Old Rockin' Chair Tom

I like the Tom & Jerry cartoons where they realize they need each other and this one is a perfect example. Jerry is teasing Mammy and she calls for Tom to help her. Of course he messes things up so Mammy takes measures of her own by taking a new cat. The first job of that cat; kick Jerry out. After Tom is blamed for something the new cat has done he is kicked out as well. Tom and Jerry realize they have to work together to keep their comfortable place in the house.

The cartoon has some nice touches in the beginning but really starts with the arriving of the new cat. The best gag comes when the new cat wants to kick Jerry out for the second time but Jerry does that for himself. An enjoyable cartoon with a happy Tom & Jerry ending, with one last gag involving poor Tom, of course.

I had this Tom and Jerry classic on videotape when I was a kid and watched it over and over again, until the tape broke. It's full of manic slapstick, sight gags and outright lunacy, and even the sappy ending works nicely. But when I watched it a couple of days ago on DVD, I noticed that a seemingly innocent gag has been demolished by the redubbing of Mammy's voice - in the original, when the rival cat, Lightning, makes Tom up as a decrepit senior citizen with the help of a cotton wool beard and a walking cane, Mammy sarcastically says "You take care of poor old Uncle Tom", but in the DVD, the word "Uncle" has been removed completely. Does 'Uncle Tom' constitute a racist insult, and if so, is it really so inflammatory that it needs removing from a DVD primarily aimed at children and vintage animation buffs? Even more bizarrely, the same DVD leaves several of the 'blackface' gags intact!

Jerry is tormenting Mammy-Two-Shoes (dubbed to sound less 'offensive' in the version that I watched and I suspect they have rewritten some of her dialogue too) but Tom is too slow and too lazy to catch him. Annoyed with this, she introduces a new orange cat called Lightning and kicks Tom out of the house, along with Jerry, for good.

But Lightning turns out to be a glutton and T&J reckon it's time they teamed up and hatch a plan to give Lightning what he deserves (IE a painful walloping and framing him). Some good gags and visual humor along with a more original plot make this a better than average T&J short.

When Tom is unable to stop Jerry from pestering a frightened Mammy Two Shoes, a new, faster, more efficient mouser is brought into the house: Lightning, a red-furred devil of a cat, so quick that he actually looks like a bolt of lightning!

Although, on the surface, Lightning appears to be the perfect cat, he is actually as untrustworthy and mischievous as Thomas, helping himself to the contents of the fridge as soon as Mammy's back is turned. However, being a rather smart cat, he frames poor old Tom, who is booted out of the house (closely followed by Jerry).

Miffed at being bested by the new arrival, Tom and Jerry team up to get revenge and earn their places back in the house.

A rather derivative adventure (and one that suffers from some awful re-dubbing by the PC police on my copy), Old Rockin' Chair Tom is full of the usual gratuitous violence one expects from the guys, but really doesn't offer anything particularly new to fans. There are a couple of reasonably funny gags involving the use of a magnet, but don't expect this one to stick in the memory for long.

The story is a little on the unexceptional side, but everything else ensures for a very enjoyable Tom and Jerry cartoon as per usual. What makes this cartoon is the electric chemistry between Tom, Jerry, Lightning and Mammy Two Shoes- Tom and Jerry are both likable and Mammy Two Shoes has a more significant role here, but it is Lightning who steals the cartoon and he gets his comeuppance at the end as he must be very devious indeed to trick Mammy Two Shoes into thinking that Tom is getting old and incompetent. The animation is lovely, the music is rousing, the sight gags are clever and the violence is indeed violent but effective enough. Plus I liked the ending, it was quite sweet to see Tom sharing his treat once in a while. Overall, very enjoyable. 9/10 Bethany Cox