Sneak Peek at new Tom & Jerry show TV series

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The animation in this is very hit and miss - mostly miss. The original cartoons had really good animation where everything flowed so well in movement - that, along with the plot-driven gags and comedic timing was what made the originals a joy to watch in the first place. I mean, the art-style in and off itself is fine, but without decent animation behind it, this one is gonna be rather awkward to watch.

[Phos]

Suspecting the exaggerated sound effects might just be for the trailer.  I also hope for their sake that the burp sound effect is actually a scream in the actual show.  I still expect it to at the very least be better than any time they're put a tie on Jerry.  I'm really giving this show the benefit of the doubt in a lot of ways, though. Maybe because in spite of being such a fan of classic animation, I'm not that big a fan of Tom & Jerry. 

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

So I watched The Tom & Jerry Show episodes, "Birthday Bashed" and "Feline Fatale" today.

 

After watching these, while the animation is slightly off it's actually pretty interesting to watch. I personally think that the way things are going, it's certainly better than Tom & Jerry Tales.

 

Tom's screams are very similar/close to the ones you hear in the old cartoons, in fact the screams sounds like it has been ripped off from the old cartoons. I'm not joking. O.o

 

The slapsticks are alright, it's definitely not annoying as it is in the trailer. From these two episodes I've watched though, Tom & Jerry while showed some hatred between themselves, they work together as a team. Don't want to spoil the plots so I won't go in to detail.

 

Oh and the music. Don't let the music in that trailer fool you. The music played in the trailer doesn't go well with most of those slapsticks, but in the actual episodes, it's perfectly fine.

 

Does these episodes match the old episodes? No...but it's closer than any modern Tom & Jerry cartoon/movie released for the past 15 years or so. I can't fully judge the series as I only seen two shorts but these two shorts are better than most T&J Tales cartoons alone.

 

P.S - They have redesigned Toodles in this series, with the Rouge the Bat personality.

[Guest]

So I watched The Tom & Jerry Show episodes, "Birthday Bashed" and "Feline Fatale" today.

After watching these, while the animation is slightly off it's actually pretty interesting to watch. I personally think that the way things are going, it's certainly better than Tom & Jerry Tales.

Tom's screams are very similar/close to the ones you hear in the old cartoons, in fact the screams sounds like it has been ripped off from the old cartoons. I'm not joking. O.o

The slapsticks are alright, it's definitely not annoying as it is in the trailer. From these two episodes I've watched though, Tom & Jerry while showed some hatred between themselves, they work together as a team. Don't want to spoil the plots so I won't go in to detail.

Oh and the music. Don't let the music in that trailer fool you. The music played in the trailer doesn't go well with most of those slapsticks, but in the actual episodes, it's perfectly fine.

Does these episodes match the old episodes? No...but it's closer than any modern Tom & Jerry cartoon/movie released for the past 15 years or so. I can't fully judge the series as I only seen two shorts but these two shorts are better than most T&J Tales cartoons alone.

P.S - They have redesigned Toodles in this series, with the Rouge the Bat personality.

Are you watching it via Teletoon?

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Are you watching it via Teletoon?

 

I have a friend in Canada who has recorded several episodes of the cartoon since he has kids. I don't know how he does it, but he can save what he's recorded on to his PC. So I asked if he can share an episode with me and he didn't mind.

[ElectricAngel]

After a bit of searching, I found the episodes Birthday Based and Feline Fatale on Dailymotion. So if anyone wants, they can check out the show a bit early if they want to. The uploader also has the episodes Cat Nippy and Ghosts of a Chance up, but I haven't watched those yet.

 

Now, after watching it, I have to agree with Ming of this. The show is very reminiscent of the old shorts. The animation is actually pretty fuild. My only complain is when the slapstick happens, it doesn't flow as well as the old shorts, or any of the other shows for that matter.

 

As for the episodes themselves, I noticed that they indeed did rip old screams for Tom. It's the signature Tom scream and although it does sound out of place (because the audio quality fluctuates) it's still fits. I also noticed a few classic gags returned, which was nice to see. And the music is done really well. The trailer really showed a horrible example of what the show was going to be like. The music sounds orchestrated, but I'm not sure if it actually is? But it does fit the episodes really nice. 

 

I'm overall surprised with how much I liked in this show. I probably won't be watching every episode as soon as it comes out, but I will watch it every now and then. My only real complain, like I mentioned before is that at times, the slapstick wouldn't flow as well, but it's still pretty entertaining to watch. 

[Dizcrybe]

Ehhh... at least they're trying, but this doesn't stand up to the original shorts IMO. The sound effects aren't much better from the trailer, but at least every sound isn't that stock *THWAP* sound. Animation is better than I thought it'd be, though. I.e., it doesn't blatantly look like Canadian Flash animation.

 

All in all, it was okay. Not good, not bad, just okay.

[Milo]

Ehhh... at least they're trying, but this doesn't stand up to the original shorts IMO. The sound effects aren't much better from the trailer, but at least every sound isn't that stock *THWAP* sound. Animation is better than I thought it'd be, though. I.e., it doesn't blatantly look like Canadian Flash animation.

 

All in all, it was okay. Not good, not bad, just okay.

 

Saw the two episodes they have on the channel and my thoughts are likewise. Arguably comes the closest to the original shorts by far, but going by the competition, it's not saying much.

 

The main issue I take with the new cartoons is that Tom and Jerry aren't really as antagonistic to each other as they were in the original shorts. For example, the snow one has them immediately putting their differences aside to get back in the house. If their behavior was akin to that in the original shorts, Tom and Jerry would had immediately blamed each other for their misfortune (if not Tom blaming Jerry first) and the fight would had continued up until they have essentially knocked each other out / the cold would had gotten the better of them. Then there's the ghost episode in which Tom's trying to preserve his one life (this one goes under the "cats have nine lives" rule). Jerry does set up a few traps for him, but it's not as actively malevolent as Jerry was in say Nit-Witty Kitty, in which where Tom after a head injury thinks he's a mouse-that short has Jerry trying to yank piano legs, smash vases, even drop bowling balls in futile attempts to hit Tom on the head and restore him to normal. The only other issue I have is that it's also lacking in cartoon violence/slapstick at some points, and there's a overall lack of cartoon gags overall.

 

But like Metro said though, I do see more of an effort of trying to capture the spirit of the original shorts than with past iterations. Some slapstick gags are actually pretty funny; the violence, when it's there, isn't neutered (the detective one has Butch going through extreme lengths to whack Tom with an axe, he also gets a doorwaiter dropped on his head); the sound effects aren't as limited as they appear to be in the shorts (the recycled sound effects from the original shorts can be off-putting at first, but you get used to them eventually-I think if they enhanced/remastered the original clips, they wouldn't feel too out of place) and the music is miles better than the stock music Tales churned out, it's nicely paced with character actions/animations/moods and features the bombastic/fast-paced nature of the shorts.

 

In short, if the writers/animated keep Tom and Jerry as enemies above all else storywise, and don't shy away from being over-the-top with the use of cartoon violence/gags and slapstick, I can see the quality of the shorts vastly improving. Will be keeping an eye on this one.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

I'm sure the writers don't want to shy away from more cartoon violence but remember it's funded by...Cartoon Network.

CN wouldn't want that violence in the show. They want a 1 year old to watch the show.

Times have changed from then to today, for the worst. Generic girl comedies are a thing. Dull cartoons with generic stories are a thing.

[Dizcrybe]

If Adventure Time can get away with the stuff it does, a few bops on the head can't hurt.

[CrashRatchetFan]

Eh, I'll take the yearly DTV cash-in films over this flashy residue any day.

At least THEY'RE remiscent of the old days, they even brought back characters Tex Avery created that have long been forgotten.

[Milo]

I'm sure the writers don't want to shy away from more cartoon violence but remember it's funded by...Cartoon Network.

CN wouldn't want that violence in the show. They want a 1 year old to watch the show.

Times have changed from then to today, for the worst. Generic girl comedies are a thing. Dull cartoons with generic stories are a thing.

 

Nah, if they didn't want violence they wouldn't bother airing the original shorts in the first place, especially considering that while racial stereotypes are edited out (or shorts based on racial stereotypes like His Mouse Friday are banned from television), the violence stays intact. Also worth noting that Tom and Jerry reruns have never been taken off the schedule, even at the height of CN's dork age, presumably because it's one of the highest-rated shows on the network.

 

Then again, they currently treat action cartoons like an unholy plague that needs to be eradicated, so you might have a point.

[Dizcrybe]

Nah, if they didn't want violence they wouldn't bother airing the original shorts in the first place, especially considering that while racial stereotypes are edited out (or shorts based on racial stereotypes like His Mouse Friday are banned from television), the violence stays intact. Also worth noting that Tom and Jerry reruns have never been taken off the schedule, even at the height of CN's dork age, presumably because it's one of the highest-rated shows on the network.

 

Then again, they currently treat action cartoons like an unholy plague that needs to be eradicated, so you might have a point.

 

Actually, I'm pretty sure I saw one of the blackface gags left in on Boomerang way back when. That was before i even knew it was a thing.

[CrashRatchetFan]

Well, this came out of nowhere:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gLsHlO8OGTo

But hey, at least WB is actually willing to give the other HB characters a chance instead of relying on that damn mutt all the time.

[CrashRatchetFan]

Supposedly, Warner Bros. is planning to release an animated Tom & Jerry film in theaters in the future.

The article states that they're avoiding all the CGI-mashups like The Chipmunks and Garfield and sticking to the original source material. To bad it won't be traditionally animated.

[Milo]

Supposedly, Warner Bros. is planning to release an animated Tom & Jerry film in theaters in the future.

The article states that they're avoiding all the CGI-mashups like The Chipmunks and Garfield and sticking to the original source material. To bad it won't be traditionally animated.

 

Ugh, I thought the theatrical film pitch died out. I remember it floating around a while back, a live-action/CG hybrid that showed how the two meet...for some reason. The article says it was also planning to be made in a vein similar to Chipmunks...thank God that pitch never moved into the production stages.

 

Anyway, being fully animated and the studio's desire to have stick to the source material is a plus, but then the words "reinvent the characters for a mass audience" appeared. Do they mean in the vein of the live-action/CG Yogi Bear film released five years ago, which didn't go the Chipmunks/Smurfs route, but was still a poor movie nonetheless?

 

While the article doesn't say anything about what animated style it will take, yeah it's very likely it won't be traditionally animated. That said, I do hope it will take a page from Peanuts and use a 2D CG style that faithfully replicates the original animated shorts. I wouldn't mind a more traditional "3D" CG style though, that could give way to a fantastic use of stretch and squash animation for cartoon violence/slapstick purposes if done well.

 

Ultimately though I still don't like the idea that they are trying to go for the theatrical film approach again. The shorts are only seven-eleven minutes long and deal with a very specific setup; how that is going to translate well into a 90+ minute feature film? Best case scenario I can think of is that the primary plot is a chase film with several sequences of the classic slapstick/cartoon violence the original shorts are known for. Otherwise we'll get probably the same approach the DTV films and the first theatrical film used on which the characters are friendly rivals (or in the first movie's case, outright friends) that act as supporting casts in another person's story.

 

If they want to "reinvent" the characters, how about taking a page from Disney and produce a series of shorts for television like the 2013 Mickey Mouse series, that follow the setup of the original shorts and the violence/slapstick fully intact? Not the "neutered for television" "Main Characters & Friends" animated series setup Tales and the recent T&J Show were.

[CrashRatchetFan]

When you look at it, there's not much to "re-invent". Tom and Jerry is a very interesting case of trying to keep characters alive past their expiration date. Don't get me wrong, the original shorts are still great but the beauty of the idea was the simplicity. A cat, a mouse, you know the rest. No words, maybe 4 characters max, lots of fun animated violence.

Problem is that Hanna and Barbera basically came up with everything you can do with the characters, and now that whoever has the torch has to come up with new fresh ideas with less then stellar results (i.e. Gene Deitch, Chuck Jones, the new cartoon that's airing, etc...).

If they're looking for someone to "pen down the characters", they should get Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone on board. They're work on the DTVs is beautifully done, the best things since the Hanna-Barbera era IMO, maybe throw in master animator Eric Goldberg while they're at it. Heck, I would mind if the film was in the same vein as the CGI Looney Tunes shorts that came out a few years back, those were quite good.

I'm cynical as hell about this but I'm willing to see were they're going with this. Hope they don't fuck up the characters like they did 22 years ago.

[Gabz Girl]

Knowing how awful the first Tom and Jerry movie was even WITH Joseph Barbera as a creative consultant I don't have much faith in this CGI movie. >>

[CrashRatchetFan]

Knowing how awful the first Tom and Jerry movie was even WITH Joseph Barbera as a creative consultant I don't have much faith in this CGI movie. >>