Little Quacker (1950)

 

Little Quacker was the first Tom and Jerry film of the 1950's. It is also the film debut of Quacker, the small duck with a baby like voice (provided by Red Coffey). The character would appear in 7 theatrical cartoon shorts. However, the character would stay fresh in the minds of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. They would create a very similar character named Yakky Doodle for the various Hanna-Barbera TV series. Yakky Doodle would even receive his own segment on The Yogi Bear Show. Quacker, himself would even appear in one episode of Hanna-Barbera's later TV series, The Tom and Jerry Show. This episode was entitled The Lost Duckling (1975). Quacker would later appear in such Tom and Jerry video games as 2003's Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers (where he is an unlockable character) and 2000's Tom and Jerry in Fists of Furry. In both of those games, he is simply called Duckling. He would also as early as the mid-1950's as a regularly appearing character in the Tom and Jerry comic books. 

As this short film begins, a mother duck leaves her nest and egg behind for a moment. Tom then takes the egg and goes to cook it. When Tom cracks the egg the little duckling comes out. Tom then decides to cook the little duckling inside. Jerry sets out to save Quacker from Tom. 

This is probably the best Tom and Jerry cartoon to feature Little Quacker. While some of the later films with this character would try to be too cutesy for this series, this cartoon never falls into that trap. Instead, this is simply a pure classic Tom and Jerry cartoon. The film is full of great slapstick gags and the cuteness of Quacker never gets in the way of this being first and foremost a funny cartoon. There are plenty of slapstick gags throughout and many of them are quite funny. Like we have come to expect from these cartoons, William Hanna's timing is perfect here. Quacker is also very well utilized here. His presence helps make this film a nice departure from the usual Tom and Jerry formula, while still keeping what makes this series work. Watching Jerry and Quacker team up against Tom, leads to a lot of fun moments here. Quacker also has great chemistry with Jerry and the two play well off each other. Also, Quacker is not given too much dialogue here. This is important as too much dialogue from a supporting character can distract from our non-speaking main characters. This cartoon also has a great ending. 

The credited animators on this film are Ed Barge, Kenneth Muse, Ray Patterson and Irven Spence. The cartoon would be reissued to theaters in 1957. The cartoon would also later be adapted in the 1953 children's book, Tom and Jerry Meet Little Quack. 

Below is a typically ugly movie poster for this film. 

Tennis Chumps (1949)

 

This short film marks the last Tom and Jerry cartoon of the 1940’s. Though it may not be the best-known Tom and Jerry cartoon, it is a solid fun film that makes for a perfect ending for the cat and mouse duo’s best decade. 

In this short film Tom and Butch are having a tennis match. Tom makes Jerry carry all of his equipment. This is a job Jerry is not too fond of and he does everything he can to sabotage Tom's game. 

This is a wonderful cartoon. The whole film moves at a fast pace and provides gag after gag. Despite this there is not one weak gag in the whole film. Many of the gags are even laugh out funny. The amount of truly clever slapstick gags this cartoon was able to get from tennis alone is absolutely remarkable. Not only are the gags wonderful but the delivery is perfect. William Hanna's timing has never been better than it is here. Every gag is timed perfectly. Also helping is some incredible animation. Though this is a fast-paced film that constantly jumps from one gag to another, it still makes room for some fantastic character animation. This character animation makes all three characters seem perfectly real to us and let us know what is going through their minds at all times. To be able to do this, while keeping the cartoon moving at a breakneck speed is an incredible feat. That fact that the filmmakers are able to do this and make it seem so natural and effortless shows the pure mastery that was behind the best Tom and Jerry cartoons. Scott Bradley's score here is also wonderful, especially a lively rendition of All God's Chillun Got Rhythm. This film shows Tom and Jerry at their best and is a perfect coda to the duo's greatest decade/

The credited animators on this cartoon are Ray Patterson, Irven Spence, Ed Barge and Kenneth Muse. The film would be reissued to theaters in 1957 and again in 1965. 

In 2006, Turner Broadcasting edited 1,700 cartoons in their library for when they aired in the UK. This was after the Office of Communications received a complaint about two Tom and Jerry cartoons (Tennis Chumps (1949) and Texas Tom (1950)). Their complaints about these cartoons were that the films included scenes with characters smoking and there for it was deemed inappropriate to air these cartoons on TV channels heavily aimed at children. Turner Broadcasting issued the following statement, “Turner recognizes that it is not suitable for cartoons aimed at children to portray smoking in a cool context and has additionally pledged to review the entire Hanna-Barbera catalog to remove scenes that appear to glamorize or encourage smoking.” Personally, I grew up watching these cartoons on TV and have never smoked in my life.  

Below is the movie poster for this cartoon. Though not perfect it is much better than many of the movie posters for this series. 

Resources Used

https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/animation-anecdotes-234/

https://lantern.mediahist.org/

Jerry's Diary (1949)

 

Every cartoon fan is familiar with what is called a cheater cartoon. This is to say a cartoon that is mostly made up of clips from previous entries in the series. Jerry's Diary is the first cheater cartoon in the Tom and Jerry series. This short film includes clips from The Yankee Doodle Mouse (1943), Mouse Trouble (1944), Tee for Two (1945) and Solid Serenade (1946).

This short film starts with Tom outside Jerry's hole about to get revenge on his foe. However, Tom then overhears a radio announcer saying that it "Be Kind to Animals Week." Tom is swayed by the words of the radio announcer and decides that he is going to be kind to Jerry. He comes back with gifts for Jerry and knocks on the wall to get Jerry's attention. However, Tom finds that Jerry is not home. He also discovers that Jerry's diary is out. Tom gives into temptation and reads the diary. After reading of the previous fights between the two, Tom gets angrier and angrier. 

This film works in the most important aspect for a cheater cartoon. That is to say that the new footage is a lot of fun. The basic storyline is clever and well executed. There are some good gags in this new footage and some great character animation. I love the character animation that takes place when Tom is listening to the radio announcer. You can see him thinking and taking this all in. This is animated in a way that makes Tom feel completely real to us without him saying a word. Equally great is Tom going from feeling kind and generous to devious when he sees Jerry's diary. This is again captured in great character animation that truly captures who Tom is as a character. The ending gag is predictable but still funny and satisfying. 

However, this film does suffer from the same flaws as many other cheater cartoons. The clips are often too short, and the gags often work better in the context of the original cartoons. To me this type of cheater often works better in a longer format (where we get to see a larger portion of the older clips instead of isolated gags), then in the short 6-to-7-minute format. Still, it works well enough here.

Even with this being a cheater cartoon, a clip of the new footage made for this film would later appear in a later cheater cartoon, Matinee Mouse (1966). The credited animators on Jerry's Diary are Kenneth Muse and Ed Barge. This film was reissued to theaters in 1958. 

Here is an ugly movie poster for this film. Jerry is incredibly off-model. 

Love That Pup (1949)

 

Love That Pup was a very important cartoon in the Tom and Jerry filmography. It redefined the character of Spike the bulldog and even introduced his son Tyke. In earlier shorts Spike had a tough deep gruff voice (provided by Billy Bletcher) and his personality was little more than being a tough bulldog who hated Tom. In this short film, Spike's gruff voice was replaced by one that resembled comedian Jimmy Durante. This made the character more comedic and likable, even if he picked on our friend Tom. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera would revisit the idea of a cartoon dog with a Jimmy Durante inspired voice in the TV era with Doggie Daddy (from the Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy segments of The Quick Draw McGraw Show). Giving Spike a son also helped show his softer and more likable side, while not taking away from his meaner and gruffer side. His son Spike would appear in 7 more theatrical Tom and Jerry shorts. Spike and Tyke would later get a short-lived series of theatrical cartoon shorts centered around them. This series however only lasted for two films (Give and Tyke (1957), Scat Cats (1957)). However, the father and son duo would have some starring cartoons in TV's Tom and Jerry Kids. Though Tyke did not speak in the theatrical cartoon shorts, he did speak in Tom and Jerry Kids, where his voice was provided by Patric Zimmerman. Though Tyke does not have many video game appearances, he is an unlockable character in 2003's Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers.

In this short film Tom is chasing Jerry and while doing so, lifts up Tyke to see if Jerry is hiding underneath him. Spike gets very angry at this and tells Tom that if he catches Tom bugging his son, one more time, he will skin him alive. Naturally Jerry overhears this and decides to use this to his advantage framing Tom to make it look like he is bugging Tyke.

There is a lot to enjoy about this cartoon. For one thing this new version of Spike is a lot more fun than the previous version and it is fun to watch his confrontations with Tom. William Hanna's timing here is also simply perfect, and each gag is expertly delivered. This makes even the most predictable gags a lot of fun. There are also some solid gags here, such as Tom's dance with Spike's teeth. The character animation here is wonderful, once again it really makes Tom feel real to us, an makes him sympathetic throughout the film. Tom's over the top reactions are also fantastic and pure cartoony fun. Scott Bradley's music is also especially great here, especially his use of The Worry Song from the feature film, Anchors Aweigh (1945), which featured a cameo by Tom and Jerry. 

The credited animators on this film were Ed Barge, Ray Patterson, Irven Spence and Kenneth Muse. This cartoon would later be remade as Tops with Pops (1957). That shot for shot remake, would even use the same audio from this film. The big difference between the two films is that Tops with Pops would be in Cinemascope and be adapted for that wider format. 

Below is the movie poster for this film. Like nearly all the Tom and Jerry movie posters, both Tom and Jerry are incredibly off model. Jerry is much too big, and I don't even know how to describe what is going on with Tom.