"Old Rockin' Chair Tom" (admittedly a very random, almost off-topic title) is a color cartoon from 1948, so this one will have its 70th anniversary next year. The name in the title as well as the fact that this is a Hanna Barbera production makes it obvious of course that these 7 minutes are another Tom and Jerry short film. In this one here, they continue the successful trend of including one other character with a great deal of screen time and T&J's interactions with it. With this, I am of course not referring to Mammy Two-Shoes who is voiced competently as always by Lilian Randolph (It's a Wonderful Life), but to the new ginger cat who is brought in when Tom's owner is no longer happy with his mice-catching skills. But Tom as well as Jerry are not too happy with being kicked-out, so for the rest of the film they are friends trying to establish the status quo again and Tom does not even try to steal from Jerry's half of the cake at the very end of the film, which shows how happy he must be being back as the cat-in-charge. I personally did not like the whole magnet/flat-iron comedy too much here, but everything else was very funny and entertaining. The first half was maybe slightly better, especially the parts before the ginger cat enters when we see an unusually destructive Jerry, but even in the second half there are good moments like when Tom gets framed for food theft, the moment that somehow establishes the new cat as an antagonist. Okay that is all I think. It was a funny good watch with great animation of course and this is my favorite short film from 1948. A must-see for cartoon lovers.
Review of Old Rockin' Chair Tom
