007 Sufferin' Cats!

Title: Sufferin' Cats!
Studio: MGM
Date: 01/16/43
Credits:
Directed by
William Hanna
and
Joseph Barbera
Animation ...
Kenneth Muse
George Gordon
Peter Burness
Jack Zander
Music ...
Scott Bradley
Series: Tom and Jerry
Running time (of viewed version): 7:52
Commercial DVD Availability: Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Volume 1

Synopsis: Tom has Jerry, fights with other cat over Jerry, Jerry ends up on top.















Comments: Heavy browed Tom. Some people complain about the lack of restoration on these cartoons, but I find the hair in the gate and the general noise to be perfectly acceptable. This is not a blood red print. It's actually a pretty good approximation of how we watched these cartoons on TV for decades. It's very odd to encounter a cartoon that is not about the war. Jasper and the Choo Choo and Cow Cow Boogie weren't either, but this is the first one without some inbuilt flinching due to how it deals with race or nationality. Even the educational short about grain had that weird subtext about how the US was approaching Latin America. This is also the first traditionally familiar cartoon to me (not that it's memorable as such, it's just a standard T&J cartoon I've probably seen dozens of times). The cartoon has lots more extremes than has traditionally been the case in my blogging, which isn't exactly what I think of when I think Tom and Jerry. At the same time, it has less variation in imagery than most cartoons traditionally have had. Screenshots are of better images, but there are fewer of them. Tom's little devil cat (who speaks plenty) looks a lot like Jerry. Rising scalp bump gag. Unusual rectangular box iris out. It's all quite a change from Education For Death... It's got several text jokes. Lots of instances of white background smacks.