Tot Watchers (1958)
6/10
The End of a Classic Era and Bad Way to End It
6 June 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Sure, as a Fan of the Cat and Mouse Duo I've seen every one of their theatrical cartoons, all pretty good, except for this one...

For starters, the story written by Homer Brightman is somewhat poor in plot and overblown in its execution, based on nothing more than Chases and Misfortunes for Tom and Jerry, plus it's a Complete Rehash of 1956's Busy Buddies. Recycles the same plot but without the charm of the previous one, we only see the Bitter and carefree Jeannie hitting Tom with a Broom at all times and having a lazy time talking on the phone (taking it without permission saying that it is a foreign house), to finally call the Police so that they lock up the duo and take them to prison, the car stops and the Officer confronts the cat and the mouse, he himself does not believe the "ridiculous and silly story" they were telling, until the baby pass by there...

The story is really quite flat, it is only based on previous jokes and Brightman does not add much, the most acceptable thing would be to see the baby hit Tom with a Hammer, but only that, Spike also makes a presence (being his last appearance in the original series ) who only attacks Tom, yes, that's what they needed him for, luckily the cat and mouse duo is still friendly, they behave just like in the previous shorts despite the Generic Interpretation they receive here, they usually chase each other here , and his scenes are quite decent, of course, William Hanna is still going around the world with his Brilliant Voice Acting!.

During these years MGM and the main animation companies in general, lost power, and among the thousands of things they had to do, they were to reduce costs, yes, Cartoons became more and more expensive and they had to resort to Drawings, Backgrounds and Simpler and more minimalist movements to keep the business economy stable, the cynical strategy of these companies lasted for a couple of years, until they simply went bankrupt, usually in Tom and Jerry very expressive animations are used to avoid the dialogue, but here it simply cannot be done, the Animation is too tight, truly Inferior to Busy Buddies, the colors are Very Bad, Flat and without Grace, although Tom and Jerry's Designs are Nice and Cute, those of the Rest of the Characters they look like something out of a UPA Cartoon from the mid 50s, Animation has some fluid touches, some Talented animators like Lewis Marshall and Ken Muse were still working or in the series, and without them, possibly the animation would be very, very inferior.

We are at the end of the 50s Bro!, the music is very lively, energetic and Jazzistic that it is Impossible not to take off the Ears of the Cartoon, among the most Redeemable of this Cartoon, is its Great Music, it really has Character, although the jokes of Brightman for the short are somewhat weak and repetitive, slightly funny due to the excellent Timing of the music, and speaking of standards, the Houses, the Clothes and the stereotypes of the 50s are plagued here, the cars went from being Rudimentary to True Machines with great transportation capacities, the Nanny is a clear example of this, She has a Ponytail in the High School Style with a Skirt typical of young women of the time, of course, the phones are Primitive and this same it happens glued to it, who cares?, we are in the 50s, stereotypes like these were the norm!.

Analyzing this Cartoon, it is somewhat poor in its development, its Plot is not very good and its jokes are somewhat repetitive, it does not help that Tom and Jerry are in the Show, you would simply have to completely ignore all the errors of the Short to find it Normal and Funny As for me, I think it was a somewhat hasty and poorly done Swan Song for this Great series, mainly because it was not a good cartoon, Robin Hoodwinked would have been a more than acceptable ending, but the cynics of MGM I suppose they demanded more, these cartoons were truly blockbusters.
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