Robin Hoodwinked (1958)

 

This short film may be the only theatrical cartoon short to place Tom and Jerry into the story of Robin Hood. However, it was not the only time Tom and Jerry would be place in this story. There would much later be a direct to video movie entitled Tom and Jerry: Robin Hood and his Merry Mouse (2012). In an episode of TV's The Tom and Jerry Show entitled Robin Ho Ho (1975), the duo would try to join Robin Ho Ho's merry men. 

In this short film, Robin Hood has been captured, and Jerry and Nibbles try to rescue him. However first they have to get past Tom, who is guarding Tom. 

Once again, this cartoon is more charming than actually funny. In fact, the only major fault of this cartoon is that there is not a single real laugh here. That does not make this a bad short though. There is quite a bit to still enjoy about this cartoon though. The storyline makes it feel very unique among Tom and Jerry films. The same can be said about the setting. The setting allows the artists to get away from the typical suburban settings seen in the Tom and Jerry shorts of this time. The artists take full advantage of it. The backgrounds are especially lovely to look at, helping make this an incredibly visually pleasing short. The more realistic action scene towards the end is also very well handled and visually delightful. This is probably one of the most handsome looking Tom and Jerry cartoons of this era. Also helping is that Scott Bradley's music is as wonderful as ever.

This film marked the final theatrical short to feature the character of Nibbles (or Tuffy if you prefer). However, the little grey mouse would go on to appear in many revivals of Tom and Jerry. He would appear in episodes of such TV shows as The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show, Tom & Jerry Kids Show, Tom and Jerry Tales, The Tom and Jerry Show (the 2014-2021 version), Tom and Jerry in New York and even the anime Tom and Jerry Gokko as well as such direct to video feature length movies as Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring (2001), Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale (2007), Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes (2010), Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz (2011), Tom and Jerry's Giant Adventure (2013), Tom and Jerry: Back to Oz (2016), Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (2017), Tom and Jerry: Cowboy Up! (2022) and Tom and Jerry: Snowman's Land (2022).

The cartoon was submitted for an Academy Award but ended up not being nominated. There were only three cartoons nominated for the Award in 1958. These were Paul Bunion (1958, Disney), Sidney's Family Tree (1958, Terry Toons) and Knighty Knight Bugs (1958, Warner Brothers). The winner was Knighty Knight Bugs, which marked the only time Bugs Bunny ever won an Oscar. You can watch him win below. 

 

The credit animators on this film include Kenneth Muse, Lewis Marshall, Carlo Vinci and James Escalante. The credited background artist is Robert Gentle, and the credited layout artist is Richard Bickenbach.  Richard Bickenbach not only worked on William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's Tom and Jerry shorts but also on their later TV work. He would work on such Hanna-Barbera TV series as Quick Draw McGraw, The Huckleberry Hound Show, Top Cat, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo Where Are You and many more. He would also work on the Hanna-Barbera feature films, The Man Called Flintstone (1966) and Charolette's Web (1973) as well as the Loopy the Loop theatrical shorts.   The credited background artist is Robert Gentle. Robert Gentle would also work on many of Bill and Joe's later TV shows including The Huckleberry Hound Show, Quick Draw Mc Graw, The Atom Ant Show, Space Ghost, Wacky Races, Scooby-Doo Where Are You, Super Friends, Pac Man and The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo. He also worked on the Hanna-Barbera feature films Hey There, It's Yogi Bear (1964), The Man Called Flintstone, Charolette's Web, Hedi's Song (1982) and Rock Odessey (1987) as well as the Loopy De Loop theatrical shorts. This marks the 113th Tom and Jerry short. 

This film is available on the DVD sets Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 5, Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection, Vol. 3, Tom and Jerry: Fur Flying Adventures - Volume 1, Tom and Jerry: Pint-Sized Pals, Tom and Jerry: Once Upon A Tomcat, Tom and Jerry: Merry Mice as well as the Laserdisc set, The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume II and the recent Blu-Ray set, Tom and Jerry: The Complete CinemaScope Collection. The cartoon is also a bonus feature on the DVD and Blu-ray for the direct to video movie Tom and Jerry: Robin Hood and his Merry Mouse (2012).

Resources Used

https://tomandjerry.fandom.com/wiki/Robin_Hoodwinked

https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/cartoons-considered-for-an-academy-award-1958/

The Vanishing Duck (1958)

 

This short film marks the last theatrical appearance of Quacker the duck. He had appeared in seven of the 114 Hanna and Barbera theatrical shorts. The character would continue to be used in many of the Tom and Jerry comic books around this time and would appear in many of the later Tom and Jerry TV series. This also marks the last appearance of George, the man in the couple that owned Tom in the later Hanna and Barbera Tom and Jerry shorts. However, his wife Joan would appear in one more short, Tot Watchers (1958). The cartoon also marks the last time we hear Tom's trademark scream, which as many of you may know was provided by Willaim Hanna himself. 

The storyline of this short is similar to that of The Invisible Mouse (1947). Only in this short not only does Jerry turn invisible but Quacker turns invisible too. Naturally both use this as a way to get back at their foe Tom. 

As was true of many of these later day Hanna and Barbera Tom and Jerry shorts, this cartoon is more charming than actually funny. The storyline may be familiar, but it works. It is charming in its simplicity and moves by at a very fast and fun pace. The conclusion however is unexpected but very satisfying. Though none of the gags may be laugh out loud funny, there were a couple moments that made me smile or even lightly chuckle. My favorite gag is when Jerry and Quacker make Tom think his tail came off and Quacker makes it look like Tom's tail is performing the song he sang at the start of the picture. The backgrounds here are also excellent. They are sparser than those in the 1940's films, but they have a great stylized charm to them and there still is a bit of an attention to detail here (such as in the fireplace). The backgrounds also have a delightfully 1950's suburban feel to them that is simply charming. Scott Bradley's music is still excellent and just as great as it was in the 1940's shorts. 

The credited animators on this film are Kenneth Muse, Lewis Marshall, Carlo Vinci and James Escalante. James Escalante only received credit on the final four Hanna and Barbera directed Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts. Around the same time he received credit on two Michael Lah directed Droopy cartoons at the MGM studio, Sheep Wrecked (1958) and Droopy Leprechaun (1958).   The credited background artist is Robert Gentle, and the credited layout artist is Richard Bickenbach.  Richard Bickenbach not only worked on William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's Tom and Jerry shorts but also on their later TV work. He would work on such Hanna-Barbera TV series as Quick Draw McGraw, The Huckleberry Hound Show, Top Cat, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo Where Are You and many more. He would also work on the Hanna-Barbera feature films, The Man Called Flintstone (1966) and Charolette's Web (1973) as well as the Loopy the Loop theatrical shorts.   The credited background artist is Robert Gentle. Robert Gentle would also work on many of Bill and Joe's later TV shows including The Huckleberry Hound Show, Quick Draw Mc Graw, The Atom Ant Show, Space Ghost, Wacky Races, Scooby-Doo Where Are You, Super Friends, Pac Man and The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo. He also worked on the Hanna-Barbera feature films Hey There, It's Yogi Bear (1964), The Man Called Flintstone, Charolette's Web, Hedi's Song (1982) and Rock Odessey (1987) as well as the Loopy De Loop theatrical shorts.

This marks the 112th Tom and Jerry theatrical short. The cartoon is available on the DVD sets, Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 5, Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection, Vol. 3, Tom and Jerry: Fur Flying Adventures - Volume 1, Tom and Jerry: Pint-Sized Pals, Tom and Jerry: Follow That Duck! and Tom and Jerry: 85th Anniversary Kids Collection. It is also available on the recent Blu-ray set Tom and Jerry: The Complete CinemaScope Collection as well as the Laser Disc set, The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume II. 

-Michael J. Ruhland

Royal Cat Nap (1958)

 

Note: This review contains spoilers. 

This short film marks the fourth and last of the cartoon featuring Jerry and Nibbles as the famous Mouseketeers.  The first was The Two Mouseketeers (1952). The second was Touché, Pussy Cat! (1954). The third was Tom and Chérie (1955). Royal Cat Nap marks the only of these films to be released in CinemaScope and to feature William Hanna and Joseph Barbera as producers (they had only directed the previous shorts). This is also the only of the four shorts where Nibbles at no point says "Touché, Pussycat." Kid versions of Jerry and Nibbles would later reprise their Mouseketeer roles in an episode from TV's Tom and Jerry Kids entitled Musketeer Jr. (1993). That would be the only episode of that show to feature Nibbles. And yes, in that episode Nibbles states "Touché, Pussy Cat!" 

In this short film, Jerry and Nibbles try to get some food out of the king's bedroom. Unfortunately they wake up the king in the process. The king then tells his guard (Tom) to keep the mice from waking him up.  Tom must do whatever he can to stop the mice from making too much noise, which proves not to be an easy task. 

The ending of this film shows a great contrast to the first of these Mouseketeer shorts. In The Two Mouseketeers, Tom gets beheaded for not catching Jerry and Nibbles, which only leads to Nibbles stating "C'est la Guerre." However, in the ending of Royal Cat Nap, the king is about to sentence Tom to being beheaded and Jerry and Nibbles feel sorry for him. Then Nibbles lulls the king to sleep, and Jerry and Nibbles help Tom sneak out. This is followed by the trio continuing fighting when they are far enough away from the king. Nibbles then has the same final line, "C'est la Guerre."

Though this may not be as great of a short as the first two Mouseketeers cartoons, it is still a fun cartoon. Though the storyline had been done before in two non-Tom and Jerry MGM cartoons, Rock-a-Bye Bear (1952) and Deputy Droopy (1955), it still provides a fun departure from previous Tom and Jerry shorts.  The storyline is charming and moves at a fast fun pace. The final twist at the end is a delightful one and does a great job making these characters likable without becoming overly sentimental. The background art is wonderful. Though it is sparser than the artwork in the 1940's Tom and Jerry cartoons, it has a delightfully stylized design that makes one think of Bill and Joe's best TV work. The character animation is quite good, and I love the panic animation as Tom tries to figure out how to scream in pain without waking the king up.

 This is one of the few theatrical Tom and Jerry to feature a glaring coloring mistake. Nibbles is briefly miscolored to the same color as Jerry. This makes it look as if there are two Jerrys. However the main reason this short doesn't quite reach the heights of the first two Mouseketeers cartoons is because, it doesn't have any real laugh out loud moments. As was quite common in these later Hanna and Barbera Tom and Jerry shorts, this cartoon is simply more charming than it is funny. 

The credited animators on this film included Ken Muse, Carlo Vinci and Lewis Marshall. Carlo Vinci did not work on many of the Tom and Jerry cartoons, but he would become a very important animator on Bill and Joe's TV work. He worked on such TV shows as The Ruff and Reddy Show, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Flintstones, The Atom Ant Show, Abbott and Costello, Jabberjaw and many more. One of his most impressive feats at the Hanna-Barbera studio was animating the whole Flintstones episode The Flintstone Flyer (1960) by himself. Before working with Bill and Joe, Vinci had worked at the Terry Toons studio. Joseph Barbera had also briefly worked at the Terry Toons studio. In his autobiography Joe would tell this story about when he first started there. "They gave me a desk and light board next to a guy at another light board, and they gave me a 'scene.' This was a collection of drawings, like a flip book only bigger. If you flipped through them the characters appeared to move. I sat looking at the 'scene.' The man next to me introduced himself. 'I'm Carlo Vinci.' Then he looked at me looking at the stack of drawings on my board. 'You don't know anything about it do you?' 'I don't have the faintest idea.' So, Carlo - who would later come to work for Hanna-Barbera - got up from his board and explained the process to me. The scene, he said consisted of drawings numbered 1, 3, 5, 7, and so on. My job he explained, was to create the intermediate drawings which were numbered 2, 4, 6, 8 and so on. You did this by putting drawings 1 and 3 on the light board, which was a drawing board that had a piece of frosted glass on it lit from underneath by an electric bulb. The animation paper had two holes punched in it at the top. These holes fit over two registration pins, or pegs at the top of the board, keeping the drawings perfectly in place. So you put drawings 1 and 3 down over the lighted area, laid a blank piece of paper on top of this, then figured out how to bridge the positions in drawing 1 with those in drawing 3. That become drawing 2." 

   The credited background artist is Robert Gentle, and the credited layout artist is Richard Bickenbach.  Richard Bickenbach not only worked on William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's Tom and Jerry shorts but also on their later TV work. He would work on such Hanna-Barbera TV series as Quick Draw McGraw, The Huckleberry Hound Show, Top Cat, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo Where Are You and many more. He would also work on the Hanna-Barbera feature films, The Man Called Flintstone (1966) and Charolette's Web (1973) as well as the Loopy the Loop theatrical shorts.   The credited background artist is Robert Gentle. Robert Gentle would also work on many of Bill and Joe's later TV shows including The Huckleberry Hound Show, Quick Draw Mc Graw, The Atom Ant Show, Space Ghost, Wacky Races, Scooby-Doo Where Are You, Super Friends, Pac Man and The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo. He also worked on the Hanna-Barbera feature films Hey There, It's Yogi Bear (1964), The Man Called Flintstone, Charolette's Web, Hedi's Song (1982) and Rock Odessey (1987) as well as the Loopy De Loop theatrical shorts.

This film is available on the DVD sets Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 5, Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection, Vol. 3, Tom & Jerry's Greatest Chases Vol. 5, Tom and Jerry: Around the World, Tom and Jerry: Pint-Sized Pals and Tom and Jerry: Pint-Sized Pals as well as the Laserdisc set The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume II and the recent Blu-Ray set, Tom and Jerry: The Complete CinemaScope Collection. This marked the 111th Tom and Jerry cartoon. 

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used

My Life in Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Less Than a Century by Joseph Barbera 

https://tomandjerry.fandom.com/wiki/Royal_Cat_Nap

https://yowpyowp.blogspot.com/2016/10/flintstone-by-vinci.html

 

Happy Go Ducky (1958)

 

This short film marks the first Tom and Jerry cartoon of 1958.

In this short film the Easter Bunny leaves an Easter basket for Tom and Jerry. The Easter basket includes an Easter that hatches Quaker the duck. The little duck annoys both Tom and Jerry and they do their best to get rid of him. 

Once again, this short is more charming that actually funny. The storyline is a fun one and provides a perfect role for Quacker (in his next to last theatrical cartoon). While Quacker has been in some strong cartoons, many cartoon fans find him annoying and it is fun to see Tom and Jerry just as much annoyed by him. The Easter setting and opening scene with the Easter bunny add a holiday charm to the film. Tom and Jerry here are both at their most likable and it always fun to see them team up against a common enemy. The background art has a wonderfully stylized 1950's look to it that I simply find very charming. They may be sparser than the backgrounds in the 1940's shorts, but they are still very appealing. The main problem with this short though is that unlike the Tom and Jerry shorts of the 1940's (which were hilarious), there is not a single real laugh here. I also found the ending to be overly cutesy. 

At one point, Quacker stabs Tom in the rear end and states "Touché, Pussycat!" Nibbles had done the same in the Mouseketeers cartoons. 

The credited animators on this film are Kenneth Muse, Lewis Marshall, Bill Schipek, James Escalante, Ken Southworth and Herman Cohen. The credited background artist is Roberta Greutert and the credited layout artist is Richard Bickenbach. This is one of only two Tom and Jerry shorts to credit Roberta Greutert. The other was Timid Tabby (1957).However, she would work on such some of Bill and Joe's later work with the credit of Ink and Paint Supervisor. Some of her work for the Hanna-Barbera studio includes such TV series as Jonny Quest, Wacky Races, The New Adventures of Gulliver, Motormouse and Autocat, Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Where's Huddles, Harlem Globetrotters, Scooby-Doo Where Are You and The Pebbles and Bam-Bam Show. She also worked on the Hanna-Barbera feature films Hey There, It's Yogi Bear (1964) and The Man Called Flintstone (1966). Richard Bickenbach not only worked on William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's Tom and Jerry shorts but also on their later TV work. He would work on such Hanna-Barbera TV series as Quick Draw McGraw, The Huckleberry Hound Show, Top Cat, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo Where Are You and many more. He would also work on the Hanna-Barbera feature films, The Man Called Flintstone (1966) and Charolette's Web (1973) as well as the Loopy the Loop theatrical shorts. This marks the 110th Tom and Jerry short. 

This film is available on the DVD sets Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 5, Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection, Vol. 3, Tom and Jerry: Fur Flying Adventures - Volume 1, Tom and Jerry: Pint-Sized Pals, Tom and Jerry: Follow That Duck! and Tom and Jerry: 85th Anniversary Kids Collection as well as the LaserDisc set The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume II and the recent Blu-Ray set, Tom and Jerry: The Complete CinemaScope Collection. 

-Michael J. Ruhland