This weekend, "Tom and Jerry"'s latest attempt at a theatrical outing released on both theaters and HBO Max. The reaction has been rather mixed all across the board so far, with some finding it harmless, enjoyable fun and others finding it too generic and safe for its own good. While I personally enjoyed the movie for what it was, I definitely understand the detractors in how lost it gets sometimes and how questionable a lot of the story beats are, even if it's unrealistic to expect Tom and Jerry themselves to carry an entire feature-length plot on their own.
In many ways, it makes a lot of sense why modern versions of the cat and mouse duo generally tend to go in a safer direction. The originals were released at a time when the stigma of animation being mainly for kids hadn't set in yet, and violence was generally more acceptable by mainstream audiences. But when television animation started to take off, it became much harder for them to really find a place in the landscape. Their first attempt to bring the duo to television in 1975 stripped them of their never-ending conflict and much of the slapstick, aka the entire point of their dynamic. Things didn't get much better by the early 1990s, going through both a babified spinoff and a movie that gave them voices and pushed them to the side in favor of an unrelated plot and cast. Time after time, attempt was made to keep the characters alive, some stronger than others; but nearly all had to be relatively tame in the actual slapstick for the sake of keeping the 6-12 audience in mind. They were generally in-character, but the edge that made them stand out was rarely there. Even the new movie mostly consists of this, being largely marketed as a family film.
But about a week prior came a couple of special shorts on HBO Max made by the staff of Looney Tunes Cartoons. This caught everyone by surprise, as we had no indication of these even being made until they were very quietly dropped, and as such these only ended up getting discovered from animation fans spreading the word of them across Twitter and other social media. Which is a real shame because these are probably some of the cat and mouse duo's best ever material since the original Hanna-Barbera theatrical run. Even though this was actually a limited offshoot of the aforementioned LTC, as revealed by people on staff, the crew clearly made the absolute most out of the little time they had, with their talents transitioning quite seamlessly from one brand to another. And in general, it's simply the kind of labor of love that is always glorious to see come to life.
Let's start looking at the first of the two, "On a Roll", directed by Kenny Pittenger.
First look at Jerry from this team. There's definitely a rougher, less cute look to him than how he's always been portrayed since the earlier HB years, and I think this helps in making him a target you don't mind seeing get beaten a little bit even if he is ultimately dealing much of the pain.
Even before the two interact, Tom takes a hit with the chef stomping on his tail just to set him straight. General gag, but that's just to get things started for when the real action takes place.
Tom's design is a drastic departure from many recent iterations, from the dark grey fur (rather than the traditional bluish tone) and a more feral appearance altogether. He's also back to being pretty bloodthirsty, starting off trying to chop up Jerry. This is where you start to realize, oh this is going to be good.
And the very first bit of Jerry-related slapstick we get is him throwing a bowl of wasabi in Tom's mouth, then only making the ensuing fire on his tongue worse by dropping a kettle of liquid. A far cry from just having him run into a wall or something like that.
Here's a more standard Tom and Jerry gag, with a bunch of plates flying into the cat's face. However, this works just as well as the wasabi bit, with the loud bangs and strong drawings really making it look like it hurt.
The cartoon's smart to ease down for a bit here, with this humorous disguise. The music score by Joshua Moshier feels plucked right out of the classics with this scene in particular.
Okay, this bit is just weird. It doesn't leave a big impact, nor is the blinking that clever. Probably the one gag that really fell flat in these shorts in my opinion.
But they make up for it 10 seconds later with a swordfish poking Tom in the rump, with the famous Hanna scream for good measure.
This gag definitely treads a fine line between being graphic but still having enough of a humorous edge. The face being torn off by the blowfish does make me squirm a bit at first, but then we see Tom's dumbfounded stare and it suddenly becomes funny again.
Pretty good devilish laugh and expression as Tom tries to chase Jerry in a fish crate.
Kind of a weak ending, but eh, most of the gags in those are too good for me to really care.
And now onto "The House That Cat Built", this one handled by David Gemmill:
Taking place in a house this time, Tom has a noticeably more domesticated appearance for most of this compared to the other one (although still very angular in design). And while it doesn't stand out as much as how he looked in the other short, it certainly works for a setup where you're supposed to connect with him a little.
Jerry takes a few more hits in this one, getting tossed around his hole from Tom's hammering. Pretty simple, but the snappiness and limited keyframes make it work.
That's a pretty awesome, if ridiculous, design for this cat condo. It's safe to say that this had no chance of holding though, which I think makes the destruction of this look less mean-spirited on Jerry's end. It helps that Tom actively gives the first strike.
I like how this gag is directed. After being pulled out of this hole in the fort, Jerry realizes he's holding a hammer and they both immediately know what's about to happen (which it promptly does). Very well-timed.
Yowza Animation's expertise in tweened slapstick especially stands out here. The zips are incredibly brisk yet still easy to follow, and there's just enough wind-up for the physics to read but not too much to make it come across as overly flexible. Plus the expressions are really confidently-drawn, even the more standard ones like that third image since it results in him smacking into a column when he is least expecting it.
Tom is no stranger to his body shape changing on impact, however they take it a few steps further by not only being much more exaggerated about it, but also pushing the joke enough where he pretty much just becomes a black rope with eyes. I wish more modern Tom and Jerry projects got this creative.
Jerry is mostly back to his innocent look in this cartoon, but I'm not going to act like I don't laugh at him gleefully nailing Tom's feet to the base.
Which of course leaves him helpless with a hole being cut in the floor, the entire construction collapsing right on top of him. You don't hear a scream or anything this time, but they hold on the structure falling long enough for the pain to register nonetheless.
Pretty fitting ending, given the conflict started with Tom messing with Jerry's home. And that smug note is definitely a good note to close on.
I think the reason these were able to go full-on here is because of them going to the right team, being made for the right place, and at the right time. With streaming, demographics are becoming more blurred thanks to the services - unlike cable channels - wanting to cater to as many groups as reasonably possible. So even though Browngardt and company's time with the characters was woefully short, the fact they were able to go full-force at all may very well bode strong things for the duo going forward. These shorts prove that there's still possible life out of the duo, and I am so glad they exist for that reason.
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