Mouse into Space

This one goes straight past the usual cartoon violence and into Itchy and Scratchy territory, starting with an unprovoked Tom sliding a handgun through Jerry's mouse hole door and apparently shooting Jerry in the head.

I disagree with the first review. I saw this cartoon on TV today and was sturck by the unusual color palette, and laughed out loud when they x-rayed the mouse before he was accepted into the space program. Yes, the later "Tom & Jerry"'s are different, but I don't think they are bad. I don't have children. Maybe if I did, I would be offended by Tom becoming a drunk in this cartoon. I thought it was rather funny.

I love Tom & Jerry. I think, along with the work of Tex Avery, the Hanna-Barbera Tom & Jerry cartoons are some of the best theatrical short animation ever. When Hanna and Barbara struck out on their own, MGM felt the need to continue the series without them. They hired Gene Deitch to take over. This was a very poor choice as I see it. Deitch's style is very two-dimensional and not very suited to the action of a Tom & Jerry short. The plots tend to be thin as paper and occasionally disturbing. Plus, in the Deitch shorts, both Tom and Jerry seem to have developed a mean streak. They have never been nice to each other, but in these they seem to sometimes act downright evil when it comes to the other. One of the main complaints with the Deitch Tom & Jerry shorts is the music and sound effects. Both are rather obviously artificial sounding and downright creepy. Probably the worst thing was the way Deitch treated the characters. In this short, you have Tom turned into a drunk tramp. That's just plain wrong. That's in any cartoon, but especially a Tom & Jerry one. Overall, this is a very poor short from a very poor series.