Landing Stripling (1962)

 

Landing Striping was the 6th Tom and Jerry film to be directed by Gene Deitch and the 120th Tom and Jerry cartoon overall. 

In this short film, a little yellow bird wearing a littler red helmet annoys Tom and Tom gives chase. Jerry tries to help protect the bird. This is a rare Tom and Jerry short, where Tom's animosity never turns towards Jerry.  

This is possibly the weakest of the theatrically released Tom and Jerry cartoons. The film does however have what should be a solid cartoon premise and in some ways is similar to some of the films featuring Jerry befriending Quacker the duck or the little canary. It is the execution that is truly terrible. None of the gags are especially good and the delivery of them is even worse. The timing is horrible, and the drawings are often downright poor. The sound effects here are even more annoying than in the other Gene Deitch shorts. This is especially true of the sound effects that surround the little bird character, which are not only distracting but also very irritating. The music here is also very distracting and annoying. This is just a poor short all around. 

The credited animation director for this film is Wáclaw Bedřicz. Eli Bauer gets a story credit and Štěpán Koníček gets a music credit. Gene Deitch himself provided the "boing-boing-boing" sound effects. This cartoon is avilable on the DVD sets, Tom and Jerry: The Gene Deitch Collection and Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 5. 

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used

https://tralfaz.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-best-of-tom-and-jerry.html

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

Mouse Into Space (1962)

 

Mouse Into Space marks the first Tom and Jerry film of 1962, the fifth directed by Gene Deitch and 119th Tom and Jerry cartoon overall. 

In this short film, Jerry is annoyed with Tom and tired of fighting with his constant foe. He reads that there are no cats in space and deicides to volunteer for a space program for mice. With Jerry gone and no one to fight with Tom falls into depression and alcoholism. After drinking too much Tom accidently falls asleep inside the same rocket as Jerry is going to space in. 

This film is a slight improvement over the previous Gene Deitch directed cartoons. This film shows that while Deitch never understood the over-the-top slapstick humor of Tom and Jerry, he did understand the characters. He understood that Tom is not a villain but rather a very sympathetic character and this film actually makes us care for him. Deitch also understands that despite their feud, Jerry provides Tom with a purpose in life. Without having Jerry to fight with, Tom simply feels lost. The storyline for this film is also basically a good one. It provides a new take on the established formula and fits these characters to a tee. 

Despite these positives this is still a bad cartoon. The main offender once again is the music and sound effects. They are once again very distracting and ill-fitting. The sound effects alone are so ill-fitting that they take away from any effectiveness that any of the slapstick gags might have had. The slapstick gags also suffer from the characters often being a bit too rubbery, which takes any real bite out of them. The drawings of these characters are often very poor at times as well. 

This marked the first time Tom and Jerry went into outer space. During the era where the Tom and Jerry cartoons were produced by Chuck Jones, Tom and Jerry appeared in three shorts that took place in outer space. These films were O-Solar-Meow (1967), Guided Mouse-ille (1967) and Advance and Be Mechanized (1967). The duo would later return to space for the direct to video DVD movie, Tom and Jerry Blast Off to Mars (2005) and multiple episodes of the TV series Tom and Jerry Tales including Cat Nebula (2007), Spaced Out Cat (2007) and Martain Mice (2007).  

  Tod Dockstader receives a story credit. Štěpán Koníczek receives a music credit. Wáclaw Bedřicz receives a credit as animation director. The film is available on the DVD sets Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 5 and Tom and Jerry: The Gene Deitch Collection.

High Steaks (1962)

 

High Steaks marked the first Tom and Jerry short of 1962 and showed that year getting off to just as poor of a start as 1961. 

In this short film, Tom's owner (who is not Clint Clobber) is having a barbeque. Jerry smells the steaks cooking and decides to steal some. Tom tries to stop him but gets blamed for trying to ruin his owner's barbeque. 

The main problem with this cartoon is the same as in Down and Outing (1961). While we are supposed to feel sympathy for Tom and like him as a character, seeing him suffer the brunt of the slapstick violence shouldn't feel this painful. Tom's owner here comes off as overly cruel to the point of unpleasantness. This makes one wonder why this guy even has a cat. Meanwhile some of the slapstick gags come off as painful rather than funny, the "Kooky Cola" gag being one of the worst offenders. This film also suffers from the same problems as most Gene Deitch shorts mainly the annoying and ill-fitting sound effects and the obnoxious musical score. I will admit that the drawings of the characters are getting better than the ones in the previous year, but this is hardly enough to make this cartoon worth watching.  

 Wáclaw Bedřicz receives credit as animation director, the first time such a credit was given on a Tom and Jerry short. The story credit goes to Larz Bourne and Štěpán Koníczek receives a music credit. This marks the 118th Tom and Jerry short as a whole. In one scene you can see on the street signs that this takes place on the intersection of Deitch and Synder referring to director Gene Deitch and producer William Synder. The plot of Tom and Jerry's fighting ruining someone's barbeque had been done before and much more effectively in Barbeque Brawl (1956). In that film Tom and Jerry ruin Spike and Tyke's barbeque. High Seaks is available on the DVD sets, Tom and Jerry Classic Collection Volume 5, Tom and Jerry: The Gene Deitch Collection and Tom and Jerry's Food Fight.

Box Office, 1961

-Michael J. Ruhland