I guess there are many cartoons that are my happy place:
- Tom and Jerry
- Looney Tunes
- Robotech
- Masters of the Universe (at least when I was a kid)
- Transformers (OG version)
- Voltron
- Battle of the Planets (G-Force)
- GI Joe
- Etc…
Tom and Jerry is a show I didn’t always hold in such high regard. Looney Tunes used to be my most favorite (and depending on the wheather my favorite switches back and forth). Early on I didn’t really pay attention to Tom and Jerry. I think this is due to the fact that Tom and Jerry was very hit and miss animation-wise (thanks to the Eastern Europe production company of the 60’s).
Tom and Jerry started in 1940 and ran (in theaters, like Looney Tunes) until they jumped to the small screen in 1965. In 1961 it went down hill quickly when MGM went cheap and produced new cartoons from a company in Prague, Czechoslovakia. There was a reprieve from the ugliness when Chuck Jones took over for a bit giving Tom and Jerry a decidedly Looney Tunes look.
My focus is pretty much everything up until the end of Chuck Jones’ work.
Several years ago I started buying the cheap DVD collections that Walmart would sell (around $5). Warner (who owns the title now) remastered some of the episodes and the early stuff LOOKS FANTASTIC. The art is wonderful! I fell in love with the mid-century modern look several years before and the 50’s eras cartoons had this in spades.
I got my kids watching it all and now they are hooked. They enjoy the modern stuff you can find on Netflix too but that is junk in my opinion. The old ones are where it’s at. I’m not too into the really old ones (the 1940’s ones) because the animation was very different (Tom was named Jasper to begin with). As the years went by, Tom and Jerry’s look became more simplified and more cultural references started finding their way into the show.
