Baby Butch (1954)

 

By the 1950's the supporting characters were playing a larger role in the Tom and Jerry films. This included new characters and characters that had existed in the 40's films. Butch the cat had first appeared in the Hugh Harmon directed short, The Alley Cat (1941) and with Tom and Jerry in Baby Puss (1943). He had received large roles in previous cartoons, but Baby Butch is the rare short where he is the starring character and the only one in which he was the titular character.  

In this short film Butch disguises himself as a baby in an attempt to steal a ham from Tom and Jerry’s house. 

This is a charming little cartoon. It may lack the number of great gags seen in the best Tom and Jerry shorts, but it is still a delight to watch. The story is a fun departure from the usual car chasing mouse, yet it stays true to the simple slapstick that we all love. Like all the best Tom and Jerry shorts, there is barely any dialogue here, but we always know just what the characters are thinking. The character animation is excellent and helps make these characters more real to us than cartoon characters that convey their personalities through dialogue. Tom is especially lovable in this film (if more than a little naive) and Butch makes for a fun villain. Though this film may not have as many great gags as some the earlier Tom and Jerry shorts, it does have an excellent ending gag. 

The credited animators on this film are Irven Spence, Kenneth Muse and Ed Barge. Vera Ohman is the credited background artist. This is the first Tom and Jerry short that she got a credit on. Though she had previously got a credit on the Droopy cartoon, The Three Little Pups (1953). Her work with William Hanna and Joseph Barbera reaches past just the Tom and Jerry cartoons. She also worked on such Hanna-Barbera TV cartoon shows as The Huckleberry Hound Show, Quick Draw McGraw and The Yogi Bear Show as well as some of the Loopy De Loop theatrical shorts. This cartoon is available on the DVD set, The Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol.1. This marks the last Tom and Jerry film to get a theatrical reissue. It is the 84th Tom and Jerry cartoon overall.

-Michael J. Ruhland