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.