Tom et Jerry au feu d'artifice

I may be biased as I have always loved Tom and Jerry since childhood. Safety Second is not one of their absolute best, there are moments where it is a little too routine and predictable, but it has the ingredients that make Tom and Jerry so entertaining. The animation is still wonderful, with a lot of detail in the backgrounds and luscious colouring. Tom, Jerry and Nibbles are all well-drawn as well. The music has always been a large part of Tom and Jerry's energy, in Safety Second I can't make any exception. The lively tempos and lush orchestration makes for very characterful music indeed that succeeds in enhancing the humour. And the gags are enormously entertaining to watch, thick, fast and never laboured. The story is not much new, but is never dull. Tom and Jerry are as likable as ever and true to character, while Nibbles is adorable and is charmingly endearing in his curiosity and innocence.

Overall, a lot of fun even if it falls this short of being a classic. 9/10 Bethany Cox

"Nibbles" is back in this 1950 Tom and Jerry. He's the little orphan that was dropped off at the door several years back and has appeared in a few episodes, usually stories about the little gray mouse's appetite. This one has nothing to do with food or drink, but fireworks. It appears it was going to be a good moral story for little kids, warning them about the dangers of fireworks. Instead, it turns out the opposite. This is NOT a good message but it IS a funny cartoon!

Jerry looks at the calendar one morning and sees it is July 4, points that out to Nibbles who then goes and gets a big box overflowing with fireworks. Jerry is not happy, puts the 'works back in the closet and points out what it says on the bottom of the calendar: "make it safe and sane."

Anyway, Nibbles is not happy as most kids wouldn't be with Jerry putting away the goodies. He wants to see some explosions, not some stupid hats-and-horns New Year's Eve-type stuff Jerry is doing. Funny things happen after that, beginning with Jerry discovering an entire arsenal of fireworks hidden in Nibbles' diaper! The little guy is always producing a firecracker no matter what his elder is doing. Finally, he gets banished to his room.

When Jerry goes to sleep in the hammock outside, Tom starts fireworks of his own. From there, it's predictable - but funny in spots - that Nibbles and his arsenal comes in handy and the little mice get a bang out of what happens to Tom in the second half of the story.

It's Independence Day, and Jerry's nephew Nibbles is determined to get himself blown up by playing around with all kinds of fireworks, leading to Jerry getting blasted every time. Tom appears and torments the mice, and a war breaks out between them leading to the usual tricks, chases and fights.

Safety Seconds repeats a lot of jokes from previous cartoons and is treading water for most of the running time. One thing I don't get is why Nibbles wears a diaper. I mean, neither he nor Jerry are toilet trained and mice just defecate wherever they please. So surely it would be more hygienic for Nibbles to do just that rather than going around with it all mashed-up between his butt cheeks.

An average cartoon regardless.

It's July 4th and cloyingly cute orphan mouse Nibbles wants to celebrate Independence Day by lighting firecrackers; however, his safety-conscious pal Jerry keeps trying to spoil the fun by confiscating the fireworks. Unfortunately for Jerry, Nibbles isn't the only one armed with explosives: Tom has fireworks too and is intent on causing trouble with them.

An extremely one-note comedy caper, virtually all of Safety Second's gags revolve around either Tom or Jerry being blown up, which isn't exactly groundbreaking material (they even roll out the classic 'blackface' joke for the finalé, although this has been cut from certain versions). Ironically, as far as Tom and Jerry cartoons go, this one is a bit of a damp squib.

Typically amusing Tom & Jerry cartoon in which the star part goes to Nibbles, the mischievous little mouse with a penchant for getting into trouble. Jerry awakens in the morning and the wall calendar tells him it's July 4th. When Nibbles awakes, he brings him over to view the calendar which warns "Stay safe"--but the lesson is apparently lost on the little one.

He's got fireworks in hidden spots all over the place, including his own diapers. He gleefully sets about lighting them whenever he has a chance--always at the expense of Jerry who gets the worst of it when he attempts to defuse the situation.

Later in the day, while resting in a hammock, Tom finally appears with his own big firecracker ready to light under Jerry. Nibbles quickly goes into action so that the result will literally backfire on Tom.

Amusing stuff, but kiddies aren't likely to learn their lesson from this one!