Which Tom & Jerry Version Do You Like?

[FredVelDaphFan]

Personally, I like the original Hanna BArbera style from the 40's. Every time I watch the eps from when Chuck Jones took over, I turn off the TV. The characters in CJ's version had lost their edges and they look too "cutsy." Also, every time I see the way they drew Tom, I immediately think of the "Grinch". It is the big eyeballs that get to me.

[Mr.E]

I like the 1940's original Tom and Jerry ,the Chuck Jones version (YES I LIKE IT ), and the soviet made ones. I couldn't stand the later ones were they were friends.

[One Radical Dude]

I liked most of them, except maybe for the ones after Chuck Jones's version. I prefer the Fred Quimby/Hanna-Barbera ones the most.

[Daffy Dork]

Easiest Question Ever

The 40's Ones Made By Hanna-Barbera

The Gene Deitch Ones Were Awful.
The TV made ones were worse.

Chuck Jones are okay. But they will never even get close to the originals

[JCorey3rd]

The Gene Deitch ones are the best - since they are so creepy and violent. They almost look like bootleg soviet T&J cartoons.

[Tintin]

The original Tom & Jerry and the Chuck Jones versions (I never my chance for Gene Deitch)

[AarHan3]

Definitely the H-B 1975 TV version...hands down. In spite of every slight, insult, rant and defiling ever cast at it. Hence my avatar and New Tom & Jerry Info Site (http://www.1975tomjerry.50megs.com/)! :cool:

What can I say? I'm an afiicionado of HB's mid-to-late 1970s work! I'm a child of the 1970s! To each his/her own... :p

CN ran them this past spring. :D

Filmation's 1980-82 version wasn't bad, but lacked punch; the 1990 T&J Kids I didn't really care much for (despite Jerry keeping his '75 bowtie).

Not that I have anything against the classics, mind you! It's just I don't much care for that grey stripe between Tom's eyes. :)

[candy17]

I like the 1940's original Tom and Jerry ,the Chuck Jones version (YES I LIKE IT ), and the soviet made ones. I couldn't stand the later ones were they were friends.
I grew up with the original Hanna-Barbera ones and the Gene Deitch (the Soviet) ones, so I prefer those.

The Chuck Jones ones...well, there were some good ones, but I'm really not a big fan of them.

[Jave]

Original 1940s version, definitely.

[Mr.E]

I grew up with the original Hanna-Barbera ones and the Gene Deitch (the Soviet) ones, so I prefer those.

The Chuck Jones ones...well, there were some good ones, but I'm really not a big fan of them.
The Chuck jones ones are my least favoirite and the original ones are my favorite. I don't know why H-B made them slowy made them so damn friendly.

[stargirl]

Do you know when they'll be showing the Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape show again?

Because when I first heard of it on my TV guide, I thought that it was just a bunch of cartoons timeslotted together, but now I found out that it's equal to the New Tom and Jerry Show, I really need to see it!

So, any more timeslots?:confused: :D

[Howard Fein]

The Chuck jones ones are my least favoirite and the original ones are my favorite. I don't know why H-B made them slowy made them so damn friendly.
If you're referring to the T&J shorts made for ABC's Saturday AM schedule in 1975, their friendship was mandated by various watchdog groups and Network Standards & Practices. Cartoon violence of the type common to the MGM T&J theatricals (and all TV and theatrical cartoons through the sixties) was severely toned down in the 1970s. Under these constraints, the writers felt it easier to make :tomcat:&:jerry: buddies rather than rivals- although there were several episodes in which they competed in sporting events, with :tomcat: predictably coming out on the losing end.

That's not to say the 1975 show didn't contain some slapstick mayhem, usually suffered by the incidental characters. A watchdog could get slammed into the wall by the back of an opening door; opponents in an airplane race could suffer the same fate as :coyote: and the Vulture Squadron (with the same miraculous recovery thereafter); a human hunter could fall from great heights to leave a crater in the ground. Even :tomcat: &:jerry:, along with the rest of Robin Hood's Merry Men, get roasted by a fire-breathing dragon.

If you're referring to the MGM theatricals, there were a few later, post-Quimby shorts in which they were on the same side, trying to vanquish the talkative duckling (THE VANISHING DUCK) or rescue a wayward infant (BUSY BUDDIES, TOT WATCHERS). These were made in the last year or so of production, by which time lower budgets and creative fatigue had set in.

The CBS Saturday AM series made by Filmation in 1980 made them antagonists again, but still had to comply with anti-violence guidelines- which it did with mixed results. By the nineties, these guidelines relaxed somewhat which resulted in FOX's 1990-93 revival freely indulging in full, explosion-laden comic mayhem again. (Unfortunately, the pointless 'youthifying' of the characters made this rather uncomfortable. Seeing an 'adult' :tomcat: blown up and flattened into an accordian is hilarious; the same things happening to a cute, cap-wearing kitten seems cruel.:sad: )

My preferences of the various :tomcat: :jerry: versions in descending order- best to worst:

H-B theatricals
H-B TV shorts- if only for the great Hoyt Curtin score
Jones theatricals- largely too cutesy and slow-placed
Filmation- the writers found a surprisingly large number of ways to retain the rivalry while satisfying the censors
KIDS- Aforementioned awkward Fountain of Youth premise redeemed by marvelous animation
Deitch theatricals- Campily bad

[Dr. Dave]

I enjoy the theatrical cartoons directed by Hanna-Barbera (roughly 1940-57) the best. :D

Gene Dietch's brief work for MGM (1961-63) I don't care for. Style is too weird.:sad:

Chuck Jones work for MGM (1963-1967) is OK. Not as much mayhem as the originals, but still good. It's interesting to see how different directors work with the same characters.

The made-for-TV versions of the cat and mouse that followed are pale shadows of the originals, stripped of all charm, character, and humor. Should be consigned to the dust bin of history, shown only in animation classes as bad examples of the art.

[Mr.E]

If you're referring to the MGM theatricals, there were a few later, post-Quimby shorts in which they were on the same side, trying to vanquish the talkative duckling (THE VANISHING DUCK) or rescue a wayward infant (BUSY BUDDIES, TOT WATCHERS). These were made in the last year or so of production, by which time lower budgets and creative fatigue had set in.Thoose are the ones Iam talking about, I don't know who made what though. But I defeinetly know that Tom and Jerry got soft in there later years, especially in that Tom and Jerry movie. These recent DTV movies have them being rivals again, but they're horrible.

[sag_2002]

Seems like I'm in the minority here, but I actually liked the 90's "Kids" version.

[Mr.E]

Seems like I'm in the minority here, but I actually liked the 90's "Kids" version.
They were decent, but I actually do prefer the new Droopy shorts they made in the show.

[AarHan3]

Do you know when they'll be showing the Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape show again?

Because when I first heard of it on my TV guide, I thought that it was just a bunch of cartoons timeslotted together, but now I found out that it's equal to the New Tom and Jerry Show, I really need to see it!

So, any more timeslots?:confused: :D
Cartoon Network re-added the 1975 T&J TV cartoons to their daily rotation this past spring.

Don't know when they (or Boomerang) will re-run them again, though... :confused:

[Anarky]

old school 40's no doubt!

some of the chuck jones were good...i believe henry mancini scored a few of those eps (one of my favorite film composers)

[nakak]

I prefer the MGM theatricals from Hanna-Barbera and the Chuck Jones ones. I don't like the others, especially those junks from Gene Deitch.

[sag_2002]

They were decent, but I actually do prefer the new Droopy shorts they made in the show.
Ah, the Droopy segments. That was my favorite part of T&JK.

[Eric B]

That's because Droopy was kept the same age. They messed the Tom & Jerry's up bymaking only them younger (while even Spike and Tyke stayed the same age). They should either have made spike young (instead of spinning him and Tyke off into their own series (again), and replacing him on TJK with all those new characters, (like that big dopey looking fluffy cat). Or do it Tiny toons style, with a "new generation": Nibbles versus the little grey kitten versus Tyke (The grown Tom, Jerry and Spike would make occasional appearance, and Spike & Tyke could still have their own series). I was praprared to suggest that the TJKids were really Nibbles and the kitten, until I saw at least one actual episode with Nibbles (or some other younger mouse) with the young Jerry! They really jacked that all up! This messed it up for me. Otherwise, it would have been perhaps the best after the original.
(Tom and Jerry just did not get the good treatment the Looney Tunes did in new productions. Perhaps they can correct the age disparity in a new "Tom & Jerry Babies", show!:evil: )

Another sign of the easing of the restrictions in the 90's is the reappearance of Red. Between her total dissappearance in all new cartoons, plus only "rural Riding Hood" being shown on TV, 70's T&J viewers did not realize how much of a regular character she was. Now, with the airing of the older films, and T&J Kids, you cannot think of a Droopy vs. the Wolf story without Red. (She was even used in that little "Latte" shorty). The most logical place she could have been used in 1980 would have been Disco Droopy where he and the wolf compete in dancing. But those Droopys were entirely animal characters, so Droopy took a hippo who rejected Slick, and Slick ended up with a sexy kitten. I imagine Filmation's version of Red would have looked like the rest of their busty goddess type characters (She Ra, the female villains, etc)

[Debbie]

I like most versions of Tom and Jerry, from the 1940's-50's, Deitch and Jones' 1960's films, the 1975 "friends" series and Filmation's 1980 series as those are the ones I saw in syndication until about 1995(?). The Movie isn't so great, Tom and Jerry Kids was interesting, but seemed to wear out the novelty of kid versions of the cat and mouse, "Mansion Cat" from 2000 was drawn much better than most of the comebacks, but rather forgettable, The Magic Ring movie while being very well drawn, was slow and repetitive, and "Blast off To Mars" while definetely an improvement, just didn't do much for me, either.

[Top Catfan01]

For the original Tom & Jerry show, I did like the Hanna-Barbara '40s years most, but I liked Tom's appreance in the first T&J movie (where they actually talked for once) the best. But I just got hooked on the Tom & Jerry kids show, (I'm obiously a bigtime :tomcat: fan, I never really liked Jerry THAT much) Tom as a kitten was just too cute to pass up, but I could've done without him being hurt like in the "adult" version though, still, it just got me hooked after I saw him as a kitten on there, & I probably have all but 6 or 7 episodes recorded on tape from when CTN aired it a few years ago. I'm still waiting for either,
1) they start airing T&J kids on CTN again as I don't have boomerang)
or 2) they release the complete series on DVD like they did Top Cat & other H-B characters. (I manged to get TC's DVD set as a Christmas present last Christmas! ^_^)

[Smallville]

I like the original Tom & jerry