Jerry and the Goldfish (1951)

 

In this short film, Jerry becomes good friends with a goldfish. Meanwhile Tom is listening to a radio cook show. When the show talks about a recipe involving fish, Tom gets very hungry and decides to cook the fish. Jerry must protect his little buddy. 

This is a wonderful short. Though this is another cartoon, where Jerry teams up with a friend against Tom, it feels like a pure example of what makes Tom and Jerry great. Besides the voice on this radio (provided by Daws Butler, who would later voice many characters on Hanna-Barbera's TV cartoons including Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound) and Tom's scream (provided by William Hanna), this cartoon plays without dialogue like a classic silent movie. The best Tom and Jerry cartoons are often the ones with the least dialogue and that is definitely true here. Because of this lack of dialogue this film is heavily carried by the character animation. Like always this is one of the best parts of this short. Some of the best character animation is early on in the film when Tom is listening to the radio. The way the expression on his face immediately changes is very funny as is his way of sneaking over to the fishbowl. There is a lot of great slapstick throughout this film. Jerry putting Tom (literally) through the wringer and the wonderful ending gag are just two of the comedy highlights here. Once again William Hanna's timing is simply perfect and even makes the simplest of gags work very well. 

The only real flaw, I find in this cartoon is that when it comes to the characters that Jerry befriended over the years, the fish is one of the least fun and interesting. However, since Tom and Jerry are so dynamic here that doesn't really hurt the cartoon. 

The animators on this film include Irven Spence, Ray Patterson, Ed Barge and Kenneth Muse. The cartoon would be reissued to theaters in 1958. In 1960, the radio scene was reanimated for television airings with the radio being replaced by a TV. This reanimated version would not appear in subsequent TV airings afterwards and today the original version appears on TV airings. Part of Scott Bradley's musical score would later be reused in Happy Go Ducky (1958). 

The following is a review from The Exhibitor magazine. "JERRY AND THE GOLDFISH. MGM - Cartoons. 7min. The little goldfish, a special pal of Jerry becomes the target for Tom, who wants to make a meal of him. Thus starts one of the fastest chases in any cartoon, with Tom, of course, never quite succeeding and the goldfish saved. The gags, treatment, etc., are well out of the ordinary class. This is one of the best in the series. EXCELLENT. (W -320). 

The plot of Jerry befriending a fish would later be used again in the Chuck Jones directed Tom and Jerry film, Filet Meow (1966). However, that cartoon was not a remake of this short. Besides the basic plot idea these cartoons have little in common. 

Here is a typically ugly movie poster for this film.