Jerry Jerry Quite Contrary (1966)

 

Note: This post contains mild spoilers.

Jerry, Jerry Quite Contrary is the 144th Tom and Jerry theatrical short and the 17th to be produced by Chuck Jones (who also directed this film). 

In this short film, Jerry has a problem with sleepwalking. While walking in his sleep he ends up hurting Tom a lot. 

We all have Tom and Jerry cartoons where we feel extremely sorry for Tom. This is definitely one of them for me. Like The Year of the Mouse (1965), Tom does absolutely nothing to Jerry, except for defending himself. Unlike The Year of the Mouse, here Jerry actually feels sorry for what he tries to do to Tom and attempts to keep himself awake. This results in some wonderful character animation and the only truly funny part of the film. Also, unlike The Year of the Mouse, Tom does not have any sort of victory at the end, which makes it much less satisfying than the previous cartoon. Still the cartoon has enough to it to recommend it. The character animation is often excellent; the umbrella joke is clever (even if it is more clever than funny) and the film has good pacing. However, the best thing about this cartoon is Dean Elliott's musical score. Sure, it may be very similar to Raymond Scott's Powerhouse (which can be heard in many Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies) but it is still a lot of fun to listen to and really brings life to the cartoon.   

The credited animators on this film are Ken Harris, Don Towsley, Tom Ray, Dick Thompson, Ben Washam and Al Pabian.  Maurice Noble is the credited co-director. The credited background artist is Philip DeGuard. This makes the first Tom and Jerry cartoon in which Chuck Jones receives a solo story credit.    `

This film is available on the DVD sets Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 6, Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection, Tom and Jerry: Fur Flying Adventures - Volume 3 and Tom and Jerry: Mouse Trouble as well as the VHS set Tom and Jerry: The Missing Mouse and the LaserDisc set Tom and Jerry: The Missing Mouse. 

-Michael J. Ruhland