The Van Beuren Tom and Jerry (as said already not the famous cat and mouse, this is a human duo that lasted for just under 30 cartoons, 29 if memory serves correct, between 1931 and 1933) series was interesting but uneven and not easy to rate as an overall whole. At the series' best, the cartoons were good, very good in a few cases. At its worst, they were really bad.
'Plane Dumb', following on from one of the best in the series 'The Tuba Tooter', is down there with their worst, actually a strong contender for THE worst. And there is a lot more wrong to 'Plane Dumb' than being widely and unsurprisingly considered one of the most racially offensive cartoons ever made, just to make that clear before anybody asks. Although the flaws are far more numerous and more glaring, 'Plane Dumb' is not without redeeming qualities. The best thing about it, like pretty much all the worst of their cartoons, is the music score. It is lively, characterful and beautifully and cleverly orchestrated, and not only adds to the action but enhances it and gives the cartoon the energy that is sorely lacking elsewhere. The other redeeming quality is the suitably menacing animation on the whale.
Regarding the racially offensive stereotypes, before any attacks start there is the acknowledgement that there were plenty of stereotypes in cartoons and films in the 30s, some of them not being subtle or kind. Very few, if any, were as littered with racial stereotypes as much as 'Plane Dumb' and in a way that's this distastefully over-the-top and unsubtle, not just in the ugly character designs but also in the way they speak, their dialogue and the way they act. Far more offensive than any of the stereotypes in the "Censored 11" cartoons, including the most offensive of that collection 'Angel Puss'. Not just that, none of them will fly or bode well with anybody today and are too far of its time to be relevant or current, anybody will find this is the case regardless of skin colour.
As said, however, 'Plane Dumb' has far more problems to it than just being offensive. Apart from the animation of the whale, the animation is far too simplistic and static, with little imaginative about the backgrounds, sloppy synchronisation and it's best not mentioning the character designs. Tom and Jerry themselves have rarely been the most compelling of characters, they are not just bland here but they have seldom been more annoying. When they are literally unrecognisable for most of the cartoon for obvious reasons it is hard to believe that it's them, they feel like completely different characters.
Humour also just isn't there. The timing is dull throughout and the gags are too few and lack any inventiveness or comic timing of any kind, the usual strangeness and absurdity that is basically the tone of the series do not come through. This is because of 'Plane Dumb' being uncharacteristically for a Tom and Jerry cartoon dialogue-heavy, and while different can work in this case that was a huge mistake. The reason being that the dialogue itself, and its wince-worthy stereotypical nature, is cringe-inducing. There is nothing funny or endearing about it, it's basically annoying and overboard dumb and nothing else. The story is never a strong suit in their cartoons, this story is one of the flimsiest and also one of the dumbest and most senseless.
Overall, of an uneven series 'Plane Dumb' is one of the worst and very bad ones. 2/10 Bethany Cox
