This is the first cartoon in a series from Van Beuren studio. There will be spoilers ahead:
In the early 1930s, a small animation studio, casting about for recurring characters so that they could try to create appeal for their shorts, hit on a Mutt and Jeff-like pair that they named Tom and Jerry. This is not the much more familiar cat and mouse team developed at MGM, but some of their shorts are rather good. Some of them will cure the worst insomnia. This is one of the former.
Tom and Jerry drive a taxi cab and are waiting at the train station in hopes of getting a fare. There's a nice touch having their cab take on facial features and sneeze. Another nice touch comes when the train goes through water and oars pop out and rowing begins (I believe the music is The Volga Boatmen). The train pulls into the station and two odd-looking bearded men get off. Jerry, the shorter of the two, herds them into the cab and they set off.
After a short ride punctuated by a few sight gags, they stop in front of a castle and the passengers leave without paying. Our heroes follow them and wind up locked in as a result. Now the short takes off. A storm cloud starts playing the walls as though they are piano keys, the first of two such types of gags. The other is a skeleton who paints piano keys on a flat surface and starts to play. Skeletons abound in this short-dancing skeletons, a skeleton taking a bath and so on. There's a good sequence which probably won't fly today-a quartet of black skeletons singing a spiritual. The gag that ends the bit is crude but funny.
Tom and Jerry meet up with their passengers again and the result is the closing gag, which I won't spoil here. It's appropriate and a nice touch.
This short is available on a two DVD set of The Complete Animated Adventures of Van Beuren's Tom and Jerry from Thunderbean and it and the DVD set are worth checking out. The set is most highly recommended.
In the early 1930s, a small animation studio, casting about for recurring characters so that they could try to create appeal for their shorts, hit on a Mutt and Jeff-like pair that they named Tom and Jerry. This is not the much more familiar cat and mouse team developed at MGM, but some of their shorts are rather good. Some of them will cure the worst insomnia. This is one of the former.
Tom and Jerry drive a taxi cab and are waiting at the train station in hopes of getting a fare. There's a nice touch having their cab take on facial features and sneeze. Another nice touch comes when the train goes through water and oars pop out and rowing begins (I believe the music is The Volga Boatmen). The train pulls into the station and two odd-looking bearded men get off. Jerry, the shorter of the two, herds them into the cab and they set off.
After a short ride punctuated by a few sight gags, they stop in front of a castle and the passengers leave without paying. Our heroes follow them and wind up locked in as a result. Now the short takes off. A storm cloud starts playing the walls as though they are piano keys, the first of two such types of gags. The other is a skeleton who paints piano keys on a flat surface and starts to play. Skeletons abound in this short-dancing skeletons, a skeleton taking a bath and so on. There's a good sequence which probably won't fly today-a quartet of black skeletons singing a spiritual. The gag that ends the bit is crude but funny.
Tom and Jerry meet up with their passengers again and the result is the closing gag, which I won't spoil here. It's appropriate and a nice touch.
This short is available on a two DVD set of The Complete Animated Adventures of Van Beuren's Tom and Jerry from Thunderbean and it and the DVD set are worth checking out. The set is most highly recommended.