The Tom and Jerry Show Thread

Drtooth

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Anyone catch this yet?

I'll admit, at first I was a little put off by the fact it was another Flash/Toon Boom series, but the animation is much more fluid than what was seen in the preview. Definitely leaps and bounds better than Gene Dietch or Filmation ever was. I'm actually quite enjoying the first episode as much as, if not more than, Tom and Jerry Tales. And I think it has the potential to be a far better show than that anyway (and I rather liked T&JT, often saying it was the best of their television programs).

Hopefully, they won't try and shoehorn Droopy into this. They never get him right.
 

mr3urious

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It has a lot of potential to be a great series, and should keep the characters in the public eye just like The Looney Tunes Show did. A lot more dialogue-heavy than other T&J shorts, but at least it's kept to a minimum wherever necessary.

Yes, it's animated in Flash (or perhaps Toon Boom) with a flat paper cutout style, but there's a lot of quickness, stretchiness, and wild takeyness in it like it should have. Of course, this is from the same studio as The Mr. Men Show and Puffy AmiYumi, so there's some good quality to it. Plus, it employs the same hilarious stock screams from Tom whenever he gets hurt, so they got that part right at least.

Oh, and most importantly, there's plenty of violence in it, which makes it superior to its 1975 namesake for that alone. :big_grin:
 

Drtooth

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It's definitely a credit to its streamlined animation.

It's actually funny how much popularity Tom and Jerry manages to retain. They have annual movies (which are probably not that good, I only saw the Nutcracker one and was unimpressed, but didn't find it horrible). They even had that other cartoon series not too long ago. I'd venture to say they almost have Scooby-Doo like evergreen quality. I do know that in every Japanese Poll, it's always placed high in ranking of anime... the only American series to do so. Even bought a nice little Japanese Tom figure at a convention this year (wish I got the Jerry to go with it... they were blind boxed, but labeled).

I don't know why WB finds the Looney Tunes such a hard sell. The Looney Tunes Show did bring back interest in the characters, even bringing the original shorts back to CN. Tom and Jerry has always been on in the afternoons, though.

I hope to see more merch this time.
 

mr3urious

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Loved how Tex Avery-esque the episode where T&J go camping was, with the wonderful Jeff Bennett as the narrator. If you've ever seen those "...of Tomorrow" shorts, then you'll know what I'm talking about. :big_grin:
 

Schfifty

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It's actually funny how much popularity Tom and Jerry manages to retain. They have annual movies (which are probably not that good, I only saw the Nutcracker one and was unimpressed, but didn't find it horrible).
The only Tom and Jerry movie I've seen (and found amusing) was Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring (2002). Since it was the only one I've seen, I couldn't give a whole lot of critique about it compared to the 1992 movie that bombed, but hey. It's your typical cartoon cat-and-mouse DTV film.

I don't know why WB finds the Looney Tunes such a hard sell. The Looney Tunes Show did bring back interest in the characters, even bringing the original shorts back to CN. Tom and Jerry has always been on in the afternoons, though.
Not necessarily the afternoons. Back in the Powerhouse era, when I was watching CN back in my heyday, they showed Tom and Jerry late at night (around 11:00 PM CST). They also showed Tom and Jerry shorts in Acme Hour (which desperately needs to return, in my opinion), and that was often during the early morning hours.

I'm just glad that Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes, the only two remaining cartoon series left from the network's beginning year, are still on the air today. Without them, there would hardly be anything inspiring on the network.
 

mr3urious

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Looks like those noir-esque detective stories will become a recurring thing in this show. Not that I'm complaining, because I think they're great. :smile:
 

fuzzygobo

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It's always a challenge to keep characters relevant and innovative, while acknowledging their glorious past without tarnishing it.

Nothing will ever surpass Hanna-Barbera's run of theatrical shorts from the 40's (and all the Oscars they picked up along the way. Disney must've had a jealous fit).

Gene Deitch's series was okay, given the limited budget he had.

Chuck Jones' offerings were beautifully drawn, even though he slowed the pace down to a crawl. But he even admitted he was never totally comfortable drawing them, because they weren't his creations. It would be like Ralph Bakshi directing the Road Runner.

I'm just amazed Hanna-Barbera's 1975 tv series didn't kill them off for good.
 

Drtooth

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Looks like those noir-esque detective stories will become a recurring thing in this show. Not that I'm complaining, because I think they're great. :smile:

Oh, yes. Definitely. They give the show a nice depth and a change of pace from the zip chase household antics. You get to see them work together with the subtlety of a love/hate, vitriolic best buds relationship. If there's one thread I'm noticing about this series is that they managed to capture the complexity of Tom and Jerry's relationship, rather than making them just friends like that 70's series.

Nothing will ever surpass Hanna-Barbera's run of theatrical shorts from the 40's (and all the Oscars they picked up along the way. Disney must've had a jealous fit).

Gene Deitch's series was okay, given the limited budget he had.

Chuck Jones' offerings were beautifully drawn, even though he slowed the pace down to a crawl. But he even admitted he was never totally comfortable drawing them, because they weren't his creations. It would be like Ralph Bakshi directing the Road Runner.

I'm just amazed Hanna-Barbera's 1975 tv series didn't kill them off for good.
Agreed. There is nothing more special than those classic theatrical cartoons. I tend to feel this new series (and the last one to an extent) capture a good amount of the spirit of the classic ones that was missing in every adaption/interpretation since they stopped production on the original theatricals.

Funny thing about Gene Dietch and Chuck Jones. Gene hated the Tom and Jerry cartoons because of the violence. So he passive aggressively added more violence in the form of animal abuse on Tom by some of his Terrytoons and original characters. Of course, those were cases where it wasn't exactly funny. There's a difference between swatting him with a broom and beating him up. Of course, Buddies Thicker than Water is the finest Dietch cartoon, and as good as, if not almost, as one of the original (at least conceptually). Now Chuck Jones was a strange fit because the Road Runner cartoons were a stealth parody of zip chase cartoons that somehow got sucked into the genre. What worked for the Coyote didn't work for Tom. They're beautiful, but off.
 

mr3urious

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I hope Jerry's ridiculously strong and bizarrely gruff-voiced cousin Muscles appears in a future episode. I really liked him in that one short. :smile:
 

mr3urious

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All right, Napoleon the rat and that antisocial over-achieving hamster in the lab episodes are starting to become my favorite new characters. :smile:
 
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