Salt Water Tabby (1947)

 

The Tom and Jerry films continue their winning streak with Salt Water Tabby. 

In this film Tom is ready for a nice day at the beach, when he spies Toodles. He flirts with Toodles until he realizes that someone is eating the food inside of Toodles' picnic basket. Taking a look inside he sees Jerry eating her food. Tom tries to stop Jerry and the two begin to have a battle on the beach with Tom trying to get the better of Jerry and Jerry trying to ruin Tom's chances with Toodles. 

This is simply a fantastic cartoon. Though it very much follows the established formula for these films, the beach setting allows for all sorts of very clever gags. Not only are many of these gags are laugh out loud funny, but there is not a single gag that misses. This film is also full of wonderful character animation. Many of the best bits of character animation comes from Tom flirting with Toodles. Tom's sheer self-confidence and complete obliviousness to the fact that Toodles is no interested is simply wonderfully conveyed through this animation. As soon as we see this two together, we fully understand the personalities of both these characters making both of them feel real to us. Probably the best moment of character animation is after Jerry puts a seashell into a sandwich Tom is eating. This is really only a moderately funny gag in and of itself. However, watching Tom try to act nonchalant and like he is actually enjoying the sandwich in front of Toodles is downright hilarious. This is another example of the character animation in a Tom and Jerry short greatly enhancing a gag. Not to be left out, Jerry gets a wonderful bit of character animation with the smug look on his face as he makes Tom eat sand. Again this is a decent gag that becomes very funny through the animation. This film also shows how perfect Bill Hanna's timing was by this time period. This is one of the fastest paced Tom and Jerry cartoons. There is gag after gag with little time between. However the pace works perfectly with the action. At no point does the action ever feel rushed and at no point does the pace take away from letting these character's personalities show. 

The bathing suit that Tom wears (yes, I know he wears a bathing suit to the beach despite being unclothed most of the time) in this film would later reappear in the later Tom and Jerry theatrical cartoon, Muscle Beach Tom (1956), in a beach-based level of the 2003 video game Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers and in an episode of TV's Tom and Jerry Tales entitled Beach Bully Bingo (2006). A clip from this film would appear in the later Tom and Jerry short, Smitten Kitten (1952). 

The following is an exhibitor's review from the Motion Picture Herald, "Salt Water Tabby: Tom & Jerry Cartoon - Another hit in our most popular cartoon series. For my money, these have Bugs Bunny wiped off the face of the map. - George E. James, Ojai Theatre, Ojai, Cal."  

The credited animators on this short were Ed Barge, Michael Lah and Kenneth Muse. The cartoon would be rereleased in theaters in 1954 and again in 1963. 

Box-office, 1963

Here is the movie poster for this cartoon. While I would hesitate to call this a good poster, it is honestly quite better than the average movie poster for this series. 

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used

https://lantern.mediahist.org/

https://tomandjerry.fandom.com/wiki/Salt_Water_Tabby