Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Tom & Jerry II


I've been watching quite a bit of Tom & Jerry on Boomerang lately and I've been paying a bit more attention to the different eras. As a kid it was obvious that there was something weird going on with a handful of episodes. These 13 were made in Czechoslovakia and are a departure from the original Hanna Barbara cartoons. Following the Czech cartoons (known as the Deitch era after animator Gene Deitch), Chuck Jones took up the Tom & Jerry mantle and put out cartoons that looked and felt a bit like his earlier Roadrunner cartoons. These 3 eras were lumped together and aired in the '80s where I first saw them. The 4th and 5th incarnations of Tom & Jerry were created in the late '70s/early '80s and aired as their own shows (The Tom & Jerry Show and The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show respectively). The former featured Jerry in a bow tie and presented the duo as friends (there's that crusade against violent children's shows again) and the latter returned to predictable cat and mouse scenario but this time used noticeably inferior animation and sound effects. This 5th incarnation has been added to the bundle that Boomerang aires. Each time they come on they seem just vaguely familiar and stick out as drastically lower quality. At least it doesn't include the 6th era, The Tom & Jerry Kids Show.

This figure is from 1986 and was made by Comics Spain. Like Tom & Jerry's previous appearance, this figure doesn't appear to be connected to any specific incarnation of the show. Also like their previous appearance, Jerry is the only one skating. Jerry is on a pretty unusual board although it might just be a single roller skate that he is riding like a skateboard.

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