Jerry and Jumbo

Not a bad cartoon, and it does pick up after the setup. I'm surprised though that no one has commented on the unoriginality of using exactly the same plot device as the several Sylvester the cat and Hippety Hopper cartoons, where Sylvester mistakes a baby kangaroo for a giant mouse, gets beat up, goes crazy, etcetra, etcetera. I guess there's only so many ideas to be had for cat-mouse battles, so you gotta get 'em where you can? Then there's also that Tom and Jerry cartoon that copies another Looney Tunes even more precisely - Bugs Bunny as concert pianist fighting a mouse sleeping inside the piano, leading to chaos vs a proper formal recital. Tom and Jerry did the same thing a little later - even used the same piece of classical music! Makes me wonder what other ideas were "borrowed" from Looney Tunes. No matter. If it's done well, still a worthy short.

This Tom & Jerry cartoon I just found and watched on the DVD of Billy Rose's Jumbo. It has a baby elephant stumble from a moving train to the house where the cat and mouse live. That elephant first goes in Tom's bed under his blanket before that cat goes there for his rest. I'll stop here and just say what happens after that is quite hilarious especially the way it all ends, that's for sure! So on that note, I highly recommend Jerry and Jumbo.

And that includes almost all cartoons animated in the years 1944-1952. Jerry and Jumbo was animated in 1951, but released in 1953. These cartoons had the best look/animation, still Tom & Jerry developed in that era few times: I would say 1944/45, next 1946/47, then the "classic" look 1947-1950, and 1951/52. Gags were great, not too cute like in later years and not too slow just like in the early years. The cartoons from first 3 years were with more than 8 minutes a little bit too long and not that fresh and naughty like the cartoons from 1944-52 with the great ideas.

Ps.: Rhapsody Rabbit was made the same year The Cat Concerto was made (1946): From Wikipedia "Both MGM and Warner Bros. accused each other of plagiarism, after both films were shown in the 1947 Academy Awards Ceremony. Technicolor was accused of sending a print of either cartoon to a competing studio, who then plagiarized their rival's work. This remains uncertain even today: though Rhapsody Rabbit has an earlier MPAA approval number and release date, MGM's cartoons took longer to make." That one goes to an early review by another user.

Boy, they really stretch credibility here, right from the start....but it's a cartoon and, as we all know, "anything goes" in animated shorts. Here, a baby elephant on a circus train falls out of a compartment, rolls down a hill, tumbles through the front door, over furniture and lands in Tom's sleeping basket! Yeah, right!

The story centers around the elephant being painted to look a big version of Jerry and you know who is going to get the short end of the stick regarding violence and pain.

There are good sight gags in here, different things, mainly with the little mouse/big mouse theme. Another major element is the incredible sucking power of the elephant's trunk. It's a solid entry in the Tom & Jerry collection with a good mix of comedy and cuteness. One wonders, though, during all the commotion, where were the people who own the house?

The cartoon does start off a tad too slow, and the story is on the predictable side. But Jerry and Jumbo is a rock-solid Tom and Jerry cartoon, that is both hilarious and cute. The animation is really nice and colourful as these cartoons usually are, and the music is delightful. The sight gags serve their purpose well too, the best being the running gag of Jumbo sucking things with his trunk with such powerful force, and the ending is very unexpected in a good way. The pacing is in general brisk and efficient, and the characters are great, the best actually being the very cute elephant Jumbo. Overall, a rock-solid cartoon with a lot going for it. 8/10 Bethany Cox