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I deduce a review of Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes

Posted: June 12, 2015

We start off with the a great aerial of London and some clever thievery by a trio of cats. The cats pull off a diamond heist using some nifty Steampunk gadgetry and are then chased by a bunch of constables on the roof tops. The cats do some great bits of parkour before they jump off a building and glide to a mystery man riding a horse where the drop the diamond to him.

The next morning we are introduced to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson and Jerry who seems to be another of Holmes' assistants. Jerry lives with Sherlock and is a regular on his cases. As Jerry runs and errand for Holmes we are bump into Tom on his way to see Mr. Holmes with an urgent letter. Tom is minding his business when a series of unfortunate events, with Jerry leads him to Sherlock Holmes. This sets up the "battles" between Tom and Jerry as Tom was a bit indifferent with Jerry at the beginning and now there is a grudge.

Tom is the valet of Red Hot, an engaged high society type that is moonlighting as a lounge singer and is being blackmailed because of it. Holmes and crew arrive at the lounge where Red is singing, it's nice to the the City Wolf and the Country Wolf make a cameo. After the act we find that Red is being blackmailed in a similar fashion as one of Holmes' other cases, "The Redheaded League". We also find out that Red's home is next door to an embassy that is housing a rare diamond.

Spike and Tyke are guard dogs, go figure, that are supposed to guard the jewel, well you know how that goes, the cat burglars snag the jewel while Spike is teaching Tyke the ropes of being a guard dog. The cat burglars make a daring escape, much like in the beginning. Tom and Jerry and company head back to Red's house only to find that the diamond has been stolen from the embassy and that the police are on the way. Our crew splits up with Holmes and Watson searching for some leads in the clues that they have, leaving Tom and Jerry to help protect Red.

Cut over to Scotland yard where we meet up with, SURPRISE!, Droopy and Butch the Dog who are on the case of the missing diamond and the suspect Red...along with all of Scotland Yard. Our intrepid officers of the law give chase to Tom, Jerry, and Red. Our heros, duck into a church where we then meet up with Nibbles, an Irish Catholic priest and brother to Jerry. Nibbles hides Tom, Jerry and Red throughout the church while Droopy and Butch search. Eventually, our heroes slip from the Police and run through the streets of London. Meanwhile, Holmes and Watson are oblivious to the fact that they seem to be on wild goose chase in the countryside.

Back in London we go to Professor Moriarty's house, who sent Red to find Holmes, and is apparently an old family friend. It is then revealed the Moriarty is behind all diamond heists as he has created this heat ray in order to melt a hole in the Tower of London to steal the crown jewels. Tom, Jerry, and Nibbles rescue Red, but not before Moriarty steals the crown jewels. Meanwhile, Holmes and Watson finally realize they've been duped head back to London to go after Moriarty and gang. A fun chase through London ends with Holmes capturing Moriarty and returning the jewels.

Everyone is happy and Red marries her fiance, the City Wolf.

The Good:
I enjoyed this. This cartoon was really well paced, the animation was smooth and dynamic. There were a couple of running gags and slapstick action that got a good laugh out of me. The story was simple and safe and focused a lot on Tom and Jerry who didn't try to subvert each other but worked as a legitimate team, all be it begrudgingly. Tom and Jerry really seemed to have a lot of personality in this, at least more than the one-dimensional persona's of some other Tom and Jerry Direct to DVD. The other really nifty aspect about this Tom and Jerry is the bits of Steampunk technology that Professor Moriarty uses in his crimes.

The Bad:
Tom seems to be more clumsy as the movie goes, could be because he gets hit in the head...a lot. Tom is used as a punching bag a lot for some laughs and it gets old after a while. The other bad thing about this is that Sherlock Holmes and Watson really don't have much screen time and when they do the characters are kind of caricatures of themselves. It's hard to explain but they just fit the stereotype of who you think Sherlock Holmes and Watson to be. Now, that is kind of a nitpick point considering that I'm technically not the target demographic for these cartoons.

The Ugly:
Let's talk about Nibbles....why do the producers of these cartoons have to give this poor little mouse THE WORST accents?!?! I swear! Several of these direct to DVD movies have been very unkind to Nibbles in the most embarrassing way. Thankfully it's not as bad as "Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale"; that accent on Nibbles was a crime. The other thing about these Direct to DVD is that all of the characters from the MGM cartoons have to have some sort of cameo and they usually are perfunctory. It's fun to see Spike, but I don't need to see him teaching Tyke in a rehash of "That's my Pup" in every single appearance in these movies. Droopy and Butch the Bulldog were part of the MGM cartoons but never part of Hanna-Barbera's run at MGM and it annoys me whenever they make an appearance. Red Hot and the Wolves were fun characters in this movie so they get a pass since their inclusion made sense to the story.

Overall
This is a fun romp at only an hour. The story was cute and had a great pace with some fun adventuring and mystery that the kids would enjoy.



Shiver me Whiskers! it's another review.

Posted: May 28, 2015

So after the previous DVD viewing, I needed some other Tom and Jerry cartoon to purge the memory of it. So I sat down and watched Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers. So here are my thoughts on this Direct to DVD:

Tom and Jerry are two sailors aboard a pirate ship, captained by Red Pirate Ron who talks through his parrat because all he can say is "YAR", that is caught in heavy storms on the sea. When a particularly large wave crashes on deck it brings with it a glass bottle with a treasure map leading to the "Lost Treasure of the Spanish Mane". Tom and Jerry fight for the map only to lose it to the Captain, who; as it turns out, has been searching for this treasure of 40 years. Red Pirate Ron brothers, Blue Pirate Bob and Purple Pirate Paul, have also been searching for this lost treasures. As the ship sails to Yo-Ho-Ho Island where the treasure is buried they encounter Blue Pirate Bob's ship.

It turns out that when these pirates where young and aboard their mother's pirate ship they found this map, but fought over it resulting in the Pirate mom taking all their maps from from them and putting them in bottles and dumping them out to sea. Anyway, as Tom manages to get his paws on the map again we find out, from the ghost of Don Diego de Clippershears, that a terrible curse will befall them if the map is not returned to bottle before sunset. This doesn't happen due to the battle between Blue and Red Pirates, which results in the curse awakening the long dead pirates of the Spanish Mane who seizes Red Pirate Ron's Ship.

The rag-tag pirate crew make their way to Yo-Ho-Ho Island where both Tom and Jerry are able to get the map back and look for the treasure. Meanwhile the Red and Blue Pirates are also looking for the treasure, Tom and Jerry, and fighting amongst themselves. Tom and Jerry also encounter Purple Pirate Paul who has been on the island for 10 years and not be able to find the treasure....not sure how that happens but whatever. Anyway, Tom and Jerry manage to outwit Purple Paul and find the treasure, but alas the ghost of Don Diego awakens and leads Tom and Jerry on an elaborate Rube Goldbergesque hunt for the buried treasure. Both Tom and Jerry manage to outwit the traps, working together and getting a bit of treasure as they sail off to live on their riches...and then go back to chasing each other.

The Good:
Well, I will have to say that this is truly the first Direct to DVD movie that understands how important the music was to the original Tom and Jerry cartoons. The soundtrack is featured very heavily in the action and movements of all the characters especially Tom and Jerry. This movies also heavily relies on some of the old cartoon sound effects, especially Tom's scream. The animation is pretty solid hand-drawn work and very fluid. I enjoyed how clever traps were to find the treasure. The other stand out of this is how Tom and Jerry interact with each other. There is the obvious rivalry and not the overt chase for the sake of chasing.

The Bad:
For the love! The endless "YAR","yar", "YAAARRRR" from Red Pirate Ron and Blue Pirate Bob really gets old. REALLY! It doesn't help that the parrot companions on each captain's shoulder is annoying too as they translate the grunts and the yars. The funny thing is that Purple Pirate Paul actually talks normally and has a parrot that yars and grunts. The traps that Tom and Jerry have to go through, were elaborate, but ended up being ridiculous with each progressive solution.

The Ugly:
Captain Ron's "yarring" really got annoying after more than a half hour of watching this. But my biggest beef with Shiver Me Whiskers was there hardly seemed to be a break in the chase scenes. One right after the other of endless running, chasing, dodging, fighting. It became exhausting watching this. Now I get that Tom and Jerry chase each other...it's kind of their thing; but there comes a point of being excessive after an hour of chases.

Overall, I think this one of the closest the new Tom and Jerry's have come to the magic of the MGM era. It is a testament to Joseph Barbera still being alive at the time and excutive producing; which is good since the previous Tom and Jerry he was involved in was awful.



So it took 10 years, but I finally saw The Fast and the Furry

Posted: May 28, 2015

Yes, I've had this Tom and Jerry: The Fast and The Furry sitting on a shelf for 10 year and now I've decided to watch it. Don't ask me why it took so long, I have no excuse. However, after seeing it I have to say that I wished that I had left it there on the shelf, collecting dust. *sigh* without further ado my review:

Okay first off, can I say that it's awesome that Joseph Barbera wrote the story and executive produced...but some how that can't save this cartoon...sigh

This starts off with the usual cat and mouse chase...no real reason behind it, but the mass destruction and mindless mayhem brought out some good laughs from me. After the extended chase sequence that resulted in the TOTAL annihilation of the human lady's home Tom and Jerry are living in, the duo gets kicked out. As Tom and Jerry leave the smoldering premises, they both catch a commercial for the The Fabulous Super Race show with a richly grand prize. Both cat and mouse race (ha ha) to the junkyard and piece together their race cars to be contestants. Once completed they make their way to the studio to enter the contest, via a few nods to Pee Wee's Big Adventure's studio end scenes.

Next up, we are introduced to the racers, a madcap group of wacky racers...you see what I did there. So anyway, this is pretty much an updated sort of wacky racers that just happen to have Tom and Jerry. The race starts in Hollywood with the race supposedly ending in Mexico. However, with Tom and Jerry's constantly trying to kill each other, the race's TV ratings are through the roof so the Powers That Be decide to extend the race into different stages around the world. So with each "stage" of the race we start losing racers which is good because with the 6 total racers at the start there really wasn't much screen time for our favorite duo. So finally half way through the movie, in the Antarctic stage we are down to just Tom and Jerry and the next stage is in Australia.

As Tom and Jerry race start up the next stage Australia another racer manages to catch up, and the next stage is run where the other racer manages to die (yes, you read that correctly) so now we are back with just Tom and Jerry. The producer/director of this race tells his assistant that the public is getting bored with the race and will soon tune out so the race must be sped up. So it is decided that once this leg of the race is complete that Tom and Jerry must make it to the finish line in 5 minutes. So into jets they go and fly across the globe destroying everything in their path. The duo manage to cross the finish line at the same time winning the million dollar prize.

Hurray! Tom and Jerry win, but it's short lived as the lady from the beginning of the movie barges in to mansion that Tom and Jerry live in now and demands that it's hers since Tom and Jerry destroyed her other one. So the chase is on again and more destruction as the credits roll.

The Good:
There a some pretty good laugh out loud moments, but they are few and far between. The most laughs, for me are in the first seven minutes and that's about it.

The Bad:
This is like a 7 minute cartoon stretched to 75 minutes. The cars are almost magic as it seems because they can be modified at any given moment depending on the stage. Now I know this is a cartoon, but it goes beyond ridiculous. The violence...let's talk about this for a moment. I know Tom and Jerry are violent, I get that, but everybody and everything is beating something or someone up. Tom is a homicidal maniac in this. I've never seen him this maniacally vicious and who leaves a path of destruction wherever he goes. Brutal, just brutal for a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

The Ugly:
The animation is horrendous, it's stiff and feels really cheap. The show drags on and on with each stage, and finally towards the end of the movie it is decided that the race needs to end in 5 minutes. The race should have ending after 15 minutes instead of in 75 minutes; it needed to be very short. Surprisingly, Tom and Jerry had very little screen time, there where a lot of time spent on the announcers of the race and the other racers. Often I'd be wondering where Tom and Jerry were as they were the only non-annoying characters in the whole show.

I hate this cartoon! Everything about this movie was horrible, the dialog, premise, animation, and character interactions. I hope to never see The Fast and the Furry again, which is sad since Joseph Barbera produced this and was given story credit.



GASP! Anaimated GIFs!

Posted: May 11, 2015

Good Gravy! More activity here in the form of adding about 33 new animated gifs. There is no order to the gallery so download to your hearts content and enjoy!

Another Tom and Jerry Online update?!?

Posted: May 07, 2015

Wow! Two updates in a month! It's been a while since I've done that. Well, so what's new?

I've updated the DVD List, it's been about a year or so since I last updated the list of releases. Now I've added everything that I've missed and the 2 new DVDs that are being release next month: Tom and Jerry: Spy Quest and Tom and Jerry Gene Deitch Collection.

The spot on the site that I've added some goodies is the picture gallery! I've added about 46 new Tom and Jerry pictures bringing the total picture collection to 1030 Tom and Jerry pictures! That is a lot of pictures of our favorite duo. Enjoy!

TOM AND JERRY: THE GENE DEITCH COLLECTION

Posted: May 03, 2015

One month from now, Tom and Jerry fans! June 2, brings us the release of the long waited Tom and Jerry cartoons from the Gene Deitch era of cartoons. All 13 episodes are remastered!



Here's the press release:

BURBANK, CA (February 5, 2015) - The work of popular animator Gene Deitch is the focus of Tom and Jerry: The Gene Deitch Collection, available on DVD June 2, 2015 from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (WBHE). This compilation will present viewers with 13 fully re-mastered theatrical shorts, produced by Deitch, plus brand-new bonus features. It's a release that collectors of classic animation, won't want to miss! Tom and Jerry: The Gene Deitch Collection will retail for $26.99 SRP.

For decades, that tussling twosome Tom and Jerry have chased their way into the funny bones and hearts of moviegoers and television viewers in a variety of unforgettable cartoons. In the 1960s, acclaimed animation director Deitch, was selected to bring a new set of Tom and Jerry shorts to life. Adding his own distinctive style to the famous cartoon, Deitch worked with William L. Snyder's Prague-based animation studio, Rembrandt Films, to create 13 memorable shorts. This entertaining collection from WBHE brings Deitch's fun-filled cartoons together for the first time on DVD, completely re-mastered.

Tom and Jerry: The Gene Deitch Collection will include two bonus features: "Tom and Jerry...and Gene: The Rembrant Years" as well as "Much Ado About Tom and Jerry."

"Over the years, there have been many artists who have put their own unique touch on Tom and Jerry cartoons. This collection recognizes the work of long-time animator Gene Deitch, who directed over a dozen shorts," commented Mary Ellen Thomas, Vice President of Family and Animation Marketing. She added, "We're delighted to bring these beautifully remastered shorts to collectors. If you are a fan of classic Tom and Jerry shorts or just love animation, this is a must-own DVD for your home entertainment library."

Originally created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, Tom and Jerry centers on the never-ending rivalry between Tom the cat and Jerry the mouse. The plots of each short usually center on Tom's attempts to capture Jerry. Jerry however, is clever and quick on his feet so Tom hardly ever manages to catch him. The original series is notable for having won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoon seven times. Academy Award(s) & Oscar(s) are registered trademarks and service marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Featured Shorts:
  1. Switchin' Kitten
  2. Down and Outing
  3. It's Greek to Me-ow!
  4. High Steaks
  5. Mouse Into Space
  6. Landing Stripling
  7. Calypso Cat
  8. Dicky Moe
  9. The Tom & Jerry Cartoon Kit
  10. Tall in the Trap
  11. Sorry Safari
  12. Buddies Thicker Than Water
  13. Carmen Get It!


Enhanced Content:
  • Tom and Jerry...and Gene: The Rembrandt Years
  • Much Ado About Tom and Jerry


About Warner Bros. Animation
Warner Bros. Animation (WBA) is one of the leading producers of animation in the entertainment industry, producing and developing both CG and traditionally animated projects for multiple platforms, both domestically and internationally. For TV, WBA produces series such as Teen Titans Go!, The Tom and Jerry Show and the upcoming Be Cool Scooby-Doo! and Wabbit - A Looney Tunes Production for Cartoon Network as well as Mike Tyson Mysteries for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. As the home of the iconic animated characters from the DC Comics, Hanna-Barbera, MGM and Looney Tunes libraries, WBA also produces highly successful animated films - including the DC Universe Animated Original Movies - for DVD. One of the most-honored animation studios in history, WBA has won six Academy Awards, 35 Emmy Awards, the George Foster Peabody Award, an Environmental Media Award, a Parents' Choice Award, the HUMANITAS Prize, two Prism Awards and 20 Annie Awards (honoring excellence in animation).

About Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc.
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (WBHE) brings together Warner Bros. Entertainment's home video, digital distribution and interactive entertainment businesses in order to maximize current and next-generation distribution scenarios. An industry leader since its inception, WBHE oversees the global distribution of content through packaged goods (Blu-ray Disc and DVD) and digital media in the form of electronic sell-through and video-on-demand via cable, satellite, online and mobile channels, and is a significant developer and publisher for console and online video game titles worldwide. WBHE distributes its product through third party retail partners and licensees, as well as directly to consumers through WBShop.com and WB Ultra.

Tom and Jerry Stop Motion commercial

Posted: April 24, 2015

Okay, now this is really brilliant. A UK McDonald's commercial featuring Tom and Jerry in Stop Motion. LOVE IT! I really like the concept of stop motion with these characters, would be really swell to see more!





Massive Picture Updates

Posted: February 11, 2015

So in honor of Tom and Jerry's birthday I've added about 80 or so new images to the picture gallery. The majority of pictures are from the latest incarnation of Tom and Jerry. I've not seen these yet, so I'm not sure the quality of the cartoons...but then again, nothing can top the original Hanna-Barbera run.

I plan on having a few more updates done soon, whether it happens or not is anyone's guess. I find that I've not the disposable time I once had.

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