Jerry-Go-Round (1965)

 

Jerry-Go-Round is the first Tom and Jerry cartoon to be directed by Abe Levitow. Levitow had previously been an animator for producer Chuck Jones' unit at Warner Brothers, eventually going on to co-direct a couple films with Jones. Levitow even directed the feature film, Gay Purr-ee (1962), which was co-written by Chuck and his wife Dorothy Jones. However, his best known and most beloved directorial effort was for the classic UPA TV Christmas special Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962). This was also the first Tom and Jerry short written by John W. Dunn. Dunn had been one of the main writers of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons in the early 1960's. He wrote stories for all the Warner Brothers directors including Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng and Robert McKimson. Friz Freleng took a special liking to Dunn and Dunn wrote many of the cartoons for Friz's DePatie-Freleng cartoons including the Pink Panther, Inspector, Blue Racer, Ant and the Aardvark, Hoot Kloot, Tijuana Toads and Roland and Ratfink cartoons. He would later be a writer for the Hanna-Barbera TV series, The Ri¢hie Ri¢h/Scooby-Doo Show.

In this short film, Tom chases Jerry into the circus. Here Jerry befriends an elephant, who helps protect Jerry from Tom. 

This is frankly just an okay cartoon. Here the circus setting is very charming, the character animation is quite good and Eugune Poddany's musical score is a lot of fun. However, at times this short can feel like it is just going through the motions. Not only are none of the gags actually funny but none of them have any real punch to them. These are just typical cartoon gags delivered in a bland and uninspired fashion. While William Hanna and Joseph Barbera would often times do gags, we have seen before in their Tom and Jerry cartoons, the timing and delivery of these gags made them work perfectly. Here the timing feels off, and the delivery feels uninspired.  

The credited animators on this film are Dick Thompson, Ben Washam, Ken Harris, Don Towsley, Tom Ray. Philip DeGuard is the credited background artist, and Don Morgan is the credited layout artist. Mel Blanc is credited for the vocal effects. This is the 145th Tom and Jerry cartoon. Jerry had previously befriended an elephant in Jerry and Jumbo (1953). 

This film is available on the DVD sets Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 6 and Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection as well as the VHS set Tom & Jerry Volume 6 Much Ado About Mousing and the LaserDisc set The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume III: The Chuck Jones Cartoons.

The Tom and Jerry Wiki states, "Media studies scholar, Jo Johnson, argued that the short had a coded same-sex relationship between Jerry, who was gendered by Jones as female, and a female elephant who wears a pink tutu. He also argued that the episode's ending could be read as a 'prophetic depiction of Gay Pride.'" Yeah, right! I can guarantee you none of this was ever on the mind of Abe, John or Chuck as they made this cartoon. I completely believe in representation in media but there is such a thing as reading too much into something whose creators only plan was to make a piece of entertainment. 

-Michael J. Ruhland