In the late 1950s and early 60s, MGM decided that their cartoons were too expensive and they needed to economize. First, in the late 50s, they began producing far inferior cartoons with cheap drawings and often recycled stories and backgrounds. Then, since this still apparently cost too much, the cartoons were stripped to the absolute bone--having much of the work completed in Czechoslovakia--where they had never even seen a Tom and Jerry cartoon!!! As a result, the films of the early 60s have no relation to the earlier cartoons and are just insipid crap. The wonderful character chemistry is gone and the cartoons are even worse than a typical Huckleberry Hound short.
With DICKY MOE, had a couple of 8 year-olds been given a modest budget, some ink and film equipment, I seriously doubt if the product of their work would be any worse than this god-awful cartoon. Not only is the artwork very bad indeed, but the story manages to be even worse than the rest of the early 60s Tom and Jerry toons. I used to think that MOUSE IN SPACE was the worst of the lot, but after seeing DICKY MOE I realized I was mistaken. Now I have only reviewed a few cartoons here and there and so my decision to talk about DICKY is because I feel it is a public service to warn you away from this junk.
In addition to a rotten script and amateurish artwork, this one takes the prize for worst due to its abominable sound effects. The sound of the peg-leg captain walking about was enough to nearly drive me to homicide, as were all the other very loud and inappropriate effects. Instead of a Foley artist doing the sound effects, it sounds like they randomly used ANYTHING they could find and just slapped it in again and again. What agony!!