I'm Just Wild About Jerry

There are people who consider the Wile E. Coyote/roadrunner shorts that Chuck Jones did for Warner Brothers to be his best series. Certainly, as a demonstration that silent cartoons still had some appeal, they do work.... but their inherent limitation as a variation on a simple theme bores me after a while.

In the middle 1960s, Chuck Jones did several Tom-and-Jerry cartoons and in this one, they play Wile E. Coyote (Tom) and the roadrunner (Jerry). The distinction here is that the setting is urban, rather than the southwestern desert that the roadrunner lives in -- a Krazy Kat sort of environment.

Most of this takes place in a department store, where the usual Acme products are available. The net result is mediocre.

Tom is chasing Jerry, who leads the cat into a toy store where chaos ensues.

A toy shop: in the old days of T&J, this scenario would have offered lots of potential for hilarity, but this being a '60s Chuck Jones effort, the result is disappointing to say the least. Charmless animation, unimaginative gags, and an overall feeling of a wasted opportunity.

The repetitive joke where Tom is run over by a train is a recycled Wile.E.Coyote moment, and what kind of toy shop keeps a mallet display? Jones also seems to have no ability (here at least) to add a feeling of momentum to either his characters or the falling objects that inevitably land on Tom's head.

I say this with a heavy heart, but I was very disappointed in this cartoon. I really wanted to like it, but a lot of it was severely lacking. The good things were seeing Tom and Jerry, who are still likable enough, and the soundtrack. Everything else didn't work. The animation lacks fluidity and is very scratchy and lacking in vibrancy. The story is predictable, while the ending is abrupt and doesn't resolve the story very well. The sight gags are not very funny either, not helped by the predictable story, while the cartoon is too short and too fast as well. So overall, a major disappointment, not Tom and Jerry's very worst but sorry I don't recommend it. 4/10 Bethany Cox

... even as a small child I knew the difference between these later attempts at the Tom and Jerry format and the peak years of the Quimby productions.

The artwork is scratchier, less fluid, and there's a notable lack of kinetic flow to the violence. The best Tom and Jerry cartoons had them using objects around them to inflict greater and more surreal pain on one another... here the cartoon focuses on the objects themselves, such as a toy train, at the expense of some cat on mouse ultraviolence. Even when we do see the physical assaults the two lay on each other, it's tempered with a more realistic coding... Tom's extended tail lasting for several frames, for example, rather than being immediately shook off.

Most of it is just inexplicably mediocre, a substandard calibre of which you can't quite put your finger on. But a lot of it is to do with charm, and whereas the original series could sometimes get too self-consciously cute, this one tries to be post-modern, with Tom's gazes to the viewer a distraction.

Ultimately, there's no pace, flow or even soul to this one. It's just a series of uninvolving set-pieces, with an inexplicable ending that neither resolves the story adequately or amuses. Stick to stuff like Cue Ball Cat (1950)... you'll be glad you did.