Down Beat Bear

It always irritated me when Jerry decided to mess with Tom's mind just for the pure pleasure of it. Here, Tom attempts to collect a reward on find a runaway dancing bear, and Jerry thwarts him by continuously creating music, causing the bear to grab Tom and jitterbug with him. There really is no other purpose or plot, and it's hard to know who to root for, since none of the three characters have any personality. There's really just one joke here, repeated until the ending seems obvious. But for Hanna-Barbera, the animation is surprisingly good, and it's always nice to see that Jerry has been able to find such nice mouse-sized furniture for his hole-in-the-wall apartment.

No movie or cartoon is guaranteed to entertain, but if this cartoon doesn't bring at least a smile to your face a few times I would be shocked. Between the music and the sight gags, somewhere in here you are going to have some big laughs and/or smiles.. (If not - if you can't laugh at this - why are you watching cartoons?)

Oh, man, is this the 1950s or what? Dig the modern furniture in hear and the "hip" jazz and Dixieland numbers. This will really be nostalgic for anyone around 60 years of age and older, but people of any age should laugh at the dancing bear. He's a cool bear, having escaped from the circus, and he just wants to eat and dance to some fast music.

He gets plenty of both at Tom's house (there are no humans around) with the jukebox in the living room. I won't say more, except this is a fun cartoon, fun for the eyes and the ears.

This is presented in the widescreen CinemaScope and is part of Disc 2 of the Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Volume Two DVD.

'Down Beat Bear (1956)' is a perfectly pleasant little cartoon, one that sees a circus bear wander in to the midst of one of Tom and Jerry's usual battles. The piece is pretty much a one-gag affair, though. The bear dances whenever he hears music, taking a terrified Tom as his unwilling partner. Of course, Jerry decides this is the best possible outcome and will stop at nothing to keep the music playing. This is a decent enough premise but it wears thin fairly fast and the stakes aren't really raised all that much. It gets a little repetitive and is lacking in laughs. Still, it's enjoyable enough and does include a few chuckle-worthy sight-gags. It's well animated and generally quite charming, too. 6/10

Jerry is relaxing to some jazz when Tom comes into the room to read his paper and turns the music off. While the cat and mouse take it in turns to turn the radio on and off, there is an announcement that a dancing bear has escaped from the carnival and a reward for his capture is being offered. Inevitably, the bear crosses paths with Tom, who immediately sees dollars, but the cat cannot claim his reward because every time Jerry plays some music, the bear grabs Tom for his dancing partner.

I'm going to be fairly forgiving of the cruder animation style for this cartoon simply because the idea of Tom cutting a rug with a bear is so funny. Sure, it would have been nicer to see the level of detail that the earlier cartoons had, but with Tom reluctantly waltzing, jitterbugging and tangoing with the dance-crazy circus bear, this caper is still one of the best of this particular era and well worth watching.

7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

Tom and Jerry has always been one of my absolute favourites, though I do agree that Down Beat Bear was one of the last that were truly outstanding(I do remember liking Blue Cat Blues a lot though as a kid) and there were a huge number number of classics from when it all started to this point(1956). After this point at their best they were pretty good(some of the better Chuck Jones shorts, none of them are a patch on the Hanna Barbera/MGM era), at their worst they were downright awful(the Gene Deitch cartoons). Back to Down Beat Bear, I love everything about it. The animation is really beautiful to watch, I love the colours which are all smooth and vibrant and all the characters are very well drawn. Down Beat Bear also has some of the best music of any of the Tom and Jerry cartoons, it is toe-tappingly catchy and makes you want to dance yourself. The gags are inspired, the interaction between Tom and the dancing bear are the highlights, and never fall into predictability, while the story is fast moving and always interesting to the audience. Sure the whole escaped animal angle has been done before but not in a way that is this fun. Tom is appropriately crafty, which always has been part of his persona, and Jerry still proves himself to be more than just cute-looking. But the best character was easily the dancing bear, what he does for much of the cartoon is dance and to hilarious results. I wouldn't say no to having a bear like him. All in all, a wonderful cartoon. 10/10 Bethany Cox