Puss 'N' Boats (1966) User Reviews

Some clever ideas, making for an entertaining cartoon that falls short

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 1 March 2013]

Chuck Jones' Tom and Jerry output is inconsistent, there are some good ones(though none are up there with the classics) and there are disappointments(but not abominations like the offerings from Gene Deitch). Puss N Boats is neither among the hits or misses, it is decent and entertaining but falls short. The action is fun and enough to keep people interested, while the gags benefit from clever ideas that are executed as such. Tom and Jerry are still likable characters and work great together, and the support characters are decent without upstaging them. Puss N Boats does have some let downs though. The animation is not great, some of Jones' Tom and Jerry cartoons do look good but everything here just looks scratchy and dull. Composer Carl Brandt was a first-timer, and judging from the generic and rather pedestrian scoring, the lack of any action or humour enhancing and forgettable orchestration his inexperience really shows. The pacing is sometimes solid but does lag a little too much, and while the gags and ideas save it that doesn't stop the story from being routine. In conclusion, decent but does fall short. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Jerry boards a ship and Tom goes flying!

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 6 August 2012]

This 'Tom and Jerry' short opens on a quayside where a crate of cheese is being loaded onto a ship; the scent is so strong that it physically lifts Jerry out of his hammock and pulls him towards the ship. There is a problem of course; Tom is patrolling at the bottom of the gangway. Jerry dons a clever disguise and nearly gets aboard but Tom spots him at the last minute and moves the gangway so that Jerry falls into the sea and is almost eaten my a shark. With the gangway in the wrong position the captain steps off the ship and Tom runs to save him... he is pushed through a plank and ends up wearing it round his neck. So begins a series of inventive gags as Jerry spins the plank causing Tom to helicopter into the air and just as he extracts himself from it he uses it as a wing to drive bomb Jerry complete with sound effects. Back on board Tom continues to try to catch Jerry but inevitably things don't go according to plan and he must deal with the shark once again.

This short contains plenty of entertaining action and some inventive sight gags; it shouldn't be surprising that many of them are reminiscent of those featured in classics Warner Brothers shorts as it was produced by Chuck Jones who was best known for his long tenure at that studio, my personal favourite was seeing Tom go through a pipe that got narrower and narrower till he emerged looking like a giant stick insect! The animation isn't quite as sharp as earlier shorts but is still good enough. With gags coming thick and fast fans of Tom and Jerry should enjoy this even if it isn't a classic.

Two strikes, Abe.

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 29 May 2017]

Jerry is relaxing in a hammock when he is lured by the aroma of a shipment of cheese. The only problem is that Tom the cat is on guard to ensure that no mice make off with the cargo.

Director Abe Levitow has another crack at a Tom and Jerry cartoon, but with no more success than his first attempt (the disappointing Jerry-Go-Round), Puss 'N' Boats suffering from some horrible drawing, and repetitive and not particularly amusing jokes.

Best moment: Tom crawling through a pipe that gets narrower and narrower, emerging as a stick-thin creature that looks like something out of a Dr.Seuss book. The worst moment comes when Levitow unwisely throws in a topical gag, Tom encountering an astronaut as he is launched sky-high by a high-pressure hose: with the spaceman rendered in an incongruous, semi-realistic style, this part really sticks out like a sore thumb.

Warner veterans brilliantly bring Tom & Jerry up-to-date . . .

[pixrox1 · 8/10 · 10 November 2022]

. . . toward the close of PUSS AND BOATS by showing a stratospheric Tom being waved at by a Gemini astronaut as the latter space walks. Stuck-in-the-mud dullards Joe and Bill never even bothered to reference so much as the Mercury Seven during their original 114 T & J episodes. Instead, their pedestrian version of Tom and Jerry seemed set mostly in horse and buggy days, foreshadowing their move to the Stone Age on the b-u-b-e tube with the FLINT STONES after their firing by Leo the Groaning Fat Cat. Being Progressive, their replacement crew from Warner Bros. Could not help themselves from modernizing Tom the Cat and Jerry the Rodent vermin, even as they successfully undermined this notoriously derivative over-rated duo through the final three dozen pictures of their theatrical demise. During PUSS AND BOATS, for instance, Tom gets eaten by a shark--Thrice! Wholly indigestible in every way, Jaws cannot keep the flatulent feline down, however.