Jerry, Jerry, Quite Contrary

In the early days, the titles of most Tom and Jerry cartoons bore some relevance to the content (makes sense, right?). The titles for Chuck Jones' '60s episodes have little or nothing to do with the actual plots, which really gets my back up, never mind the fact that the cartoons themselves aren't all that great.

Jerry, Jerry, Quite Contrary sees Tom fast asleep, at least until Jerry sleepwalks into the room and pulls on the cat's whiskers. After dealing with the somnambulistic pest, Tom settles down for more sleep, but is once again woken by the mouse, who open's the cat's tail like an umbrella. On realising what is happening, Jerry tries to stay awake by drinking coffee, but is soon sleepwalking again, causing more trouble for Tom with a ball of string and an anvil.

In a really weak ending to what is a thoroughly forgettable caper, Tom leaves home to seek solace in the desert, but is followed by the sleepwalking mouse.

Tom and Jerry in itself is already a classic MGM - Metro Goldwyn Mayer , which always has the Tom chasing Jerry in every episode . Let's start with the soundtrack, which because of it , and helped a lot and make this the best episode in the history of Tom and Jerry . But this episode from 1966 , we see a single thing , Jerry " chasing" Tom in his somnambulist stage during the morning while Tom sleeps . The writer and director Chuck Jones was very competent with a sensational unwinding at the end of this episode, where (during the epic soundtrack ) Jerry pushes all 4 nails off the board covering his hole and opens it up . He is carrying a ball of yarn . Jerry ties one end to Tom's tail , spreads the yarn around the entire house and outside as well . Then , he ties the other end to an anvil and pushes it down the chimney . Tom is woken up with a start and is pulled around the house , squeezed through the tiniest gaps , and pulled up to the chimney before hitting his head on the anvil at the bottom of the chimney . The camera flips over , and Tom packs up and sobs . He leaves in the dawn , where he is sweating to the brim . Jerry follows , but he is still sleepwalking !

After this, the grand finale to closing with a flourish , the final soundtrack of Dean Elliott , Classic !

How someone of Jones' artistic conscience could let such an atrocity pass muster is beyond me. Miserably executed gags in this one--the absolute pits is when Tom cries while standing upside down, then the camera turns itself upside down, letting us see Tom's tears fall upward. The great Mel Blanc's voice effects don't help one whit: in fact, this film holds the distinction of being his all-time worst work. Blanc was forever the professional, but his work's the pits here. Jerry's little laugh is just plain grating. (I never can stand, either, to see the openings to these Jones entries: the big gag being Tom trying to roar like Leo the MGM Lion, but only putting out a lame little meow. It might've been funny, but it's not......it merely sounds like Mel Blanc attempting to imitate a cat's meow.) Nice theme song, though it's virtually a straight rip from Raymond Scott's "The Powerhouse," note for note....in fact, enough for a good plagiarism suit.

This is one of the episodes of Tom & Jerry that shows exactly what the show is about. The most part of the episodes are about Jerry hurting Tom just for fun. But this episode totally brought a new face to the cartoon. Jerry starts to sleepwalk and do bad things to Tom, who starts to get mad. Then, Jerry does everything to stay awake. The whole idea was very good, the sleepwalk scenes were hilarious, mostly the anvil scene. The soundtrack was one of the bests ever. Everything helped on this cartoon to make it one of my favorites.

I love Tom and Jerry, and while I didn't love Jerry, Jerry, Quite Contrary, I liked it. The animation is sometimes devoid of vibrancy and sophistication, the pacing is a tad uneven and the story is nothing special, though I liked the idea of Jerry annoying Tom while sleep-walking. But the cartoon is still pretty funny, Mel Blanc's voice work is effective(he has been better though), the music is very well done- the title song is wonderful and the gags are funny and well-timed, especially liked the part when Jerry ties a ball of string to Tom's tail and Tom gets pulled almost everywhere around the house. Jerry is suitably crafty, while Tom we kind of feel sorry for as he is the butt of the joke. Overall, I don't recommend it as highly as other Tom and Jerry cartoons, but it is worth seeing(I do think it is better than Switchin' Kitten, Carmen Get It! and Calypso Cat). 7/10 Bethany Cox