Baby Butch (1954) Poster

(1954)

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8/10
A Waif, A Ham & Popping Eyeballs
ccthemovieman-119 July 2007
This surprised me because with the title, I thought this was about our favorite bulldog, Butch, sometimes known as Spike, but it wasn't. Instead, "Butch" was a stray cat. (I have seen him once before in a T&J cartoon, but he didn't have a name.)

Here, a homeless black cat, desperate for food, pretends he's a baby, knocks on the door and leaves the note on top of himself (while he's in a crib). The note says: "I am a poor hungry waif - feed me!" Now there's a word you didn't hear much: waif, but it was used a lot in the "old days."

Anyway, this was entertaining and different from the normal Tom-chases-Jerry episode. Until the last minute, dumb Tom doesn't realize this cat isn't whom he seems (even though the cat is same size as him!.) Meanwhile, Jerry takes his lumps with the stranger in a continuing battle of a big hunk of ham.

Early on, the black cat's eyes bulge way out and turn into miniature refrigerators. Have you ever noticed in how many cartoons, someone's eyes go flying out of their sockets? It's almost always funny and it's amazing how many different gags they can do with that one "special effect."
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8/10
Aww, little baby want his food?
TheLittleSongbird9 June 2010
Baby Butch is a thoroughly enjoyable if not outstanding Tom and Jerry cartoon. My only real complaint was the rather predictable story, but everything else was fine. The animation and music are both great, complete with some hilarious sight gags especially the one with the large ham. The pace is furious and fast, not too fast so that the ending feels unsatisfying, because actually the ending was surprising and in a good way. Tom is a little dumb here, while Jerry is still cunning, but it is Butch who steals the show as he disguises himself as a baby to get food. Overall, outstanding no, funny yes. 8/10 Bethany Cox
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7/10
Tom and Jerry Vs. Butch
movieman_kev3 June 2005
Butch, an alley cat desperate for some free grub gets the idea of dressing as a baby and having Tom the cat bring him into his house for a big chunk of ham. The ruse works on Tom for a while, but Butch has to contend with Jerry the mouse who wants the ham for himself. I enjoyed this short, most of the gags worked and I laughed out loud a few times. Even if it wasn't really Tom Vs. Jerry and more just Tom and Jerry doing their own thing for most of the length of the short and then Tom and Jerry Vs. Butch. This hilarious animated short can be found on disc 2 of Warner Brother's 2-DVD Spotlight Collection set.

My Grade: B-
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Baby love at its funniest?
Antzy883 August 2001
Butch, a black alleycat, is trying to find food, and spots some at the house where Tom and Jerry live, so he poses as a hungry waif to get him inside where the fully-packed refrigerator is; he just has to find his moment when neither Tom nor Jerry will foil his plan, but this proves tricky... As usual, well-timed gags rule the roost and provide a chuckle or two, even if it isn't exactly a classic.
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9/10
Even Tom is a better Babysitter than Jeannie from Busy Buddies!
Kalashnikovin22 August 2022
Tot Watchers was and will be the worst short of the Classic Tom and Jerry era, it had a predictable plot in a bad way and overused and boring jokes, While Busy Buddies is an Improvement It is still somewhat Disappointing and could have been given more, in 1954 Hanna and Barbera I guess they were running out of ideas, They released Baby Butch which is a Nice and funny Short that is easy to watch.

The short is about Butch, who after failing in his task of getting food on the street, decides to disguise himself as Bebe to enter Tom's house after seeing a Big Ham, Tom innocently falls into the Trap but Jerry is not as stupid as Tom!.

The animation is still pretty good, MGM had already cut costs and that's why cartoons after 1954 started to be cheaper and shorter, Baby Butch still has fancy backgrounds as well as fluid movements and cool character designs, the food obviously It is well drawn as well as the house, and certainly seeing this short film makes me hungry!.

The Music and Voice Acting are unsurprisingly still brilliant, the Music is Elegant and Relaxed as always, but in the chases it is Lively and quite Well Synchronized, Bradley's Work at MGM was certainly on the same level as Carl Stalling or Milt Franklyn in Looney Tunes!, the voice acting is decent although a bit annoying since Butch emits exaggerated sounds of a Baby and they are somewhat annoying to listen to, although obviously, it is easy to ignore them.

Despite the Little Coherence and the Absurdity of the Plot, Baby Butch turns out to be an Exemplary and Funny Cartoon of Tom and Jerry, The Beginning was a bit slow but the end was quite funny and surprising that they made me laugh even after the cartoon was finished !, Tom and Jerry although they had already been falling in quality, they were still Great and kept the Classic Slapstick Humor of Always.

In itself, Baby Butch is not the best of Tom and Jerry from the 50s, but it turns out to be a nice cartoon that can easily give you a few laughs due to how silly Tom turned out to be here, the ending is Hilarious as always and the music always there to brighten the situation.

For everything I said above, Baby Butch gets a 9.
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6/10
Clever a plot to get in and eat food!
blanbrn11 February 2021
This "Tom and Jerry" short from 1954 called "Baby Butch" is one that features another cat a stray one named Butch! The short is clever as Butch poses as a baby to gain entry into the home of the cat and mouse. He's treated well they fall for it and he takes the crib and soon the fridge! As this is one hungry cat. It's nice to see both Tom and Jerry in the mix. Memorable is the fight scene over the juicy looking ham! Overall pretty good and entertaining.
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6/10
Hungry alley cat Warning: Spoilers
"Baby Butch" is an American cartoon from 1954, so this one is also already over 60 years old. It features the most famous cat-and-mouse duo in film history (probably): Tom & Jerry. And as in many of their other works, a third character is added for reasons to add new plot ideas. This time, it is not Jerry's cousin, who also appears frequently, but it is alley cat Butch. He is hungry and disguises himself as a baby to get "adopted" by Tom and have access to his fridge full of delicacies. But Jerry is equally interested in the food, so Tom is really busy keeping everybody from eating the delicious dishes. (That rhyme was unintended). I thought it was a funny watch and it is among the better installments of the series. They successfully managed to keep the old tradition of Tom chasing Jerry and connecting it with new ideas (everything involving butch). I liked the watch and I recommend it. Thumbs up.
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6/10
Is Tom really that stupid?
BA_Harrison21 November 2016
Seeing that Tom has a well stocked fridge, hungry alley-cat Butch pops on a bonnet and climbs into a cot to pose as a poor hungry waif; Tom takes pity on the 'baby' and brings him into his home, but as soon as Tom's back is turned, Butch is in the fridge helping himself to a large joint of ham. Chaos ensues as Jerry also wants the ham.

Boy, Tom sure is dumb in this cartoon, believing the fully grown alley-cat Butch to be a baby. If he hasn't got the smarts to see through the ruse, I say that he deserves all the trouble he gets. As far as this T&J caper goes, it's pretty standard stuff throughout, with very few really memorable gags and not nearly enough creative pain dished out to the characters (although, having said that, the scalding bath that Tom prepares for Butch looked nasty… maybe Tom had figured out what was going on after all and wanted to punish Butch with third degree burns).
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7/10
Gertrude Stein once said "A rose is a thorn is a spike . . . "
tadpole-596-91825615 September 2022
Warning: Spoilers
" . . . Is a butch," or something like that. Is Leo the Groaning Fat Cat simply ahead of his time in recognizing that "Butch" and "Spike" are pretty much interchangeable when it comes to bulldogs? Or that IF we can chose our own genders and nouns, why not be able to select the species of our choice? Surely the Cat-dog cartoons emanated from the minds behind Tom and Jerry, a w-i-s-h-y-w-a-s-h-y pair if ever there was. Since Tinsel Town allowed this indolent duo to dumb down our films with their lazy monotonous lowest common denominator approach to animation, why not corrupt the American Language and National Morale as well? This particular Tom the Cat and Jerry the Mini Rat episode is as crude, crass and demeaning to babies as it is tone deaf.
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