Tom And Jerry: Texas Tom Review

Tom And Jerry are characters that need absolutely no introduction as everyone regardless of there age knows who these characters are be it from there various TV shows and movies or if really your off a certain the original animated shorts. Bottom line being these two characters are ones that alot of people do know about and well I thought that i'd take a look at one of there classic shorts as i've really been trying to get a review of one of there shorts of the ground and so then join me as I review the cartoon that sees Tom and Jerry at a dude ranch with the cartoon in question being called simply just "Texas Tom" enjoy.

The plot of this cartoon is Tom and Jerry are just doing there usual thing at a dude ranch when an attractive cat comes to stay and Tom falls in love with her. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon was in all honesty really good. While the cartoons plot is a really simple plot for something like Tom and Jerry that's kind of what you want as the plots are nothing more then an excuse for the characters to get creatively violent with each other and that is something that doesn't really require a deep plot to it. Rather it just requires the most basic of sets up and that's it and that's something that we the plot of this cartoon gives us as the set up is them at a dude ranch we don't need to know why they are there we just need to see them there as that allows for the characters to get to the mindless and funny violence that they are known for and while yes it would have helped if the cartoon did have a stronger plot as something like "Blue Cat Blues" did prove that these characters can work just find with a stronger plot and still have funny violence but it's not really something that is required to make the cartoon work as nobody is going to a Tom And Jerry cartoon wanting to see a plot heavy cartoon as we are going into it to see these two hurt each other in fun and funny ways and whilst yes it would have helped if they did have a deeper plot as then could answer the question of why these characters are this dude ranch in the first place but that is something that would take away from what we've came to to this cartoon for in the first place with the plot of this cartoon also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. 

This one of the many Tom And Jerry cartoons where there is no voice actors in the cartoon and this is something that does work for these characters. As these character do work there best when they are silent as then we get to see what the characters are thinking through the use of the animation rather then having it be told us and thankfully alot of the Tom And Jerry movies barring the obvious one have stayed true to this and kept the characters silent minus the odd scream from Tom with the characters being the best animated silent duo of all time due to the fact that they never utter a word not only in this cartoon but in alot of the cartoons as well with this being something that has helped to make the characters timeless. As if this cartoon was made today then you just know that the characters wouldn't shut up and would be voiced by celebrities spouting phrases that are four or five years old with that being something that would date the cartoon right away and yet due t the fact that the characters never say a word you could show a kid this cartoon today and actually trick them into thinking that it's a new cartoon as outside of one scene the whole cartoon does have a timeless quality to it, with the fact that the characters also being why they've been able to keep on going all of these instead of just fading away like alot of other silent movie stars did eventually do when talkies started being a thing as it would have been very easy for Tom And Jerry to just fade away when the shorts ended but they kept on coming back and they kept on bringing back that style of silent cinema where it's just the characters actions and facial expressions that are driving the dialog forward and while yes cartoons like for example Mickey Mouse and the Looney Tunes have proven that characters can still talk and be relevant the fact that Tom And Jerry are silent characters is something that has made them stand out even all of these many years later.

Silent characters like Mr. Bean have proven that there is still a market out for these types of characters as when they are done right like they are with Tom And Jerry you usually end up getting gold. On top of that it would have the added the benefit of making the comedy feel timeless as now your not bogging it down with modern day lingo your just doing what has always been funny with these cartoon and even the Mr. Bean sketches being very easy to translate across the world as once again the characters are silent and therefor everything is visual with this being something that means kid in say Asia could find the same Tom And Jerry cartoon that a kid in America or in other parts of the world also loves and yet for one reason or another Hollywood today seems to shy away from doing this type of comedy when it's a proven hit. With this cartoon again being a good example of this as all of the jokes ad the story are told visually whereas alot of the other Tom and Jerry cartoons have someone getting across what the set up is for the cartoon where as here none of that happens and we have to rely solely on what we see happening in the cartoon with this being something that does make the cartoon feel like it does have that universal feeling to it as while alot of people wont know what a dude ranch is or if they do it's more then likely because they've seen it on TV but the idea of Tom doing anything to get the attention of this attractive cat all the while Jerry is just messing with him that is something that alot of people can relate and it is something that we see in a lot of silent comedy films and shorts, again the Mr. Bean episodes are a good example of this as alot of the time they do have this extra ordinary character doing these mundane things with it being how he does them that makes them funny and timeless and yet alot of the comedy that we have today isn't timeless where as the silent comedy of Tom and Jerry will always be timeless.   

Doing the animation for this cartoon is the legends and the greats that are Kenneth Muse , Irven Spence , Ray Patterson and Ed Barge. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon was in all honesty really good. This cartoons animation was of a really good quality with all of the cartoons backgrounds looking really good but at the same time tho the backgrounds do feel a little bit empty as there's really nothing to hit home that the point that the characters are meant to be at dude ranch granted this might gave been for budgetary reasons which would be fair enough but there did still need to be something to make the the cartoons backgrounds stand out all the more. Where the cartoons animation does stand out is with the characters movements as all of the characters are not only given these really fluid movements but there are also given this really zippy animation that does work well with the series sense of comedy, yet there was one thing that did slightly let the cartoons animation own and that's the fact that they recycle a scene from earlier on in the cartoon where Tom throws his rope and it chases Jerry around a corner which was fine the first time that they did it as then it was being use to set up the cartoon but using it again later on in the same cartoon does scream budgetary issues which is something that doesn't really harm the cartoon or it's animation but it does make the makers of this cartoon be all the more lazy as it's a only a few seconds they very easily could have animated a different scene but the fact that they didn't do that it does mark down the animations quality.

As with alot of the cartoons from the same time period this one was censored altho not as much as others where. As the only scene that got removed at the very least in the UK version of the cartoon is the scene where we see Tom smoking and that's it and just to be clear this cartoon does also have a scene very early on where Tom is show to be using a gun and yet that scene and the joke following it for that matter never got cut from the UK version of the cartoon whilst it is understandable as to why the scene of Tom smocking was cut as they didn't want to put kids onto smocking then surely they should have cut the scene with him using a gun as that is a weapon that kids could get ahold off and use either on each other or on a loved one or friend. Fair enough not having the scene with Tom smocking in the cartoon wouldn't effect the cartoon at all but it does make weird that censors chose to fixate on that one small scene when odds are that kids would be exposed more to smocking due to having either a parent of a family member that does smoke but as was said it was understandable as to why it was cut in the first place much like how it was understandable why the makers of this cartoon thought that it was a good idea to include it in the first place as back in the fifties when this cartoon was being made smocking would have been seen a being the in thing to do at the time and with these cartoons reflecting the thoughts and attitudes of the time that they were made in which in this case does include showing smoking as being a cool and popular thing when in reality it's not cool and it's never the popular thing to do.

Much like with alot of Tom and Jerry cartoons the person starting the fight this time around is Tom himself. This is something that will always work as it means that Jerry does have a reason to actively fight Tom where as in some of the cartoons its Jerry that's that presented as being the bad guy due to the fact that he would start the fight with Tom and while it could be argued that the same thing does happen here due to the fact that the cartoon does start with them fighting but due to the fact that we see Tom acting more like a bad guy towards Jerry it is safe to assume that he is the one that started the fight and heck we even see him drag Jerry back to him by his rope at the start of the cartoon therefor Jerry is actually totally justified in his hatred of Tom in this cartoon. With the fact that they do get up to there usual schtick all the while Tom is still trying to impress this girl with singing off of a record only serving to hit hm the fact that the two of them really can't stand each other this time around as it does feel like that they are trying to one up each other interms of the things that they do to each other which is something that does make the cartoon alot of fun to watch as you never really no just what it is that the characters are going to be doing to each other next with the only things that we know for sure is that it's going to hurt and it's going to be funny. However tho there should have been a scene later on in the cartoon where Jerry does something to extreme to the point where it does make Tom want to genuinely hurt him as that is something that these two characters not only would do to each other but have done to each other in other cartoons and it therefore wouldn't seem out of place in this cartoon.

However the thing that does seem out of place in not only this cartoon but just in general is the fact that it's revealed that Jerry also has feelings for the cat. Granted this is a cute and funny way to end the cartoon but given the fact that he's just spent the entire cartoon trying to get rid of one cat it doesn't really make sense for him to want to impress another one as that just feels out of character if it was revealed that the cat had an attractive mouse friend or an attractive mouse pulled up outside the dude ranch then it would work as it would make sense for Jerry to try and go after a female mouse but him going after a female cat just because she's beautiful doesn't change the fact that she is still a cat which by this franchises own logic implies that she would want to eat Jerry. The female cat who according to the Tom And Jerry fandom wiki is called Tara really doesn't do all tat much as all she does is just sit there why the guys fawn over her which is fine for a cartoon like this one but it doesn't give us a reason to like her character due to the fact that like alot of the love interests in this franchise he doesn't really do anything to move the plot forward rather she is to start the plot and that's really it yet it would made just as much sense if we got to see play more of an active role in the cartoon just by having her turn Tom down during the cartoon or just not notice thus forcing him to make his attempts to win her over more and more extreme something which he has shown to perfectly willing to do with other love interests in the past and yet by not having her do anything other then it there for some odd reason the makers of this cartoon have instead just made what could have been a funny character into someone who is just there for the sake of the cartoon needing a female character.

Now then this carton has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly six minuets and forty two seconds. Which is kind of the bogstandard running time for a Tom And Jerry cartoon as they never typically ran over seven minuets and to be fair these cartoons don't really need longer running times in order for them to work in the first place as alot of the time they do have simpler plots that don't really require a longer running time in order for them to work and while this cartoon could have benefitted from being a few minuets longer as that would allow for more jokes to be packed unto the cartoon it wasn't something that was needed in the first with this cartoon having more then there interms of plot to cover this amount of running time in the first place. While the cartoon doesn't really use its running time all that wisely as the cartoon doesn't take the time to fully develop its plot given the fact that the plot of his cartoon as is simple as it is it really doesn't need to as all it needs to do is give us the basic set up of the cartoon and that's it and that is something that really doesn't require plot development would have been nice if there was some plot development yes of course it would but it's not needed when the plot is this simple with the makers of this cartoon being far more focused on giving Tom a musical number then they were in giving this cartoon some plot development. The same thing is also rue for the cartoons character development as both Tom and Jerry don't really need any character development as there usual schtick doesn't require it as the only thing that we need to know is who is the bad guy of the cartoon and that's really it with the only character who did need some  development being Tara and even then given how simple the plot is it's debatable on if she really needed character development with the makers of this cartoon being alot more focused on making Jerry fall in love with a cat then they are in giving the characters some actual character development but I really will admit that this very cartoon really dos have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very cartoon was in all honesty really good. The cartoons comedy whilst it is really good does oddly enough feel like it's holding itself back as there's none of the top violence that we think of when we think of Tom and Jerry and while that's not always a bad thing but given the fact that this cartoon is set at a dude ranch then it does make you wonder why the makers of this cartoon didn't go as all out as they normally would have done in a Tom And Jerry cartoon. With the best joke in the whole cartoon being when Tom does first capture Jerry and he brings Tom back with his rope does taunt him by almost threatening to shoot him only for Jerry to not only turn the tables on Tom but also blow ll of the the bullets out of his gun into Tom's mouth and then hitting the bullets so they explode with Jerry then escaping only for Tom and to once again drag him back with his rope only this time Jerry has a cactus in his hand which he then uses to whack Tom in the face and escape again with Tom this time hitting himself in the face with a pole when he tries to give chase, what makes this joke work is the fact that it does feel like classic Tom And Jerry with then getting as violent as they want to do with Jerry hitting the bullets in Toms mouth with this joke being a fine example of just how funny that the jokes in this cartoon be with the rest of the cartoons jokes being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall this was a really fun cartoon that does do a solid up of giving us the violence that we love in a Tom and Jerry cartoon and while the comedy does feel like it's holding itself back alot when it does go all out that's when we get to see just how funny that this cartoon really is in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now the i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very cartoon in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very cartoon really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in his very review from Amazon . Co . Uk and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very post being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.