"That's [David and Goliath] where we feel a connection to these cartoons: the little guy can win (or at least survive) to fight another day." Gene Deitch (1924-2020)
For 80 years now, Tom and Jerry have been going at it with one another and entertaining kids and adults of all ages. Everyone has their favorite era of Tom and Jerry and yet the Gene Deitch era is often regarded as most people's least favorite. In this post I'd like to explain the merits of these 13 cartoons and why they still stay true to the original formula thay made this series last for so long.
After the original run of Tom & Jerry was discontinued in 1958, MGM hired Czech illustrator and cartoonist Gene Deitch to make a batch of cartoons between 1961-1962. At first he wasn't a fan of the series, thinking they were "needlessly violent" but he soon came to realize that nobody took the cartoon violence very seriously. The end result was 13 unique Tom & Jerry cartoons with creative uses of slapstick and a memorable soundtrack.
The animation in these cartoons is more jerky than it is fluid, giving it a more surrealist style. This was not Deitch's intention though as time and budget restrictions prevented him and his team from going all out. Deitch's cartoons were made with a budget of $10,000 per cartoon ($86,326 in today's money) where as the Hanna-Barbera cartoons were made with at least 4x that budget. In addition to that, Deitch had to make about twice as many cartoons as Hanna-Barbera in a year; instead of 6 per year, Deitch and his team had to make 12 (source: https://web.archive.org/web/20091226202824/http://genedeitch.awn.com/index.php3?ltype=chapter&chapter=20). Given those obstacles, the fact that Deitch and his team were able to complete 13 cartoons at all should be commended.
The cartoons themselves still maintain that cat and mouse game dynamic and the gags are still pretty funny. One element that makes these cartoons stand out are the sound effects, as Deitch and his team utilized more comical sound effects such as springs and vocals from Deitch himself and Allen Swift. These cartoons also put Tom and Jerry in more exotic locations instead of the typical house in the suburbs. These include the jungle, in space, and even on Captain Ahab's ship from Moby Dick. There was also the replacement of Mammy Two Shoes for a bald, round shaped, short tempered, middle-aged white man that brutally punishes Tom for messing things up (similar to Spike the Bulldog). People tend to call this animal abuse but this round shaped man is tame compared to the times Spike pulverized Tom.
All of these cartoons tended to end with Tom losing as opposed to the Hanna-Barbera cartoons were sometimes Jerry loses. This probably would've changed had MGM renewed their contract with Deitch. As is, the 13 Gene Deitch cartoons developed a cult following in later years and for good reason. Despite the animation being a bit choppy in parts, Deitch's Tom & Jerry cartoons still maintain the core essence of these iconic characters. The humor is still on point, the sound effects and score are well handled and the exotic locations were a nice change in pace for the duo. Sure, they're not everyone's cup of tea, but they're still worthy additions to the Tom & Jerry legacy. If I could say one thing to Gene Deitch, it's thank you for your contribution to this ongoing series and making your mark in animation history. I salute you 🙋♂️
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