cartoons of Tex Avery and Dick Lundy. He had quite a future with Bill and Joe though when they formed their own studio, Hanna-Barbera. Though he started at Hanna-Barbera as an animator, he would later become one of the studio's main directors in the 1970's and 80's. Other animators on this film include Irv Spence, George Gordon, Pete Burness, who all had worked on Tom and Jerry before.

This cartoon also marked the debut of Butch and Topsy. Butch is a black alley cat, who though sometimes is on friendly terms with Tom, most often isn't. Often times him and Tom will fight over girls. Topsy is a small grey cat, who sometimes is Tom's friend and sometimes not. They appear as two of the alley cats here. The other alley cat is Meathead (the one shown in the picture above), who had previously appeared in Sufferin Cats.  

In this film Tom has a little girl for an owner, who makes Tom dress like a baby. Tom finds this embarrassing, but the milk is good so he stays. Jerry sees this and finds it very funny, and invites various alley cats to see Tom dressed up as a baby. Tom tries to get Jerry back, but the other cats have too much fun messing with Tom, for Tom to do that successfully (not that he could if the cats weren't there mind you).

This is a very funny cartoon. It starts off like a cute little cartoon, which leaves you unprepared for the great slapstick that is about to come. The slapstick is perfectly timed, and the facial expressions of the characters makes it even funnier.

-Michael J. Ruhland.

Resources Used
Who's Who in Animated Cartoons by Jeff Lenburg.