Baby Butch

Butch, a black alleycat, is trying to find food, and spots some at the house where Tom and Jerry live, so he poses as a hungry waif to get him inside where the fully-packed refrigerator is; he just has to find his moment when neither Tom nor Jerry will foil his plan, but this proves tricky... As usual, well-timed gags rule the roost and provide a chuckle or two, even if it isn't exactly a classic.

Seeing that Tom has a well stocked fridge, hungry alley-cat Butch pops on a bonnet and climbs into a cot to pose as a poor hungry waif; Tom takes pity on the 'baby' and brings him into his home, but as soon as Tom's back is turned, Butch is in the fridge helping himself to a large joint of ham. Chaos ensues as Jerry also wants the ham.

Boy, Tom sure is dumb in this cartoon, believing the fully grown alley-cat Butch to be a baby. If he hasn't got the smarts to see through the ruse, I say that he deserves all the trouble he gets. As far as this T&J caper goes, it's pretty standard stuff throughout, with very few really memorable gags and not nearly enough creative pain dished out to the characters (although, having said that, the scalding bath that Tom prepares for Butch looked nasty… maybe Tom had figured out what was going on after all and wanted to punish Butch with third degree burns).

Baby Butch is a thoroughly enjoyable if not outstanding Tom and Jerry cartoon. My only real complaint was the rather predictable story, but everything else was fine. The animation and music are both great, complete with some hilarious sight gags especially the one with the large ham. The pace is furious and fast, not too fast so that the ending feels unsatisfying, because actually the ending was surprising and in a good way. Tom is a little dumb here, while Jerry is still cunning, but it is Butch who steals the show as he disguises himself as a baby to get food. Overall, outstanding no, funny yes. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Butch, an alley cat desperate for some free grub gets the idea of dressing as a baby and having Tom the cat bring him into his house for a big chunk of ham. The ruse works on Tom for a while, but Butch has to contend with Jerry the mouse who wants the ham for himself. I enjoyed this short, most of the gags worked and I laughed out loud a few times. Even if it wasn't really Tom Vs. Jerry and more just Tom and Jerry doing their own thing for most of the length of the short and then Tom and Jerry Vs. Butch. This hilarious animated short can be found on disc 2 of Warner Brother's 2-DVD Spotlight Collection set.

My Grade: B-

This surprised me because with the title, I thought this was about our favorite bulldog, Butch, sometimes known as Spike, but it wasn't. Instead, "Butch" was a stray cat. (I have seen him once before in a T&J cartoon, but he didn't have a name.)

Here, a homeless black cat, desperate for food, pretends he's a baby, knocks on the door and leaves the note on top of himself (while he's in a crib). The note says: "I am a poor hungry waif - feed me!" Now there's a word you didn't hear much: waif, but it was used a lot in the "old days."

Anyway, this was entertaining and different from the normal Tom-chases-Jerry episode. Until the last minute, dumb Tom doesn't realize this cat isn't whom he seems (even though the cat is same size as him!.) Meanwhile, Jerry takes his lumps with the stranger in a continuing battle of a big hunk of ham.

Early on, the black cat's eyes bulge way out and turn into miniature refrigerators. Have you ever noticed in how many cartoons, someone's eyes go flying out of their sockets? It's almost always funny and it's amazing how many different gags they can do with that one "special effect."