Here it is: http://www.manic-expression.com/members/channe1even/buddyblog/
Basically, for the two comments I got on my Tickle-U retrospective, each of them had the same consensus, it being that Tom and Jerry Kids was a pile of shit. And here we are today.
Right off the bat, I'm not a fan of Tom and Jerry, unless we're talking about the movie which I'll gladly support to piss off the people who'd favor the, in hindsight, repetitive older shorts- how the hell could people enjoy the same shorts over and over again, we all know that Jerry will win in the end, what pseudo-masochist could put up with this shit!?
You could say I'm just assuming, but I have seen plenty of these shorts back when they were on Cartoon Network. I caught an episode of The Tom and Jerry Show, more on that in a bit, I saw those Warner Bros. direct-to-video movies (which for the record are more tolerable to sit through). You might say that I'd hate this series, and you'd be right.
Over the years it seems as if not even Warner Bros., the current owners of the cartoons, had any idea what they wanted to do with the series, almost as if they caught on to the fact that if they try something new a 30 year old autistic man would screech until blood came out of his mouth. So they decided, fuck it, let's retell numerous famous films and throw in a Gary-Stu, that's the way to do it.
You could say that the series I'm talking about laid the groundwork for Tom and Jerry's gimmicky fate.
History
Tom and Jerry Kids began in 1990 and ended in 1993, with 65 episodes spanning four seasons. This was the third attempt at a Tom and Jerry TV series. The first, The Tom and Jerry Show, actually attempted to break the repetitive schtick of the original shorts by introducing a Yogi Bear and Boo Boo dynamic between the two characters. Obviously the violence would be toned down as a result of this. I actually caught an episode of this as a kid, and since I've seen the original Tom and Jerry shorts this caught me by surprise. Interestingly, this was produced by Hanna Barbera, who would have involvement with Tom and Jerry Kids.
There was also the Tom and Jerry Comedy Show, which seems to have returned to the roots of the shorts. The descriptions of the episodes aren't doing anything for me, let's just say the series exists for the sake of historical context. All else I could say is that this was by Filmation, pointless trivia is far more interesting to me than the series it stems from.
As for this series, it wound up on FOX, and unlike a continuing tradition held by the network since the 90s where the show would die out within one or two seasons, this sorta beat them all by double the cut-off. I dunno, I would've wanted to see more Titus or Sons of Tucson, can I give a season of this show to both of those?
Basics
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| You'd be looking at this most of the show's episodes. |
It's important to note that this is actually one of four segments in the series. The remaining three are an expansion on Spike and his son Tyke, recurring characters from the original shorts, and Droopy and CB Bears are thrown into the ring as well. The Droopy segments seem to have been the most prevalent, with the Spike shorts coming in at a close second.
The series worked like this, there'd be three segments every episode, two Tom and Jerry segments and one dedicated to any of the other three I mentioned previously. Shows with three segments are a double edged sword. On one hand, you get a little extra entertainment, on the other hand, it's usually a sign they couldn't come up with 15 minutes of material, understandable, how else could you expand on the ever so original and gripping tale of mouse outwitting cat, especially since the violence, while not as toned down as previous Tom and Jerry TV adaptations, is relatively low.
Think of this what you will, but I only want to focus on the Tom and Jerry Kids segments. Why? Because:
- That is what I set out to view.
- This is the principal segment in this show.
- Laziness.
As a result, I'm going to discuss my impressions on a clip of the episode. These are generally episodic, and you know the story behind Tom and Jerry, all that's changed is that they're kids.
What I've got from the clip:
- Very vanilla slapstick.
- Stale 90s television animation, basically done around the time Hanna-Barbera was kicking back on television production.
- Those kidinized designs for Tom and Jerry are doing little for me. I've seen worse, but I also see looks that say "I need money."
And that's all I need to see.
When it comes to episodic content reliant on one form of schtick, it becomes old fairly quickly. You see one, you might as well have seen all of them. Tom and Jerry isn't the kind of show that warrants immediate attention, it's better suited as background noise. But for some reason, people enjoy this repetitive shit. Whenever anyone tried to do something new, they were castrated for it. The average Tom and Jerry fan is comparable to the average classic Sonic fan, why else do people herald Sonic Mania as the best Sonic game when all it is is nostalgia pandering?
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I briefly touched upon this show in my Tickle-U retrospective but never gave it a full review, and honestly, I'm fine with that. There really isn't a lot I have to say about this, and quite frankly, I'm glad I got it over with so I could go back to more personal and obscure stuff.
Which reminds me, I have a review log now so I could keep track of stuff I want to cover and to give you an idea on what I'd be up to later on down the road: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SSLe8vTrnpE4sN-WmBPjyE2-UHyTGhhoHn_dZxNyLWc/edit?usp=sharing
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