Solid Serenade is one of the most iconic Tom and Jerry films. Tom playing the big bass fiddle, while singing Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby is an image that is etched in the minds of cartoon fans and always will be.
In this short film Tom sets out to serenade his girlfriend Toodles Galore to do so he sneaks past Spike the bulldog (called Killer in this cartoon). His musical serenade unfortunately keeps Jerry awake at night. Because of this Jerry tries to stop Tom's singing (and bass playing), which naturally leads to a big chase between the two with the bulldog getting involved.
This cartoon is simply wonderful. Like all the Tom and Jerry shorts of this era, what makes the film work so well is not just the gags but the delivery. The gags are mostly standard cartoon gags, but it hard to think of them being pulled off better. Some of the biggest laughs come not from these gags themselves but from the facial expressions and timing. Tom hitting Spike on the head with a brick goes from being a standard cartoon gag to a truly funny one, because of the expressions on both Tom and Spike's faces as well as the gradual way Spike falls to the ground. The timing of Jerry throwing the pie (with an iron in it) at Tom is simply perfect, even waiting for the exact right moment in the song. The ending gag itself is fantastic but it would not be anywhere near as funny without the big goofy look on Spike's face.
A huge reason why this film is so endearing to me, and many other cartoon fans is the song, Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby. This jazz classic has now become immortalized because of this cartoon. However, it was not created for this film. The song dates back to just a few years before the cartoon. In 1943 jazz singer and bandleader Louis Jordan (with His Tympani Five) recorded this song (which Jordan himself co-wrote with Billy Austin) and had a #1 hit with it. It would soon afterwards be recorded by the likes of Bing Crosby, Glenn Miller and The Andrew Sisters. In this cartoon it was sung by Ira “Buck” Woods, an African Amercian singer and trumpeter who appeared in small parts in a few feature films, most prominently in Reunion in France (1942), which features Joan Crawford and John Wayne. His rendition of this song is simply fantastic and there is no wonder that this cartoon and this performance would bring immortality to this song.
Tom doesn't only sing in this cartoon but he also talks. His wooing of Toodles (in a Charles Boyer type of voice) is lifted from an earlier cartoon, The Zoot Cat (1944).
The animation for this film was divided mostly by giving animators lengthy sequences. The opening scene is animated Ray Patterson as was the scene in which Spike chases Tom after putting the more vicious dentures in his mouth. Ken Muse animates the whole scene of Tom serenading Toodles with the exception of the tiny insert of Jerry getting the pie set to throw at Tom (which is animated by Ed Barge). Ed Barge animates Tom and Jerry's chase in the kitchen. Michael Lah (who had replaced Irv Spence who moved to John Sutherland Productions) animates the funniest scenes in the film, including the aforementioned scene in which Tom hits Spike on the head with a brick. He also animates Tom throwing the stick and telling Spike to fetch it, Tom sneaking in kisses from Toodles as he is avoiding Spike and Tom accidentally romancing Spike instead of Toodles. The ending of the film starting from when Tom thinks he has trapped Jerry in the doghouse is all animated by Pete Burness. Pete Burness and Ray Patterson would be uncredited for this cartoon.
Clips from this film would later be reused in the Tom and Jerry cartoons, Jerry's Diary (1949), Smitten Kitten (1952) and Smarty Cat (1955). The gag of the jazz music making Jerry bounce out of bed and around his bedroom was somewhat reused in one of Hanna-Barbera's TV cartoons, The Flintstones episode, The Swimming Pool (1960) as the music at a pool party causing a neighbor to do pretty much the same thing.
Resources Used
https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/tom-jerry-in-solid-serenade-1946/
https://tomandjerry.fandom.com/wiki/Solid_Serenade
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