The Bowling Alley-Cat

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.

This is one of the first Tom and Jerry shorts that doesn't take place inside a generic 1940s house but inside, as the title would suggest, a bowling alley. This new environment allows for fresher gags and more imagination. There are some inventive sequences and it doesn't resort to the ancient clichés of Jerry plugging Tom's tail into a power socket or putting his tail in a mousetrap.

There are no humans to be seen at all and it appears that Tom and Jerry at alone in the bowling alley. Which is good. I find that extra characters such as stray cats and unseen humans (including the staggeringly un-offensive Mammy-Two-Shoes) to be a distraction. New locations, new torture devices and no diversions would make Tom and Jerry funny every single time. Too bad they mostly never really turned out that way.

This "Tom and Jerry" short "The Bowling Alley-Cat" is one that has plenty of action and chase as the two continues their game this time it's in a bowling alley. The animation still is okay and the duo still entertain with their crazy ways as it's like an actual game of bowling when Tom gets pounded by some bowling balls! Overall different setting still a good early episode.

Early Tom and Jerry cartoons have often been accused of being racist—with Mammy Two Shoes' character possibly being a servant and characters often getting a 'blackface' (amongst other stereotypical ethnic representations)—but now I'm starting to wonder whether I'm seeing examples of racism where there are none. I'm sure that there's one bowling ball in this short that is inexplicably made to look like a 'blackface'. Or maybe not.

Anyway, regardless of my possible hallucinatory concerns, this is actually a pretty entertaining T&J caper, with the guys escaping the confines of their house to wreak havoc in a bowling alley. The fresh environment allows for a whole new wave of creativity, there are plenty of laughs to be had (as well as much cartoonish violence, as one would expect in a place full of machinery and heavy objects), and the animation is as highly polished as the bowling alley we see Jerry skating on, with convincingly weighty bowling balls that look like they could really hurt.

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.