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.
- Michael J. Ruhland
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