Pecos Pest

The brilliant team of Hanna/Barbera knew that their "Tom and Jerry" series was pretty much creatively out of gas by the early fifties (though the Oscars didn't realize this--the safest bet in Hollywood was on a T & J cartoon for at least an Oscar nomination)...so they began introducing 'guests' to attempt new plots. This short was by far the most successful!

Uncle Pecos is hilarious...as he warbles and sputters through "Froggie Went A'Courtin'" time and time again--and breaking his "geee-tar strangs" as he preps for his big television debut (in color, no less!). It falls upon Tom to supply the replacements--with his whiskers painfully removed (all six are ultimately sacrificed for the guitar).

Some marvelous guitar playing--one solo is so remarkably like Les Paul, I checked the Internet to see if it was him. It wasn't--but that doesn't detract from a marvelous cartoon. There are not many Tom and Jerry cartoons worth watching today (their violent and racist antics throughout their overview are rather repulsive), but this one is worth watching over and over. Give Hanna/Barbera credit--they knew when to let other characters do what the 'stars' could no longer pull off.

Jerry's Uncle Pecos comes to visit, during which he practices playing for his big moment when he will get to play his guitar on stage in public. Trouble is, he keeps having an accident with the strings (they have a habit of breaking), and this trouble is further enhanced when he finds suitable replacements on Tom's face...

Very funny -- but then would you expect anything less?

This cartoon was the last to be produced by the legendary Fred Quimby. He retired after this cartoon was finished. Hanna and Barbera were to produce the remaining eighteen cartoons they did before MGM pulled the plug on the animation department in 1957.

I'm not usually a fan of 'guest' characters in T&J cartoons, who are more often than not unbearably twee, but Jerry's Uncle Pecos (voiced by Shug Fisher) is anything but: when he needs a new string for his guitar, he pursues Tom like an unstoppable Terminator, fearlessly plucking the poor cat's whiskers to mend his instrument. As if this wasn't funny enough, he does so all the while singing a very silly song (Froggy Went A Courting) in a stuttering style that is quite frankly just bizarre. Bizarre and very funny!

To top it all off, there is a delightfully surreal gag at the end of the cartoon where Pecos, performing on TV, breaks another string and reaches out of the television set to pluck Tom's last whisker. Great stuff!

Although I am now 48 Years old, and have seen "Pecos Pest" countless times over the Years it is "still" funny as all get out, and even my Children just love this Cartoon. If I am on my out of the Door and I happen to see that it is on, whatever it is will have to wait for those 7 Minutes. It is I would say my number One favorite Tom & Jerry Cartoon. I also was intrigued by the person doing the voice of Uncle Pecos, and I always told my best friend I thought it was the guy who portrayed Shorty Kellems on the Beverly Hillbillies TV Show. Low and behold I found out Uncle Pecos was indeed voiced by Shug Fisher (aka George Shug Fisher)who did portray Shorty.

The story is a little on the predictable side, but this was still very enjoyable. Pecos Pest is very one-joke but it works. Tom and Jerry are both great, but the real star is Uncle Pecos, marvellously voiced by Shug Fisher. Uncle Pecos has a big moustache, an over-sized cowboy hat and plays the banjo while singing constantly at the top of his lungs. The song itself may grate to some people, but I like it, it has a real country flavour to it, as does a lot of the music here. The animation is lovely, and the visual gags all work perfectly.

Overall, Pecos Pest is not the best Tom and Jerry cartoon, but it is a very enjoyable one, that's all that matters really. 8/10 Bethany Cox