Tom & Jerry Movies and Reboots: The Tom and Jerry Show (1975)

In 1975, Hanna and Barbera rebooted Tom and Jerry in the form of a Saturday morning cartoon, simply called The Tom and Jerry Show and also known as The New Tom & Jerry Show. They were given a more Laurel & Hardy-esque dynamic, working as a pair rather than rivals. While this could have worked, it still did not make sense to make them into friends, as it worked against the theme of cats chasing after mice. They could have easily used human characters in this series and it would not have changed as much.

This was made during the era in which Hanna Barbera were mainly made cartoons cheaply, which was an efficient way to create cartoons for television that would air in a schedule. It was a good way of incorporating both the enclosed nature of a sitcom and the imagination of a cartoon. This worked with shows like The Flinstones, The Jetsons, and Top Cat, however with Tom and Jerry it felt very inaproptiate. The characters were still silent, which, in the case of this reboot, really did not help much. It was only a short-lived series, but it is relevent in the context of my research, because it highlights another major feature within the Tom and Jerry shorts. The animation was a huge part of what made Tom and Jerry so effective.

I mentioned this when I talked about Tom and Jerry the Movie, but a major element to Tom and Jerry's quality was the animation of the characters. The characters' emotions and personalities were portrayed very well by their animation without the use of dialogue. And this is the problem with the series. This style of animation simply does not suit characters that are mostly silent. The stronger elements of Tom and Jerry was that there was so much dedication to their performances, and they felt like real 3-dimensional beings, so their emotions, actions, and were more realistic as a result. Whereas this series suffers due to the cheap quality of the animation, that is only really suitable for characters that can talk. The animation feels flat, and the performances stiff. This is not the kind of animation that should be used for silent characters. They lack the charisma and the energy needed to engage with the characters, so the illusion that they are simply drawings is not broken. Unlike Tom and Jerry the Movie, giving them a voice would probably be more beneficial.

Tom & Jerry Movies and Reboots: Tom and Jerry the Movie

Tom and Jerry are the most famous comedic duo of all time, having a strong and faithful following to the point in which they are constantly being rebooted in multiple ways. None of which have managed to live up to the original series of short films by Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbera. I'm going to explain why these shorts worked by comparing them to Tom & Jerry the Movie (1993) and the short-lived The Tom & Jerry Show (1975).

Tom & Jerry the Movie, tried something new with the characters, at an attempt to fit the characters in a feature-length narrative. They were given full dialogue, musical numbers, a more complicated story, and even a less dysfunctional dynamic. This backfires, unfortunately, as it completely misses what was entirely the point of the original shorts, as well as having a bizarrely complex story surrounding an orphan child who is somehow worth a lot of money to her caretakers. On top of that, there were surprisingly a lot of antagonists in this film, too many in fact. The story simply felt too convoluted, and just as as a Tom & Jerry story. There actually was not a lot of focus on the two main characters either, which is ironic considering they were given voices throughout the film, so it would surely be more logical that they would be the main focus. This would still be a problem because Tom and Jerry are funnier when they speak very few times and are primarily chasing each other. In this film, even dialogue is not funny. As far as their relationship went, there were truces occasionally, but they had a strong enough and relatable dynamic that it always felt appropriate.

The clear theme they were establishing originally was that Tom is a cat and cats eat mice, so Jerry tries to protect himself, so the fact that the characters are silent and are always fighting is what makes them entertaining. There is a line in this very movie, spoken by Tom, that sums up what my point is about: "A cat... and a mouse... friends? That's disgusting!". This would not be as much of an issue either if there was not an easily exploitable story set up during the opening sequence. The entire opening sequence was actually much stronger than the rest of the film, because there was no dialogue and but it was still easy to know what was going on. The only issues so far was the rather unfunny scream Tom had (which was reused a lot throughout the film) and the rather clean but passable slapstick. Apart from that, there was quite a clear distinction between that and the rest of the film, being that it was more focused on actions than words. What really ruins the film is that this sequence had a perfectly acceptable set-up for a story that would effectively put Tom and Jerry in a feature-length film without the need to use full voice-acting. Their owners are moving house but Tom and Jerry get abandoned, left wander around with each other. There could have been a film about them trying to find their owners again so that they can live safely in their new home. There are a lot of comedic opportunities with a story like that, and it's not too complicated that they can't possibly tell this story without dialogue. Instead that story, as well as Tom and Jerry themselves, was abandoned in favour of some story about an orphan, that did not even work as a stand-alone film.

Another issue with this film, is that the animation and sound design was very poorly done. The voices, even during the musical sequences, do not always sync up with their lips, and at times their lips do not even move while the characters talk. The performances were bland and jankey. Very little squash-and-stretch was used, as well as a lack of exagerration. There are also a lot of instances where there was less sound than needed. When Tom and Jerry's house collapsed at the beginning, for instance, it sounded more like a few crumbling stones than an entire house collapsing. There are even moments during the slapstick scenes where very little emphasis was made on the impact of the action. These were all elements that made Tom & Jerry so effective in the first place. The performances were a lot stronger because of their ability to exaggerate and time their reactions well. The sound effects and solid drawings left a stronger impact too. Tom's famous scream was funny because he never spoke, so they also left an impact. There was simply no point in making Tom scream as loudly in the movie because he spoke so much there was less of an impact.

I believe this movie further emphasises why the Tom & Jerry shorts work so effectively. Their performances are much more bland in the movie when given speech and a bigger story. In the past, their much simpler stories were more entertaining because they still focused on their destructive dynamics and well-portrayed slapstick.