Kleider machen Leute

Tom has his whiskers permed, and he's strutting his stuff going to impress his sweetie. He's got Jerry all packaged up as a special gift. At the door, he presents the gift, dances, sings, doing whatever he can to impress her. She isn't impressed (women are so moody). She tells him, using a half dozen expressions of the day, that "You don't send me." She throws Jerry in his face, saying, "Here's your rat, cat!"

Tom overhears a radio commercial urging guys to get a zoot suit to impress the gals. He makes one, goes back to see the girl and - wham! - she's impressed now.

The dialog in this short is fantastic. I wish they had English subtitles so I could catch all the hip phrases. The rest of the cartoon has Tom interrupted in his quest for admiration by Jerry, of course, and the two chase each other in the final few minutes.

The Zoot Cat (1944)

*** (out of 4)

It seems Tom and Jerry fans are really split on this short as some consider it one of their best while others find it to be near the bottom. I'm somewhere in the middle, although I will admit that it's not one of my favorites. The story is pretty simple as Tom gets rejected from a pretty cat so he learns a few moves, throws on an orange and green zoot suit and tries to impress her. THE ZOOT CAT doesn't really have much of a story but it's basically a showcase for the music and Tom's dancing. The music score itself is quite good and certainly manages to make you feel its beat. Tom's dancing will put a smile on your face but it really didn't make me laugh. With that said, there's still enough charm to be had here and it was at least something different for the series.

Tom the cat tries to impress a girl cat by giving her Jerry the mouse and singing her a song. But she rebukes him for being to square. So he makes a makeshift home-made zoot suit and continues to woo her. This is one of the few shorts where Tom and to a little extent Jerry both talk. Whereas most Tom and Jerry cartoons are timeless, this one is dated and not as funny as normally. One of my less favorite shorts, it's still watchable though. This cartoon can be found on disc one of the Spotlight collection DVD of "Tom & Jerry"

My Grade: C

DVD Extras: Commentary by historian Jerry Beck where he talks about the animator, voice actress and the songs amongst other things.

Tom uses material from hammock to made his zoot suit. He tries to be the hippest cat around with the suit, and try to attract a certain feline. Jerry the mouse always get in Tom's way of romancing a female. The Zoot Cat is one of the funniest in the Tom and Jerry cartoons.

Here's one fact that I had forgotten. The much lauded "talking" between Tom and Jerry in the feature film a few years back WAS NOT THE FIRST TIME THEY TALKED! They didn't say more than a couple of lines, but, BOTH Tom and Jerry spoke actual words in this cartoon! So much for Hollywood "Myths". I guess the screenwriters overlooked this episode.

It's a fun outing, like most of Tom and Jerry's adventures. Tom's trying to be hep to impress a local female cat, and Jerry's only making things harder on Tom than normal. Good fun, and wild to hear them speak.