It’s been awhile since I’ve done a Tom and Jerry animator breakdown, so here is one of the best ones.
One of the problems I’ve started to have with a lot of T&J (and the Hanna-Barbera team’s direction in general) is that the gags don’t have much of a payoff, or at least ones I laugh at. Even in the best ones, like Mouse Trouble, there’s the infamous “surprise package” that goes on for half a minute, that doesn’t even have a payoff until we see that Tom actually did survive the Guantanamo Bay treatment in the next scene – a payoff I do laugh at, but it takes too long to get to. Had such a gag arose in a Friz Freleng Sylvester, the humor would have derived from the fact that we don’t see the cat get mutilated, and only see the results.
Mike Barrier has said that the H-B T&Js are “Terrytoons in a Harman-Ising shell,” which is too sweeping a statement. While it’s clear that H-B were not nearly as talented or inventive in their directorial approach as their co-worker Tex Avery (or most of their contemporaries at Warners), most Terrytoons generally feel as though somebody told those guys about comedy timing (never mind animation timing) over the phone, a vibe even the worst T&Js don’t give off.
Mouse Trouble, though, works on several levels. The cartoon, with its frequent renditions of “All God’s Chillun Got Rhythm”, is timed and animated like a musical, even more so than the ‘actual’ musical T&J shorts. For once the Bradley score and the action onscreen are in perfect balance. When Tom places the mouse trap, he just doesn’t scurry out of sight, he dances out of sight. Even the underscore of Tom setting the bear trap is meticulously done. The obscene violence also actually builds up in the short, leading to Tom’s inevitable demise. And you’ve got Jerry blatantly taking the Mae West quoting wind-up toy to make sexytime with. (Amazing that it got passed Joe “sex isn’t real” Breen; but then again, Tom & Jerry is the last series you’d think of looking for sexual promiscuity in).
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“Mouse Trouble” to me has always come across as Hanna-Barbera’s attempt to use their cat and mouse in a Tex Avery/ Warner Brothers-style cartoon. Virtually all of the other T&J shorts have a plot where the scenes are interconnected with each other, while “Mouse Trouble” is more of a series of blackout gags linked only by the chapters in the book.
It gives the plot a little bit more “wackyness” than you’re average T&J short, and avoids the need to have any extended set-ups of the situation or the introduction of the guest character of the moment into the mix (what really would have been fascinating would have been if instead of Bill & Joe trying to emulate the Avery style if Hanna-Barbera and Tex had just swapped characters for one cartoon, so we could have seen what a real Avery Tom & Jerry would have looked like, or even how an H-B Droopy would have come out. But since MGM’s corporate personality was such a stick-up-the-arse about doing anything undignified or out of a set template, I suppose we should just be happy Avery lasted 12 years at the studio).
what really would have been fascinating would have been if instead of Bill & Joe trying to emulate the Avery style if Hanna-Barbera and Tex had just swapped characters for one cartoon, so we could have seen what a real Avery Tom & Jerry would have looked like, or even how an H-B Droopy would have come out.
Actually, Hanna Barbera did produce quite a few Droopy cartoons during the later years at MGM… an example being “One Droopy Knight.” Although I’ve not watched their Droopy cartoons in a while, memory seems to tell me that H-B’s version felt a bit toned down in comparison to Avery’s Droopy. But to be fair, the later Droopy cartoons by H-B were made at a time when MGM didn’t have as high a budget for their animation studio, and they have a more UPA look to them (making them less pleasing from an aesthetic view).
Also, props to Thad for giving us animation buffs something fun to study here!
That’s because Hanna and Barbera were *producers* of the entire MGM animation department (replacing Fred Quimby) in the late 50s. The Droopy cartoons weren’t *directed* by H-B though, they were directed by Michael Lah.
The bear trap scene results in my ll-time favorite moment in any Tom and Jerry cartoon: Tom with his head stuck in the ceiling and the bear trap hanging off his ass, his screams of pain muffled but still very audibly human.
I can see the Breen Office wholeheartedly and enthusiastically approving of the ‘Mae West’ scene. After all, it shows having illicit sex in a hotel should have resulted in certain death (to Jerry). Unmarried sex = death. Unmarried sex = bad. What a fine, G-rated example for the kiddies watching!
Despite the Avery-like blackout format, the first scene by Burness shows the difference between Avery and Bill Hanna. Hanna threw away the surprise take when Tom sees Jerry reading the book. It’s too fast. Avery loved showing off his takes. Avery would have had the take stop and hang in long enough for it to register with the audience before carrying on. And it would probably have been more outrageous.
Love when you do these animator breakdowns. I was amazed the first time I saw one on your old blog identifying animators. This has to be the Tom and Jerry cartoon I’ve seen more then any other. A good one. But not my favorite. I hope to see you do some more breakdowns sometime soon.
Thanks for correcting me spectre. You learn something new everyday!
Hey man, In Other News: dunno if you’re a Basil Wolverton fan, but there is an incredible, nearly museum quality show, retrospective survey, really, of his works, ALL ORIGINALS, at Gladstone (gallery) in NYC, Chelsea (W 24th between 10th and 11th aves). It’s got late 40’s, Powerhouse Pepper era comicbook science fiction pages, pulp illustrations, the famous caricature grotesques, the plates for the book of Revelation, The famous Mad Reader series from the early MAD, preliminary breakdowns for the caricatures in pencil, and more oddments. It’s up until Aug. 14th.
I hope you’ll do an animator breakdown in the future of one of Art Davis’s cartoons like Porky Chops. That cartoons isn’t one of his best, but I was wondering who animated the takes Porky and the squirrel do, when they see a bear charging after them.