Puttin' On The Dog (1944)

 

After Spike really found his personality in the last Tom and Jerry cartoon (The Bodyguard) in Puttin' On the Dog he gets one of his best roles in the series (released just a few months later (The Bodyguard released on July 22, 1944. Puttin' On the Dog released on October 28th, 1944)) . This is a near perfect cartoon. Every joke hits home perfectly, the timing is sharp as can be, the characters are as vivid as ever, and this has one of Scott Bradley's best scores. One of my favorite jokes comes in this film (when Tom and Jerry dive into a hairy dog like a pool of water).

In this cartoon Tom is once again chasing Jerry. For protection Jerry runs into a dog pound. Where Spike and many other dogs get the best of Tom.

This cartoon once again features who had become William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's main animators, Pete Burness, Ray Patterson, Irv Spence, Kenneth Muse. All of them do amazing work here.

Overall this is one of my favorite Tom and Jerry cartoons and a must watch for everybody who loves cartoons.


-Michael J. Ruhland


Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
Hollywood Cartoons: American Animated Cartoons by Michael Barrier
https://www.bcdb.com/cartoon/3028-puttin-On-The-Dog

The Bodyguard (1944)

 

Though Spike the bulldog first appeared in the cartoon Dog Trouble his first appearance where he acts like the character we know is in The Bodyguard. He is now a friend of Jerry and an enemy to Tom. He protects his rodent friend from his feline enemy here like he would many times later. The only big difference is his voice. While in later cartoons, his voice would have been inspired by Jimmy Durante, here he has a tough deep voice, provided by Billy Bletcher (who is best known as the voice of the big bad wolf in Disney's The Three Little Pigs and as Papa Bear in Chuck Jones' Three Bears cartoons).

The story is simple Tom is chasing Jerry as usual. Spike has been captured by the dog catcher, and Jerry sets him free. Spike will now help protect the mouse every time he whistles. Jerry is therefore protected from Tom until Spike is once again caught by the dogcatcher and the chase begins all over again.

This is another great Tom and Jerry cartoon and features all that made this series great. The animation is fantastic and the characters can perfectly express any thought or emotion just through great character animation. On top of this, the characters again feel real and you would never think that they are just drawings on paper. While the short is very over the top and cartoony, this all comes so naturally out of the characters and stories, that it feels more believable then many more realistic films. Of course also important here is the gags. The are really funny, and they are all timed perfectly. The whole cartoon is just surrounded by a feeling of great energy and could not be more enjoyable.

The animators on this film are again those who had already become William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's main animators with Pete Burness, Ken Muse, Ray Patterson and Irven Spence. Three out of four of these main animators would later work with Bill and Joe on various television projects.

-Michael J. Ruhland    

The Million Dollar Cat (1944)

 

The Million Dollar Cat is the first Tom and Jerry cartoon where Tom has to be polite to Jerry against his wishes (the ones where they team up against a greater evil not included). An eccentric aunt to Mammy has left Tom a whole lot of money, provided he doesn't hurt any living thing, even a mouse. To get his money Tom decides to be nice to Jerry from now on. However Jerry sees this as the perfect opportunity to take advantage of his rival and drives the poor rich cat crazy. Eventually Tom gets fed up and resumes his rivalry with Jerry, trading money for something that will hopefully make him much more happy, trying to kill Jerry.

This is a great cartoon. The gags are funny, the timing is perfect and the ending is very satisfying. It is obvious that William Hanna has reached near perfection with his timing, and Joseph Barbera's story ideas are as sharp as ever when watching this film. Through out the whole picture the characters feel so real and relatable. Like many of the best Tom and Jerry cartoons, the very idea these characters are just drawings seems absurd. Also helping provide this film with great energy is a very enjoyable high energy music score by Scott Bradley. This is fast and really fun big band music. There is though a brief instance where the music seems at odds with what is happening on screen. This is when Tom and Jerry read the letter. The high energy music does not match the characters (and audience) reading a piece of paper. However this is really brief and the music matches the rest of the cartoon very well. All and all a delightful cartoon with a whole lot of energy.

This cartoon featured the team that had by this time firmly become Bill and Joe's regular group of animators, Irv Spence, Ken Muse, Pete Burness and Ray Patterson. The great final line was vocally delivered by William Hanna himself.

MGM seemed to have the ugliest movie posters to accompany their short subjects (both animated and live action). This film however happens to have one of the worst as you can see below. The poster's artwork was most likely done by Bela Reiger, who did the artwork for almost all the terrible MGM short subject posters.


By the way this is one of the few Tom and Jerry cartoons, that when it is shown on Boomerang or Cartoon Network, does not have the smoking scenes cut out.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/which-is-the-ugliest-mgm-cartoon-poster-nsfw/