The second in the Chuck Jones produced Tom and Jerry space trilogy immediately followed the first (O-Solar-Meow (1967)). In this follow-up, Tom's robot cat returns. This time he is joined by Jerry's robot mouse, who would also appear in the final film in the trilogy.
In this short film, Tom and Jerry are in the year 2565 AD. In this futuristic year, Tom and Jerry send robot versions of themselves to do their fighting for them.
This is easily the weakest film of the trilogy. It lacks the fun sci-fi atmosphere of the other entries and much of the artwork seems bland and unimaginative. The gags are mostly incredibly predictable and the timing feels off. The ending simply feels strange and out of place. The drawings are often quite poor as well. There is very little to recommend about this cartoon. It is one of the weakest Tom and Jerry shorts of the Chuck Jones era.
This film was directed by Abe Levitow. The credited writer was John Dunn. The credited animators on this film include Don Towsley, Tom Ray, Dick Thompson, Ben Washam, Ken Harris and Philip Roman. The credit background artist is Thelma Witmer. This is her only onscreen credit for a Tom and Jerry cartoon. She is best known for her work at Disney, where she worked on many of the Donald Duck cartoons as well as the Disney feature films Make Mine Music (1946), Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959), One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) and The Jungle Book (1967). The credited layout artist is Don Morgan. This marks the 154th Tom and Jerry cartoon.
This film appears 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 1 and Tom and Jerry in Space as well as the Laserdisc set The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume III: The Chuck Jones Cartoons. This cartoon appears on the Toon in With Me episodes, Cy-Bill 3000 (2021), Watch Out! (2022), Summer Blockbuster Showdown (2023), 2023 Rewind (2023), Throwback Thursday: 2000 (2024), Throwback Thursday: 1979 (2024) and To Be a Kid Again (2025).
This cartoon was submitted for an Oscar but was not nominated. The other shorts submitted but not nominated for this year are The Wall (Zagreb), The Hand (Kratky Film Praha), Funny is Funny (Universal), The Birds, Bees and Storks (Halas & Batchelor), Boniface's Holiday (Paramount). The cartoons that were nominated were The Drag (National Film Board of Canada), The Pink Blueprint (DePatie-Freleng, starring Pink Panther) and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature (Paramount). The winner was Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature. Here is the Oscar being accepted by husband-and-wife filmmakers John and Faith Hubley.
O-Solar-Meow marked the first film in a trilogy of Chuck Jones produced Tom and Jerry shorts to take place in outer space. This trilogy of cartoons had many similar motifs between each entry. One of these is that the robot cat appears in all three of these cartoons. This robot cat would even later be a playable character in the 2003 video game, Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers. In that game his attacks include Spin Attack, Jaw Bite and Fireball. He can also fly by using a helicopter propeller. This makes him one of the few Tom and Jerry characters from the Chuck Jones era to also appear in video games.
In this short film, Tom is on guard duty on a satellite, when a shipment of cheese arrives. Jerry is also aboard and tries to steal the cheese. So, Tom sends out his robot cat after him.
This is an enjoyable little cartoon, though still not among the duo's best films. Though it is a bit underutilized, the space station is a fun setting and the sci-fi atmosphere to this cartoon is quite a bit of fun. Tom sending a robot cat to do his work is a good idea and be expanded upon later in the trilogy. The gags themselves here tend to be one of two things. They can more clever than actually funny. This is seen in the opening gag and the Rube Goldberg machine (I am still trying to figure out what that purple thing is by the way). The gags can also feel too much like ones we have seen done better in other cartoons. None of the gags are really bad per say but they simply don't make me laugh the way I do when watching the 1940's Tom and Jerry shorts.
This film does have the same flaws as other non-Chuck Jones directed shorts of this era. There are some poor drawings, obvious animation mistakes and the timing can feel off.
The credited director of this film is Abe Levitow. The credited animators are Ken Harris, Don Towsley, Tom Ray, Dick Thompson and Ben Washam. John Dunn is the credited writer. Eugene Poddany is the credited composer. The credited background artist is Philip DeGuard and the credited layout artist is Don Morgan. Mel Blanc is the credit voice artist. This marks the 153 Tom and Jerry short.
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 1 and Tom and Jerry in Space as well as the VHS set, Tom and Jerry: Little School Mouse and the Laserdisc The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume III: The Chuck Jones Cartoons.
It appeared on the Toon in With Me episodes, Company Softball Team (2021), Remember That Date in '68? (2022), Fantastic Friday #65 (2023), Pinball Wizard (2023), Wisc'd Away (2024) and On This Day... February 6th (2026).
This short film marks the first Tom and Jerry cartoon of 1967 and returns Chuck Jones to the director chair. The cartoon marks a very strong start for 1967 for our favorite cat and mouse duo.
In this short film, Tom is drifting along the sea singing classical music when he spies Jerry. He decides Jerry would make a tasty snack. Unfortunately for Tom, another cat spies Jerry as well and the two cats fight over him.
This is a surprisingly good Tom and Jerry cartoon for being this late in the game. The film has a unique feel to it. The abstract night themed backgrounds and the dock setting give this whole cartoon a great sense of atmosphere that helps it stand out from other Tom and Jerry shorts of this era. The opening with Tom singing as he is floating down is simply lovely, especially when paired with the beautiful backgrounds. This opening scene has stayed in my mind since I first watched this film as a kid, and I still find it just as charming today. However, as well as having a lovely sense of atmosphere this film has pretty good gags in it. The timing and execution of these gags is prefect and multiple of them made me chuckle. The character animation here is also perfect, making the characters seem completely real to us without any dialogue needed.
Terrence Monk (sometimes spelled Terence Monck) provided Tom's singing voice in this cartoon. He had previously provided Tom's singing voice for The Cat Above and the Mouse Below (1964). Born on January 10, 1936 (in Long Beach, California), Monk was a trained opera singer studying at UCLA and Juilliard as well as the San Francisco Opera. In 1964 (the year this cartoon was released) he won the San Francisco Opera auditions. Over the course of his career, he had appeared with such stars as Judy Garland, Shirley Jones, Carol Lawerance, Anne Bylth and Barbara Eden. He would appear in such productions as My Fair Lady, Panama Hattie, Mack and Mabel, I Do, I Do! and See-Saw. He would also appear in soap operas including Days of Our Lives. Despite his impressive career it is these Tom and Jerry cartoons that he is best known for. He passed away on January 3, 2003 (in Long Beach, California) at the age of 67 from lung cancer.
Jerry's falsetto singing voice is provided by Dal McKennon. Dal is a voice actor who should be familiar to most cartoon fans. He was the voice of Woody Woodpecker's arch-enemy Buzz Buzzard. Art Clokey's Claymation character Gumby and eternal teenager Archie Andrews. This was his only credit on a Tom and Jerry cartoon.
The song, they are singing is Santa Lucia. This song from Naples has sometimes been credited to Teodoro Cottrau. However, the actual writer of the song is unknown. Teodoro Cottrau translated the song from Neapolitan into Italian. That Italian version of the song was published in 1849 making it the first Neapolitan song to be translated into Italian. This is not the only language the song would be translated into. The song would also be translated into English. One of the English translations would be entitled Here In The Twilight. This version of the song by American lyricist Howard Johnson (I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream, When the Moon Comes over the Mountain) and was copyrighted in 1932. However, the most popular American versions of the song were sung in Italian including when Elvis Presley sang in the movie, Viva Las Vegas (1964) and later on the 1965 studio album, Elvis for Everyone.
The lyrics we hear in this film go:
Sul mare luccica I'astro d'argento,
Placida e l'onda, prospero e il vento.
Sul mare luccica l'astro d'argento,
Placida e l'onda, prospero e il vento.
Venite all'agile barchetta mia,
Santa Lucia! Santa Lucia!
Venite all'agile barchetta mia,
Santa Lucia! Santa Lucia!
One of the highlights of this film is the scene with Tom and another cat doing what is known as the mirror routine. In this classic comic skit, one character pretends that his is the other's reflection but mimicking everything the other character does perfectly. Though this skit has appeared in countless films, its origins date back to the stage. By 1911 a German comedy duo named the Schwartz Brothers had a good following due to a popular routine known as the broken mirror routine. A critic for Variety described this routine, "The master of the house, who is an actor, is suffering from the effects of a late night. When he goes to look at himself in the mirror he sees what he thinks is a reflection of himself, but which is actually his manservant. The movements of the two are identical, the only appreciable difference being that the manservant is by no means. . . [as] good-looking as his master. Finally, the master tries to kiss the maid, and the manservant in his jealousy knocks the mirror over, leaving the impression that it has been newly broken." This is hardly much different from the skit that we know today. The success of this routine made it so that the team was able to tour in London. While in London they discovered an act that had a routine was uncomfortable close to their own. Lauri Wylie, starred in this similar comedy skit titled "Early Morning Reflections." However, that skit has supernatural elements where a man saw his disembodied spirit. Despite this the Schwartz Brothers took Lauri Wylie to court on December 8, 1911. Unfortunately for the Schwartz Brothers, it was decided that the skit wasn't exactly original. A similar comedic sketch had appeared in H. A. Du Souchet's play, My Friend from India. In that play a man in drag pretends to be an elderly woman's reflection as she passes by a broken mirror. That play was published in 1894. It debuted in France and later had an American version which premiered at Broadway's Bijou Theatre on October 6, 1896. In 1897 the play was adapted from British audiences as My Friend the Prince. In 1900, the American vaudeville team the Lyman Twins were performing the skit on the American stage. With all these previous versions in mind, the judge ruled the skit as being public property.
It was only natural that this routine would find its way to the silver screen. A very early example is a silent film from the French comedian Max Linder entitled Le Duel de Max (1913). Linder would later repeat the gag in Seven Years Bad Luck (1921). Charlie Chaplin would do a variation on the routine in his short film, The Floorwalker (1916). However, the routine is best associated with The Marx Brothers. Their version of the routine in the classic movie, Duck Soup (1933) is considered the best version of the skit. The skit has become so associated with the Marx Brothers that when in 1955 Harpo Marx guest starred on the beloved TV show, I Love Lucy, Lucy and Harpo did a version of this skit together. Everyone from Charley Chase to the Muppets to Stewie Griffin to Woody Allen has done this beloved comedy sketch.
THe credited animators on this film include Dick Thompson, Ben Washam, Ken Harris, Don Towsley and Tom Ray. Philip DeGuard is the credited background artis. Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese share a story credit. Maurice Noble is credited as a co-director. Eugene Poddany is credited for the music. This marks the 152 Tom and Jerry cartoon.
This film is available on the DVD sets, Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 6, Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection and Tom and Jerry: No Mice Allowed! as well as the VHS set Tom and Jerry: Cat and Dupli-cat and the Laser Disc set The Art of Tom & Jerry: Volume III: The Chuck Jones Cartoons.
The cartoon was shown in its entirety on the Toon in With Me episodes Meet the Tooners (2021), Toons & Temptations (2021), Bill Is Predict-a-Bill (2022) and Rival of the Ages III (2025). A brief clip is shown in the show's opening as well.
