Calypso Cat marks the 7th of 13 Tom and Jerry cartoons directed by Gene Deitch and the 121st film in the series overall.
In this short film, Tom is chasing Jerry when he notices a lovely lady cat getting on to a cruise ship. Tom naturally follows her onboard. Tom starts up a romance with her despite Jerry's best attempts to sabotage the romance. When the ship docks, Tom must compete with a Calypso cat for the affections of his new girlfriend.
The storyline here is a very solid one. In fact, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera had used similar stories and created masterpieces. However, once again it is the execution that is lacking. The timing on all the gags is completely off and the music and sound effects are very ill-fitting. The Calypso music isn't bad itself, but it seems very out of place in the early scenes before we meet the Calypso cat. On the other hand, the sound effects come off as simply obnoxious. The character drawings also feel quite off with the near permeant smile on the Calypso cat being more distracting than anything else.
Larz Bourne receives a story credit, Wáclaw Bedřicz receives a credit for animation director and Štěpán Koníczek receives a music credit. This marks the first short in which the opening music is by Štěpán Koníczek instead of the filmmakers simply reusing Scott Bradely's music for the Hanna and Barbera Tom and Jerry shorts as was done in the previous Deitch films. This film is available on the DVD sets, Tom and Jerry: The Gene Deitch Collection and Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 5.
Tom and Jerry had previously been on a cruise ship in Cruise Cat (1952) and the love triangle is similar to that Tom had with Butch in such shorts as Springtime for Thomas (1946), Casanova Cat (1951) and Blue Cat Blues (1956).
-Michael J. Ruhland
Tom and Jerry had previously been on a cruise ship in Cruise Cat (1952) and the love triangle is similar to that Tom had with Butch in such shorts as Springtime for Thomas (1946), Casanova Cat (1951) and Blue Cat Blues (1956).
-Michael J. Ruhland
What "makes" this cartoon is the music, which, as said above, is largely out of key with the antics on the cruise ship, giving the cartoon an almost surreal quality. There are moments, however, such as when Tom fingers the aspic Jerry is trapped in (until Jerry bites his finger), that dispel suspicions that a canned soundtrack was used.
ReplyDeleteNot surprisingly, since they were made in Prague, the Gene Dietch Tom and Jerrys have a very "European" feel that doesn't quite suit characters designed for all-American slapstick.