The Life and Times of Tom and Jerry - Part 3

With news of another Tom and Jerry Direct-To-DVD movie due in August, let's recall how many other revivals these two have had, coming up now in the mid '70's...

Yes, even the original creators can make mistakes of their own. Which was why in 1975, when their made-for-TV cartoons were selling like hotcakes, Hanna and Barbera were reunited with their original creations and thus brought forth The Tom and Jerry Show for the Saturday Morning viewings - which wasn't that hot. Thanks to Executive meddling and the limits of TV Animation then, Tom and Jerry became friends rather than enemies, meaning that their trademark violence was toned down greatly and became a far cry from the characters they once were. Not helped at all, most say, when they shared the same half-hour with Grape Ape and Muttley Mumbly, who are about as memorable as K9 and Company...


Fortunately, that wasn't the end of T&J's career - unfortunately, the next attempt made in 1980 was by Filmation...and ohhhhh boy. It'll be a contest choosing between a marathon of these or the Gene Deitch shorts...

The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show did TRY to bring back the classic humour of their MGM days by returning them to their slapstick roots and including other MGM characters, Barney Bear, Droopy and "Slick" Wolf, to add to the cast. But while a few of the episodes had promise story-wise, the severe lack of decent animation and a monotonous, synthesized soundtrack made this flop big time.

Didn't stop them, however, with attempting another revival of Terrytoons's Heckle and Jeckle... >_>


Still, on the plus side, MGM was bought by Turner Entertainment in 1986, and the classic T&J shorts received many TV reruns across the US and the world - so in spite of recent revivals failing at the time, and painful censorship made to eliminate various racial/violent scenes in specific TV Stations, at least the original cartoons are still remembered to this day, alongside VHS (video cassettes to the "new blood") releases too.


But just when you thought that would have been that, fast forward to 1992...the year of The Tom and Jerry Movie, where Phil Roman broke the one golden rule:

TOM AND JERRY DO NOT TALK.

...OK, it wasn't THAT bad. In truth, it does boast of Henry Mancini's greatest soundtrack and songs since The Pink Panther and made another memorable mark on Dana Hill's acting career alongside Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures and Goof Troop.

And anyway, it wasn't the first time these two have broken their vow of silence - The Lonesome Mouse and Mucho Mouse are samples of rare occasions when Tom and Jerry spoke only when necessary or for comedy value.

The biggest gripe about the movie, though, was that Tom and Jerry weren't really suited for feature-length adventures, which was why their chase concept was more-fitting as a short-but-sweet 6-minute cartoon instead of stretching out a storyline that could really suit any other character beside these two.

....but, guess what, THAT wasn't the end of it either...More next time!