Saturday Evening Puss

When Mammy Two Shoes leaves the house to go to her Lucky Seven Saturday Night Bridge Club, her mischievous cat Tom seizes the opportunity to host a wild party for his alley-cat pals. Jerry the mouse, who is trying to get to sleep, attempts to stop the commotion...

The cat vs mouse action in Saturday Evening Puss is fairly routine, but what makes this cartoon slightly more memorable is the sight of Tom and his pals partying like crazy, the hairy hepcats generating some seriously groovy jazz tunes (could their antics have been the inspiration for a similar scene in Disney's The Aristocats?).

An ironic ending sees Tom and his friends thrown out of the house by Mammy, much to Jerry's delight, only for the mouse to have his sleep disturbed when Mammy puts on a record at top volume

Out of all of the Tom and Jerry episodes I see, this is my favorite of them all. This is, to start off, a great episode. I love the music and all the voices in this one. The plot is good as well: Tom's owner is out so Tom throws a party in his house and Jerry tries to stop it. I also love the part where Jerry calls Tom's owner and tells her about the party, and she comes home furious. The best/funniest part of that scene is where she throws Tom and the cats out of the house, and they form a totem pole. I laugh so hard every time I see that part. Overall, I recommend this cartoon to all Tom and Jerry fans, whether they've seen it before or not.

Mammy-Two-Shoes (dubbed to sound less 'racist' to appease the narrow-minded PC brigade in the version that I saw) goes out for the night, leaving Tom alone with the house to himself. He immediately invites a bunch of alley cats around for a party, causing no end of disturbance to Jerry, who doesn't take kindly to their music.

After attempts at silencing them fail, Jerry is tortured and tied up, but he still has enough in him to call Mammy-Two-Shoes (the number he dials is nothing but 1-1-1-1-1) and get Tom in trouble.

It's an average cartoon, which nothing to make it really stand out above the rest with the exception of two frames in which you actually get to see Mammy-Two-Shoes' face. Otherwise; bland.

Three things make this Tom&Jerry cartoon stand out from the crowd:

• We see more of Mammy Two-Shoes than ever, not just her face but also a bit of her social life.

• It is one of the relatively few cartoons where Jerry doesn't get a total triumph at the end.

• It is filled with good 50's jazz music.

And it is even more. Tom has a whole gang of friends, and the cat(s)-vs-mouse chase, although basically the same as usual, is filled with gags around musical instruments. Jerry is even reshaping into the musical instruments he hear.

Finally, it is one where censorship has done most work, with two revisions, first replacing Mammy Two-Shoes voice with a smoother, bland voice, and then redrawing a lot of it to replace her with a skinny white girl. And every change made it worse (except possibly replacing cards by dancing). I find it hard to see how Mammy Two-Shoes could be severely racist where she is clearly the master of her house, not always obvious in other cartoons, and replacing an overweight middle-aged black woman with an almost anorectic white girl is hardly a step forward, limiting both age, weight and skin color to something considered "right". Is it a good move to remove strong, independent black women from the screen? I know the voice is cliché but nothing more, and many new movies are worse (the new Ladykillers, the Rush Hour series...). If Chris Tucker can make fun of "black language" why can't Mammy Two-Shoes?

So it has all the action and gags of an above average cartoon, but with these unique features on top. Not mind-blowing unique but quite significant.

Saturday Evening Puss isn't the best Tom and Jerry cartoon I have seen, but it is very funny, pleasant and enjoyable. The story doesn't really hold any new surprises and the ending wasn't as impressive as the rest of the cartoon, but everything else is fine. The animation is very colourful and lively, and the sight gags are very, very clever and inventive. Tom, Jerry and Mammy Two Shoes are endearing and likable still, but what made the cartoon was the soundtrack. I loved it, it was catchy, memorable and upbeat, the sort of soundtrack I love in cartoons. Overall, a very pleasant and enjoyable Tom and Jerry cartoon, that works well on re-watches. 9/10 Bethany Cox