Pup on a Picnic marked the 91st Tom and Jerry short film and the first time that Spike and Tyke appeared in Cinemascope.
In this short film, Spike the bulldog is taking his little son Tyke on a bulldog on a picnic. However, Tom and Jerry's fighting makes this picnic anything but peaceful.
This is a very charming cartoon. The storyline is simple but is charming in its simplicity. When making a one-reel cartoon, sometimes you don't need anything more than a simple but clever premise. Tom and Jerry's fighting ruining Spike and Tyke's picnic is a perfect example of this. Our favorite cat and mouse duo are their usual charming selves here. Though the animation here is more limited than earlier Tom and Jerry shorts, the character animation still does a great job of expressing these characters' personalities without them speaking a word. Meanwhile Spike and Tyke are given great roles here. Simply seeing them try their best to enjoy a little family time together adds to the charm of this cartoon and Spike comes off as more likable here. The background art in this film is absolutely beautiful. There is a lot of detail put into the backgrounds makes them seem to come alive. One of the best moments here is when Spike and Tyke are walking to their picnic, you see their reflections in the water. The story could have still worked well without this moment, but it makes the film all the more charming. I remember even as a kid appreciating this detail. The beautiful nature backgrounds also help this film stand out from the suburban-based cartoons that were becoming very prominent in this series. If I had one complaint to make about this short, it is that there are no big laughs in it. The gags work well enough, but they are more likely to make you smile, or chuckle than really laugh. This is sadly something that was becoming more and more true of the Tom and Jerry cartoons of this time period.
The credited animators on this film are Ray Patterson, Kenneth Muse, Ed Barge and Irven Spence. The credited background artist is Robert Gentle. The later Tom and Jerry short, Barbecue Brawl (1956) has a very similar story with Spike and Tyke trying to enjoy a barbecue and Tom and Jerry's fighting disturbing it. That care would even end with pretty much the same gag (Spoilers: involving ants End Spoilers). A gag involving Tom swinging into a pole and finding himself crushed by part of it was earlier used in Little Runaway (1952). Pup on a Picnic is available on the DVD set, Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 3.
Like other Cinemascope cartoons of this time, this film was made in both Academy and CinemaScope aspect ratios. While the same animation cels were used in both versions, the camera shots were reframed, and different backgrounds were used for both versions. However, unlike those the Academy ratio version is the one used for TV, instead of a cropped version of the Cinemascope version. To see the difference between these two versions look below.
A video from WB Kids' YouTube channel surprisingly shows clips from this film in its Cinemascope aspect ratio.
The British band Bamboo used clips from this short (as well as the Tom and Jerry short Cat Napping (1951)) in the music video for their 1998 song, Bamboogie.
Below is a production cel from this cartoon.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
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