Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Really Surprised!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Having got fed up of rural life Jerry writes Tom a letter letting him know he is leaving. He rides on a train to New York and sets about seeing the city; along the way he gets into a few scrapes; he gets stuck to a piece of chewing gum in Grand Central Station, gets washed down a drain only to emerge from a manhole into the traffic and a trip up a skyscraper almost leads to him falling from great height after climbing up a candle near the window to get a better view and toppling it. It isn't all danger though he enjoys seeing some attractive women and has a dance with a succession of small dolls that are acting as place card holders on a dining table. Ultimately though he realises the city isn't the place for him so he heads home; tears up the note he left for Tom then kisses him!This 'Tom and Jerry' short is unlike any I recall seeing before in many ways; most obviously it hardly features Tom at all, and when we do see him he isn't trying to do anything violent to Jerry! While in New York Jerry might get into a succession of scrapes but there isn't the sadistic malice one gets in most of these cartoons. At one point he encounters some scary alley cats but he just flees without the usual turning of the tables we expect when he fights Tom. Most of what happens is clearly there for the animators to show off their skills; and I must say it looks very good. I wouldn't want all Tom and Jerry cartoons to be like this but as a one off this tamer instalment made a refreshing change so is well worth watching.

There's a lot of good that can be said for this cartoon; the backgrounds are rich, lushly colored and full of nicely done art deco details. The animation is up to the usual studio standards of the time, which are unquestionably higher than those of the present day. However, I find it tedious for a number of reasons.The Music: It's definitely not up to Scott Bradley's usual standards. Although it's probably supposed to be evocative of a "Great Gatsby" setting, it ends up being dreary, sleepy, repetitious AND monotonous (repetitious and monotonous are not the same, as Beethoven's 5th Symphony attests). Since most people (including me) tend to close their eyes when they yawn, there's a lot of the visual part of the cartoon that will be missed by the average viewer.The Storyline: I'm not giving away any secrets that aren't already in the plot summary - country good, city bad. This is a common theme in films, both animated and live, from this era. It's a misplaced nostalgia for a nonexistent rural idyll, which, in the present day, is reflected in a similar nostalgia for "values" that never were.

This cartoon has T&J living a quiet life out in a cosy country cottage. Tom is bored with country life and decides to leave for the Big Apple one night. Writing a goodbye note to Tom, he catches the next train to his new, exciting life.When he gets there he discovers that Manhattan is not so inviting to small rodents. Everywhere he goes, from Grand Central to posh dinner parties, he is tormented with the rude idiosyncrasies of big city life. Eventually landing in a dirty alley, he is run out of town by an army of hungry stray cats.Back the cottage, the still sleeping Tom (who does nothing else in this cartoon) has not yet read the note, which Jerry promptly tears up before going back into his mouse-hole. Better the Devil you know huh?

Those who choose to write off the Tom and Jerry series as a violence orgy should be directed toward any television playing this little jewel, which is practically a solo endeavour for the rodent half of the duo, and which suggests that Jerry's finest moments of dancing may not have been with Gene Kelly. See this one. Own it if you can.