Tom and Jerry always has been one of my favourites. A vast majority of the cartoons of the 40s up to about 1956 are classics or very, very good. The ones made when Fred Quimby was no longer in charge were not quite as good but more than watchable with some foibles. The Gene Deitch cartoons however are, with two exceptions(and they're mediocre at best), abominations. The Chuck Jones output generally is mixed in quality and none are what I consider classic Tom and Jerry, but what's for certain is that it is a huge improvement over what was seen before with Deitch. The music is upbeat and catchy, there are some amusing moments, Tom and Jerry are likable characters, some of the colours in the animation look quite nice and the pent-house proves to be a good setting. Some of the animation though is rather scratchy, especially in the character designs(Tom in particular looks odd) and the story is rather routine and not very surprising. But what was disappointing about Pent-House Mouse was that while it was Tom and Jerry in name and there were the characters it didn't feel like the classic Tom and Jerry I loved and still love to this day. I can understand though as this was the first Tom and Jerry cartoon with Chuck Jones at the helm, but there are one too many pieces of evidence that give away that Jones was still trying to find his feet, as seen with the rather plodding pacing, the lack of the classic cartoony violence, sound effects that seemed too restrained and the rather too-generally-organised gags(some are amusing though). Overall, not among the classics but a long way from being a disgrace. 5/10 Bethany Cox
