Mouse Into Space

In the hands of Hanna Barbera, a Tom and Jerry cartoon set in space could have been a lot of fun; in the hands of Gene Deitch, it's sheer torture, with the low, low standards that go with farming out the series to an animation studio in Czechoslovakia, where not one person involved understands what made the original cartoons so much fun.

In this sorry mess, Jerry is fed up with Tom trying to kill him, so volunteers to be an Astro-mouse: as the advert in Jerry's newspaper says, in space there are no cats. By total accident, however, Tom finds himself shot into space with Jerry and the mayhem continues. As with the previous Deitch cartoons, the animation is atrocious and the sound effects abysmal (although, I guess, at least some of the echoey, bleeping noises kinda suit the space theme).

I love the drawings, even if they are low in quality. The film starts off horridly when we see Jerry reading about the Astro-Mouse program and Tom sneaks up, a gun in his hand, and he fires right at Jerry's head. I saw this cartoon yesterday, and it is indeed a fine one. I love the part when Jerry is launched into space, the rest of the rocket blows off and all that is left is Jerry in his capsule. The story is very predictable, as all "toon stories are". The sound effects are very low-res and out of style. I like this title because it is involved in a genre I am obsessed with: an animated science-fiction short.

***=Good

I love Tom & Jerry. I think, along with the work of Tex Avery, the Hanna-Barbera Tom & Jerry cartoons are some of the best theatrical short animation ever. When Hanna and Barbara struck out on their own, MGM felt the need to continue the series without them. They hired Gene Deitch to take over. This was a very poor choice as I see it. Deitch's style is very two-dimensional and not very suited to the action of a Tom & Jerry short. The plots tend to be thin as paper and occasionally disturbing. Plus, in the Deitch shorts, both Tom and Jerry seem to have developed a mean streak. They have never been nice to each other, but in these they seem to sometimes act downright evil when it comes to the other. One of the main complaints with the Deitch Tom & Jerry shorts is the music and sound effects. Both are rather obviously artificial sounding and downright creepy. Probably the worst thing was the way Deitch treated the characters. In this short, you have Tom turned into a drunk tramp. That's just plain wrong. That's in any cartoon, but especially a Tom & Jerry one. Overall, this is a very poor short from a very poor series.

Mouse into Space is not the worst Tom and Jerry cartoon(a serious contender for that dishonour is Switchin' Kitten), however it is still a very poor cartoon that starts off badly and goes down rapidly downhill from there. In fact for me the only redeeming quality is that it is fairly short.

The animation is just horrible. If you want flat colours, badly drawn characters and static backgrounds look no further than Mouse into Space and any other Gene Dietch cartoon for that matter. The sight gags are poorly timed and unfunny, the pace is increasingly uneven and the story is not entertaining in the slightest.

I haven't even got to the worst of the problems yet. The violence is once again sickening and made me feel uncomfortable- only Switchin' Kitten, Sorry Safari and It's Greek to Meow! are more uncomfortable to watch- and the music is very forgettable and annoying. Worse is the stomach-churning sound effects and the gross distortion of the characters, neither Tom and Jerry are that likable here and their personalities are way off the radar.

All in all, poor. Not the worst, but best avoided. 2/10 Bethany Cox

...which doesn't say much! Two dimensional style and shallow pranks are Deitch's trademark. This Tom & Jerry cartoon is no exception.

On the (somewhat) bright side, the theme for this cartoon is somewhat original. Some new ideas are tried out. However, they are unable to pull in this second rate cartoon.