Pent-House Mouse, the first of the Chuck Jones Tom & Jerry cartoons is quite funny, but has a lot of unnecessary buisiness that slows it to a crawl at times.
[Possible Spoilers]
Tom is a luxury cat in a penthouse while poor Jerry is starving on the streets below.(Jerry ties his tail around his waist to stop his stomach growling) Finding a lunchbox at a construction site, Jerry visualises the contents = a full Jerry. While chowing down, the girder the lunchbox was setting on rises to the top of a skyscraper, then the lunchbox falls off! Tom, taking a nap is hit by the empty lunchbox, looking up sees food falling and adds bread + lettuce + Jerry + bread = mouse sandwich! Tom catches the "sandwich" in a baseball mit. After this opening, the cartoon slows down, the gags are non violent, a hallmark of the original series and puzzling (Jerry jumps into Tom's mouth and from inside, pulls Tom's ears and eyes closed.)Also missing,for me anyway,is the sound effects of the original. Tom's "Ahhh!" every time he gets bashed is sorely missed. Chuck Jones claimed his difficulties with the series was from working with characters that he wasn't familiar with. The series got better later on, as he found his own style. It seems all the different incarnations of Tom & Jerry reached their peak when they went their own way instead of imitating Hanna & Barbera. The Rembrant Studio's "The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit" (1962) is a good example of this. While basically a good cartoon, it's an uneasy start for Chuck Jones, whose cartoons got better as he progressed.
[Possible Spoilers]
Tom is a luxury cat in a penthouse while poor Jerry is starving on the streets below.(Jerry ties his tail around his waist to stop his stomach growling) Finding a lunchbox at a construction site, Jerry visualises the contents = a full Jerry. While chowing down, the girder the lunchbox was setting on rises to the top of a skyscraper, then the lunchbox falls off! Tom, taking a nap is hit by the empty lunchbox, looking up sees food falling and adds bread + lettuce + Jerry + bread = mouse sandwich! Tom catches the "sandwich" in a baseball mit. After this opening, the cartoon slows down, the gags are non violent, a hallmark of the original series and puzzling (Jerry jumps into Tom's mouth and from inside, pulls Tom's ears and eyes closed.)Also missing,for me anyway,is the sound effects of the original. Tom's "Ahhh!" every time he gets bashed is sorely missed. Chuck Jones claimed his difficulties with the series was from working with characters that he wasn't familiar with. The series got better later on, as he found his own style. It seems all the different incarnations of Tom & Jerry reached their peak when they went their own way instead of imitating Hanna & Barbera. The Rembrant Studio's "The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit" (1962) is a good example of this. While basically a good cartoon, it's an uneasy start for Chuck Jones, whose cartoons got better as he progressed.
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