Tom kriegt einen Stellvertreter

I love Tom and Jerry and I love Chuck Jones, so one would imagine that Jones directing the cat and mouse would see me grinning from ear to ear in delight. Sadly, this is not so, Chuck's version of T&J never quite looking as they should, and the episodes (thus far) lacking in ingenuity and decent gags. The Unshrinkable Jerry Mouse does nothing to change this, being mediocre in most departments.

The unremarkable story sees Tom miffed at the arrival of a kitten, the jealous cat doing his best to be rid of the cute newcomer. Jerry mouse decides to help the kitten and keep Tom out of the house. This leads to lots of predictable slapstick including Tom slipping on a banana skin (it really is that uninspired!).

Very disappointing (although still nowhere near as bad as most of Gene Deitch's efforts).

And bias has nothing to do with it. I love Chuck Jones and Tom and Jerry. But generally I find his Tom and Jerry output hit and miss in quality, the best are not on par with the classics of the 40s-mid 50s but the worst are at least far better than the abominations that are the Gene Deitch cartoons. The Unshrinkable Jerry Mouse is not terrible as such, Tom and Jerry do have likability,- in fact there's nobody here that makes you hate them- the little kitten is extremely cute and the animation apart from a somewhat scratchy-looking Tom has some colour and fluidity. But The Unshrinkable Jerry Mouse I still found one of the weakest of his output. I really didn't care for the music, the orchestration is rather ugly-sounding and generally there just isn't anything interesting or memorable about it. The cartoon isn't all that funny either, the gags suffer from bad timing, unoriginality and that they seemed to go through the motions. The sound effects while not bizarre just don't add any life and do nothing to enhance the humour. If you want a cartoon where you're laughing at least once a minute, you won't find that in The Unshrinkable Jerry Mouse, you'd be lucky to find one in triple that amount of time. And the story has languid pacing, is very thin and does nothing to surprise or excite. All in all, a lacklustre entry from an animation classic, but again a long way from the nadir of the series. 4/10 Bethany Cox