Underplayed Gems

The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit (1962)

The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit poster
Directed by
Gene Deitch
Genre
comedy film
Country
United States
Runtime
7 min
Rated
NR
Rating
5.5 of 10 from 20 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This short film pokes fun at the standard formula and violence of the Tom and Jerry cartoons. Tom and Jerry train in judo and compete in a contest to break things, trying to outdo each other with escalating stunts.

fast-pacedzanysatiricalplayfulwackymetahyperbolic

What happens

The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit is a 123rd episode in Tom and Jerry animated action comedy short film, produced and released on August 10, 1962. It was the ninth cartoon in a series of thirteen to be directed by Gene Deitch and produced by William L. Snyder in Czechoslovakia. It updates its copyright to the current year 1962 as opposed to the 1961 copyright of Dicky Moe. The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit is a sarcastic attack on the series as a whole and its formulaic approach, which the short mocks as excessively violent and designed solely for profit. Deitch had strongly divergent views on animation compared to Tom and Jerry's creators, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, that he openly expressed throughout his lifetime. The film has a martial arts theme. Jerry Mouse and Tom Cat train in judo and then hold a breaking contest, in which each tries to outdo the other. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.