Tee for Two

I'm a huge Tom and Jerry fan, and this is probably my all-time favorite Tom and Jerry cartoon. I always root for Tom, so in the rare case he actually lays some punishment on that bratty mouse, I love it. There's a really funny instance in this one where Tom gives Jerry an unwanted bath in the golf ball cleaner, hilarious! Of course, Jerry gets the best of Tom by the end, by making Tom eat some bees and then Jerry golfs a ball at Tom's head, I sure wish Tom would have won more of these battles!

The cartoon begins with Tom in the middle of a VERY bad game of golf. Already about 86 over par he, for some reason, uses Jerry as a Tee. Not taking kindly to this Jerry turns the table and plays tricks on Tom. And that's pretty much it for the rest of the cartoon. This one has quite a thin premise but gets enough mileage out of it I guess. The visual jokes are all rather amusing but I do feel sorry for Tom when he's victimized in such a way. Whether it's being stung by a hoard of bees or having his teeth smashed out by a rogue ball, Tom seems to get more than his usual share of pain in Tee for Two. Does that make me a bad person for thinking that it's funny?

Tom is playing a not-very-relaxing round of golf (he's hacking up the fairway with his less than perfect swing) when Jerry decides to ruin the game even further—by pushing the ball back out of the hole when Tom finally manages to sink it. Tom gets his own back by using the mischievous mouse as his tee and mayhem ensues.

This cartoon contains the usual plethora of violent visual gags, with both cat and mouse receiving their fair share of pain. The majority of the jokes are pretty run-of-the-mill for a T&J caper, although the animators do attempt a couple of more surreal moments (such as the fruit machine tree), and throw in one wonderful moment where Tom gets a mouthful of bees!

Tee for Two (1945)

**** (out of 4)

One of the very best in the series has Tom on the golf course when he notices Jerry causing him some trouble. Soon the two are getting into all sorts of trouble as Tom tries to golf the perfect game but Jerry just won't let that happen. TEE FOR TWO is one of the funniest films in the series because there's just so much wacky violence that you can't help but laugh throughout. There are so many highlights here but one has to be the scenes where Tom upsets a large group of bees. Another terrific sequence deals with Tom getting his teeth knocked out. The animation is great as you'd expect but the golf course just gives the writers so much material and it's very creative.

Tom the cat is golfing quite horrible, in my humble opinion, and when he finally does manage to miraculously actually get the ball in the hole Jerry the mouse is there to continually pop it out again. This of course infuriates the poor cat. So Tom captures him and uses him as a tee hoping to improve his game. Of course wacky madcap hijinx ensue. This was a fairly amusing short and it was great to see Tom getting some rather good hits in on Jerry, which it seems seldom happened. This great short cartoon can be found on disc one of the Spotlight collection DVD of "Tom & Jerry"

My Grade: A-