Cat and Mouse Games: The History of Tom and Jerry (Part 4)

After animation legend Chuck Jones left Warner Brothers (Where he directed some cartoon masterpieces for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoon series), he formed (along with Les Goldman) the animation studio Sib Tower 12 Productions. Starting in 1963, this animation studio continued the Tom and Jerry series with 34 more cartoons. This is commonly referred to as "The Chuck Jones Era". However unlike the Hanna-Barbera and Gene Deitch eras, not all the cartoons were directed by Chuck Jones. Some where directed by Abe Levitow, Ben Washam, Jim Pabian and Tom Ray. While most of those cartoons had their own entertaining charm usually the best of the bunch were the ones directed by Chuck, himself.

These cartoons in many ways seem much more like Chuck Jones cartoons than Tom and Jerry Cartoons. In fact Chuck Jones admitted on various occasions that he never truly felt at home with Tom and Jerry, the way he did with his own characters. However that does not stop these cartoons from being quite entertaining. While these never reach the heights of Hanna-Babera's years with Tom and Jerry they feature truly fantastic character animation, some pretty funny gags and great music. Any short in which Dean Elliott does the music is definitely worth you're attention. In fact I'd say his music was among the highlights of this era of Tom and Jerry, and that is not in any way a put down to the other elements in these cartoons. His music is definitely of the 60's, and demonstrates only the best traits of music from that era.

The rest of the crew working on these cartoons are quite similar to Chuck Jones' Looney Tunes, and Merrie Melodies. The crew included animators like Ken Harris, Ban Washam, Richard Thompson, and Philip DeGuard, voice actors such as Mel Blanc, and June Foray, writer Michael Maltese, and as Co-director now, one of Chuck's most prominent background artists, Maurice Noble. While these cartoons are not faultless and don't reach up to the standard of Hanna-Barbera's Tom and Jerry, with a crew like this you know it has to be good.

After 1967's "Advance and Be Mechanized", Tom and Jerry would have to leave the big screen, not to come back a until 1992's "Tom and Jerry: The Movie", a very disappointing, and bland return to the big screen. However a career was waiting for our favorite cat and mouse on Television.


To Be Continued...

-Michael J. Ruhland