Heavenly Puss was produced at the same time as The Little Orphan and Hatch Up Your Troubles, the latter of which is somewhat of a parallel to this one.
The premise is that Tom, in his typical (but more brutal than usual) pursuit of Jerry, dies, goes to heaven, is denied, and needs Jerry's forgiveness. When Jerry gives it to Tom too late, he plunges into hell for all eternity... until an ember wakes him up. Then he showers Jerry with kisses as the scene closes on Jerry's perplexed face.
This cartoon works so well because of many reasons. The first is that it still stays true to the other shorts while branching off into its own plot about the afterlife. The music also does an amazing job as usual, perfectly portraying the dire situation at hand without making it too dark.
What's most important is that unlike Blue Cat Blues, Heavenly Puss has lighthearted and funny moments, just like the other 113 shorts released in this era.
All of this is executed beautifully, but in the beginning, I made a comparison between it and Hatch Up Your Troubles, a similar episode in many ways but with Jerry as the star, not Tom.
It's not nearly as good in my opinion because it treats Tom as uncharacteristically cruel, doing stuff like trying to axe Jerry and drown the baby woodpecker in his stomach; whereas in Heavenly Puss, Tom's actions are part of a nightmare he has about how he treats Jerry, spotlighting that he doesn't want to kill him.
But more importantly, it isn't very funny by series standards and much, much slower-paced. I'll elaborate some time in the future, but Heavenly Puss, not Hatch Up Your Troubles, deserved the nomination in my opinion.
The premise is that Tom, in his typical (but more brutal than usual) pursuit of Jerry, dies, goes to heaven, is denied, and needs Jerry's forgiveness. When Jerry gives it to Tom too late, he plunges into hell for all eternity... until an ember wakes him up. Then he showers Jerry with kisses as the scene closes on Jerry's perplexed face.
This cartoon works so well because of many reasons. The first is that it still stays true to the other shorts while branching off into its own plot about the afterlife. The music also does an amazing job as usual, perfectly portraying the dire situation at hand without making it too dark.
What's most important is that unlike Blue Cat Blues, Heavenly Puss has lighthearted and funny moments, just like the other 113 shorts released in this era.
All of this is executed beautifully, but in the beginning, I made a comparison between it and Hatch Up Your Troubles, a similar episode in many ways but with Jerry as the star, not Tom.
It's not nearly as good in my opinion because it treats Tom as uncharacteristically cruel, doing stuff like trying to axe Jerry and drown the baby woodpecker in his stomach; whereas in Heavenly Puss, Tom's actions are part of a nightmare he has about how he treats Jerry, spotlighting that he doesn't want to kill him.
But more importantly, it isn't very funny by series standards and much, much slower-paced. I'll elaborate some time in the future, but Heavenly Puss, not Hatch Up Your Troubles, deserved the nomination in my opinion.