Il gatto impertinente

Tom invites his alley cat pals over for an evening of home movies, the films on show being excerpts from several previous Tom and Jerry cartoons in which Spike the bulldog is made to look a fool.

Smarty Cat is one of those lazy compilations made on the cheap, and as such probably won't hold that much appeal for those who have already seen the featured cartoons in full. Of course, the bits shown are all great, and guarantee laughs (the snippet from Fit to be Tied is hilarious), but in the end this is still a clip show and can't really be rated much higher than 5/10. My advice: watch the full length cartoons instead.

Well, here's another case of lazy studio executive at MGM (or whomever) who decide to issue a cartoon in which they don't have to use much creativity or brainpower to write because almost all of it is just a collection of past cartoons.

In this case, we get previous Tom and Jerry episodes such as "Solid Serenade," "Fit To Be Tied," and "Cat Fishin.'" Those three are rolled into this one in which Tom shows film footage to some of his pals, like the alley-cat "Butch." Only the beginning where Tom invites his pals and starts rolling the projector, and a small bit at the end, are new material.

Once again, this kind of cartoon is either very good or a total waste, depending on whether you have seen these previous cartoons. If you haven't, you'll get a lot of laughs out of this, especially if you root for Tom. But if have seen these, then this is pointless.

Tom lets his three friends (including Butch, the black alley cat) into the house so they can view Butch's cine-film footage showing Tom getting the better of Spike (also known as 'Killer' in one of the clips); however, Jerry keeps wanting to watch, and keeps being kicked out. Cue clips from previous cartoons: 'Solid Serenade', 'Cat Fishin'' and 'Fit To Be Tied', the latter of which Jerry invites Spike, who was sleeping outside, to see... Good, but it's a shame some of the bits from the actual cartoon itself (as opposed to the clips from the ones released before) are noticeably repeated.

I can understand why people won't be a fan of Smarty Cat. It is virtually plot less, merely an excuse to string some snippets of old favourites together, and the material is nothing new apart from a very nice touch at the beginning. And as wonderful as the featured cartoons are(the best being Solid Serenade), I wasn't sure of what relevance they were to one another. So you can see why people will question the point of it all. The animation is wonderful thought, lusciously coloured and beautifully drawn. The music in Tom and Jerry has always brought life to the gags and such and it is still the catchy and jauntily orchestrated scoring I know and love. The gags in the featured cartoons range from very amusing to often hilarious, and if there is anything that Smarty Cat isn't it's dull. Tom and Jerry are still their likable selves. So all in all, it was nice and pleasant but somewhat pointless at the same time. 7/10 Bethany Cox