The Bowling Alley-Cat

I Consider the Realistic Animals Tom and Jerry era to start at Puss Gets the Boot and end in Sufferin' Cats.

The Story is that Jerry is having some fun at the Bowling Alley, when Tom appears and wants to eat him, leading some fun and inventive gags, that didn't take place inside a House.

This is Tom and Jerry first cartoon to take place outside a house. And for me, it's for the best, it allowed some new gags, that weren't seen in the earlier episodes, such as Jerry using a bowling pin as a baseball bat, Or Tom trying to catch a bowling ball like a baseball ball and gets smashed by it. Another Highlight was Jerry teleporting himself to other Bowling Ball inside another far away bowling ball.

I recommend it to every Tom and Jerry fan.

The Tom-and-Jerry shorts were unquestionably, UNQUESTIONABLY, the most violent cartoons of the golden age. I recall reading that, in terms of bashings, stabbings etc. per minute, the Pink Panther cartoons are the most violent, followed (not surprisingly) by the Road Runner - but we know better than to trust such statistics. It's the Tom and Jerry cartoons that make you say "ouch". This is a tame sample, actually, from the days before Tex Avery came to MGM. Orthodoxy (for instance, Leonard Maltin, "Of Mice and Magic") has it that even the cartoons directed by Hanna and Barbera perked up after he arrived, and orthodoxy is correct. This is still a good cartoon. Watch it, and you'll see the violence I'm referring to clearly enough.

It's a clash between two forces that makes Tom and Jerry so bracingly brutal. Firstly, there's the detailed, polished, true-to-Newton realism. That bowling alley floor really is slippery, and the bowling balls really are heavy - one could get hurt playing with such things. Secondly, there's an element's somewhat muted in this pre-Avery cartoon, although it's still there - the hyper-exaggerated, sadistic anarchy which Avery brought over from Warner Brothers, back when that studio really was producing loony 'toons (mostly not very good ones, it must be admitted). Put them together and you have a bowling ball that will go out of its way to injure a cat, as only a cartoon bowling ball could - except that, somehow, it also behaves like a REAL, genuinely dangerous bowling ball. Ouch.

Tom and Jerry were at their best in the years following this cartoon, when the balance between realism and cartooniness was precisely maintained. At some hard-to-pinpoint moment in the 1950s, the realism got lost, and the cartoons became unbalanced in the opposite direction.

Another factor which enhanced Tom and Jerry cartoons, right through to the end, was their uncertainty. Usually, we side with Tom (the cat), who is mean-spirited but at least honest about it - and usually, it's Tom who is roundly walloped. But Jerry rarely emerges unscathed himself (unlike the Road Runner, or that unendurable creation, Tweety Pie). And sometimes, just once or twice, he gets the worst of the exchange. We suspect that Tom will somehow end up losing the battle, but we don't KNOW that he will - which, I suppose, makes his defeat sting all the more.

While it is slow in pace to begin with, Bowling Alley-Cat is still very enjoyable. It doesn't belong in the best of their cartoons, but in my opinion it is one of their better early ones. For one thing, the animation is lovely, crisp and clean and smooth in general. True, Tom looks like a kitten here, but for 1942 this animation was not bad at all, quite the contrary. The music was a delight, hearing the Waltz from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty was a real plus, and the sight gags were both original and funny. Also I loved this because it was different, it all takes place in a bowling alley rather than the house, it was really nice to see something new once in a while. Overall, different and enjoyable, definitely worth the watch. 9/10 Bethany Cox

The Bowling Alley-Cat is the very first in a series of Tom and Jerry cartoons about sports. This cartoon is where I think, they finally really nail the pacing. The jokes flow naturally, the cartoon is constantly exciting, and the jokes are very good. The most entertaining was definitely when Tom runs to the lobby to try to catch the bowling ball. It is consistently entertaining, but this cartoon doesn't really have the artistry of some later entries. Despite lacking in that department, the cartoon is very consistent. It is able to overall remain funny throughout. I just don't like the color of Tom, and some jokes are just ok. Other than that, a very solid cartoon.

For at least one reason, this was better than the rest of these 1942 Tom and Jerry cartoons: they got out of their house. With new surroundings - in this case, a bowling alley, - it allowed for different and better gags than the normal house scenes.

This starts off slowly, however, and I wondered if it was every going to produce some laughs, but it did, especially with Tom caught in the automatic pinsetter and then the caravan of bowling bowls was pictured as a train. Decent, overall, with the really clever stuff to come in a couple of years. This would have been much better, let's say, in 1945, with crazier stunts.

Nonetheless, this cartoons starts to set the stage for the really funny (and violent) material that also was to come.