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