El Gato se Gana el Zapatazo

On the 20th of February in the year 1940 William Hanna and Joseph Barbera along side Rudolph Ising did a little short about a cat chasing a mouse who gets the tables turned around. The premise seemed simple enough considering the fact that most Warner Bros. Cartoons were like that. But with the talent of Hanna-Barbera simple premise was turned into gold and they soon had a successful short and an Oscar Nomination. Since at the time MGM cartoons were either stupid musicals or Barney Bear shorts. The short "Puss Gets the Boot" seemed like good competition for the Warner shorts. So soon after Hanna-Barbera found themselves working on the wonderful Tom and Jerry shorts which they would continue to make for the next 15 years!

This cartoon itself is not the best but it's still funny and contains a lot of great gags.

4(****)out of 4(****)stars

A Great Start for the Tom and Jerry shorts!

Tom And Jerry has been a historical part of many childhoods, including the childhood of the 15 year-old geek writing this review. Many generations of children in the present day are forced to soak up the blandness and laziness of modern cartoons, such as The Amazing World Of Gumball, Phineas And Ferb, Teen Titans Go!(my lord....), Sanjay And Craig, and so on. I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't enjoying them as much as the heads of Hollywood think they are, but if there's one thing I learnt from the animation format in all my life, I found that Tom And Jerry is much more significant than any mainstream Saturday morning cartoon, both historically and in my humble opinion. Take Puss Gets The Boot- the first of several shorts of the Tom And Jerry series, it might be completely different from most Tom And Jerry cartoons you normally see on TV, but I blame that on Cartoon Network's executives and chairman. However, you must remember the theory of evolution- change over time. Throughout the years, the animation in Tom And Jerry has improved in designs and textures, the number of characters have increased, the music has gone more complex, the list goes on. In Puss Gets The Boot, the characters look a little scruffier and less simplistic than the later shorts, Tom meows instead of yelping in pain(fun fact: the voice actor of Donald Duck at the time lended the screeching of Tom's character), and there's more of a reliance on African American stereotypes. What makes this short film so satisfying is that it shows that even in the beginning, Tom And Jerry still had it's charms of seeing this poor cat always failing to get what he desires, and the supposedly innocent little mouse getting the better end of the deal. This may be very well one of the best Tom And Jerry shorts, even if it had differences in what you'd usually see. Also, Mammy Two-Shoes is the stealer of the show, hearing her yell "O-U-W-T, out!" is just hilarious!

This is a historic cartoon in that it's the first ever Tom and Jerry. Actually, it's not even called that because Tom is "Jasper" in this one, and he looks different. His face is bigger and fuzzier. Actually, his whole body is furrier.

When you are used to seeing these Looney Tunes cartoons from mostly the late '40s through the 1950s and then you see the beginning years, like in Bugs Bunny's case, it's strange to see how they look. We get comfortable and used to seeing our "friends" a certain way, so I always prefer that over these early renditions of a character. I've said the same about Bugs and Daffy Duck.

Audio-wise, too, this is different in that Tom, when injured, makes screeching noises like an actual cat, which is not the norm for him.

However, the joke in this cartoon is one that they would use over and over, no matter who was doing the writing or animating: the cat being told "if this happens one more time, you're outta here..." and Jerry hearing that and planning to make sure that happens. In this debut cartoon the threat by the maid and the threat is that if "Jasper" breaks one more object in the house, he's toast.

For audiences in 1940, I'm sure this was very entertaining but for those of us who have seen at least 40-50 Tom and Jerry episodes, this is nothing we haven't seen done before and done much better. Overall: not bad but nothing special except for historical value.

In this first cartoon about the cat and the mouse the cat is called Jasper. Why he is called Tom in the other cartoons is kind of explained in this short. The cat is teasing the mouse and the mouse seeks his revenge. After the cat breaks something he gets a warning. One more thing and he must go out of the house. The mouse is very willing to help the cat leave by trying to break things. Very funny and some great moments this is a great start for a very popular series of cartoons.

Jasper the cat breaks a vase when chasing the brown mouse (who would later be called Jerry -- according to Patrick Brion's 'Tom & Jerry: The Definitive Guide To Their Animated Adventures' he had no name at this time -- Tom and Jerry were apparently the results of an inter-company competition). The noise attracts the black maid of the house, who tells Jasper that if anything else got broken he would be out of the house ('O-U-W-T! Out!'). Guess what the mouse subsequently tries to do? This was the first of the Tom & Jerry cartoons, despite the difference in names. Although it seems a little slow-paced and long now, it did set the standard, and got further recognition of its brilliance when it was nominated for an Academy Award. It still has its charm, and is worth seeing if only to see the cartoon that started it all. Didn't Jasper/Tom look different back in 1940, eh?