As the 1950s progressed, most cartoons tended to look much cheaper....thanks to UPA and their ultra-cheap productions like "Gerald McBoing Boing" which, inexplicably, were garnering Oscars. I don't understand this, as the once-gorgeous backgrounds which were the norm in the 1940s were replaced with cheap and garish simplistic artwork. Additionally, cel-counts dropped and characters became simpler.
I mention all this because when you watch MGM's "Spike and Tyke", you can see how this modernistic trend was clearly being employed at the studio. And, if you compare the bulldogs Spike and his son, Tyke, to their earier versions in Tom & Jerry cartoons, you can see what I mean. They are simpler...and the backgrounds are often colors like orange and even hot pink! While many seemed to like these films, I wince when I see them because the artistry of the earlier cartoons is absent.
Despite these complaints, the cartoon itself is entertaining. When the story begins, a dog that is an Ed Norton knock-off (from "The Honeymooners") is worried as the city has announced a roundup of all dogs without licenses. So, he steals the license from Tyke and later Spike and most of the cartoon consists of the dogs trying to retrieve their licenses AND avoid the dog catcher. Mildly entertaining but not among the funnier and more creative MGM shorts.
