The Milky Waif

The Milky Waif introduces Tom and Jerry fans to a new character in the form of Nibbles, an impossibly cute little grey mouse in a diaper, who is left abandoned in a basket on Jerry's doorstep. Attached to Nibbles' basket is a note that says the wee little fella needs lots of milk, which means that Jerry must risk life and limb to raid Tom's bowl...

Apart from the introduction of a new pal for Jerry, this is another unremarkable episode full of generic chase scenes and the usual violence one expects from the duo. It's fun for most of the running time, but is completely let down by a ridiculous ending which sees Jerry lose his temper and totally trash Tom the cat. This leads me to ask why Jerry has never blown his top before, since it obviously imbues him with supernatural strength.

This one was a 6/10 up until the silly closing scene, which forced me to lower my rating to a 5.

Featuring the first appearance of Tuffy (known in this short as Nibbles). After Jerry awakens from a nightmare, he finds a baby mouse at his door with a note asking him to care for it. Jerry then attempts to get milk for the infant much to Tom's chagrin. This is the first cartoon short that the Spotlight Collection DVD drops the ball with. Originally the two mice appeared in black face for a gag. But it's gone here in a misguided attempt at being overly PC and the short is worse of for it. That got on my nerves. This cartoon (minus the black face part) can be found on disc one of the Spotlight collection DVD of "Tom & Jerry"

My Grade: A for the original; C for the bastardized DVD version

Jerry wakes from a nightmare by a knock at the door only to discover he's been made a surrogate daddy to a baby mouse called Tuffy. The attached note claims that Tuffy loves milk and Jerry must find a way to get him some. Tom has a big bowl full of it, but they'd only be asking for trouble if they were to go steal.

The chase begins and it is rather funny, if a bit generic. I did notice moment of weird editing in a certain scene, but later found out that the version I saw was censored by the PC Police for containing a scene where Jerry and Tuffy disguise themselves as African Americans. I would say 'black men' but they ARE mouses. I do wish the overzealous censors would leave these harmless cartoons alone.

This gripe aside, it was entertaining nonetheless. But the crappy custard pie jokes are beneath Tom and Jerry standards!

Jerry awakens to find a mysterious basket outside his front door, and finds a little baby grey mouse within, who he learns is known as Nibbles via a note that also tells Jerry to look after him and feed him lots of milk. Trouble is, the biggest store of milk available is in Tom's milk bowl...

This was the first cartoon to feature Nibbles (who would in later years assume the name Tuffy), and is really good, although some of the more violent gags are quite painful.

I swear I have seen another cartoon in which the character "Nibbles" was "introduced" yet the opening scenes in here make it sound like he's introduced in THIS cartoon. I finally looked it up and found out THIS cartoon was the first and the other one - "The Little Orphan" - was the similar story, and released in 1948.

Anyway, Jerry wakes up from a bad dream and hears a knock on the door and there, under a blanket in a little wooden bowl is the little gray mouse. Attached to the blanket is a note saying, "Please take care of Nibbles. He's always hungry. P.S. Feed him lots of milk."

Well, as a watched this I realized it's a different story because in the other cartoon, the "orphan Nibbles" eats Jerry out of house and home. Here, he's just a milk freak, so the story centers around the little one getting his milk from Tom's bowl.

The gags are funny in here, I am to give them that. I also have to remark how violent some of these T&J cartoons are, not that it bothers me but often I am almost shocked at the amount of it....mainly because I can't believe the pain that usually inflicted on the poor cat (Tom). It's unbelievable what this cat goes through in most of these cartoons, but this one isn't as rough. At least both mice get a little of their own medicine, too.