Though you may not be able to tell at first glance, Pet Peeve is a very important film in Tom and Jerry's filmography. This marked the first Tom and Jerry short to be released in Cinemascope. Cinemascope was a widescreen process that gave movie goers a larger picture unlike they had seen before. This was one of ways that cinema would try to compete with the new popularity of television. Because of the Tom and Jerry cartoons being created as short films for theaters, they also began to be made in Cinemascope. 23 Tom and Jerry cartoons were made in Cinemascope. Some exciting news for Tom and Jerry fans is that next year a Blu-ray set of all 23 of these films will be released. It will be entitled TOM AND JERRY: The Complete CinemaScope Collection and will be available on February 11th, 2025. For more information about Cinemascope, I recommend watching the video below.
This film also introduces two new characters, George and Joan. This suburban married couple had replaced the black stereotyped character (often referred to as Mammy Two Shoes) as Tom's owner (in this short they are also Spike's owner). This change represented the changing times between the early Tom and Jerry shorts of the 1940's and these 50's cartoons. This is not only seen by no longer having a racial stereotype as a main character, but also by having the replacement be a suburban couple. Due to a changing America, cartoons of this era were gaining a much more suburban feel to them. Even the Disney characters who had been very much country-based characters in the 1930's cartoons had by this time become full suburbanites. George and Joan would appear in a total of eight Tom and Jerry shorts (including appearances of both characters together and solo appearances of Joan). The two characters would also appear in the Spike and Tyke spin-off short, Scat Cats (1957). Though the characters would never appear after the theatrical shorts, TV's The Tom and Jerry Show would have very similar characters named Rick and Ginger as Tom's owners.
In this short film, George and Joan are upset when they see the bills. They decide to save money they can keep either Tom or Spike but not both. It is decided that whichever one catches and gets rid of Jerry can stay.
This is a delightful cartoon and one of the best of the Cinemascope shorts. The premise is clever. In the tradition of the best Tom and Jerry shorts, the story is a clever play on the typical Tom and Jerry formula. It stays true to the cat vs mouse premise that we all love, while adding a nice little twist to it. Seeing Tom and Spike competing to capture Jerry is a lot of fun to watch. The gags themselves are quite good. While like most of the 1950's shorts there is not the sheer number of great gags that there would be in one of the 40's shorts. However, that does not mean there are not any great gags here. There are multiple moments that make me laugh out loud including the scene with the drawers in the desk and the door falling on Tom. The ending gag is also perfect. This ending gag made this short a favorite of mine as a kid.
The credited animators on this short are Ed Barge, Irven Spence and Kenneth Muse. Robert Gentle is the credited background artist (his work here looks forward to his work on William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's TV cartoons). This is the 88th Tom and Jerry cartoon overall. It is available on the DVD set Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 3.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
https://tomandjerry.fandom.com/wiki/Pet_Peeve
https://www.animationscoop.com/blu-ray-preview-tom-and-jerry-the-complete-cinemascope-collection/
No comments:
Post a Comment