Blue Cat Blues

Quiet a dark episode. The voice over also takes away some of the silent magic of Tom and Jerry. But still brilliant

'Blue Cat Blues (1956)' is a bit of an odd one. Its premise is so oddly, off-puttingly dark yet its execution is as charming as ever. It tells the tale of Tom's spiral into suicidal depression in a deceptively upbeat, generally jovial way. It's a bizarre choice, to say the least. Its overall effect is a strangely unsettling one. The actual short isn't entirely unpleasant, even providing a couple of laughs, but it culminates in a really dark overall experience. It's difficult to know how to feel about it, really. It's not bad but it's not great. 6/10

I love Tom and Jerry and everything that has to do with it, Blue Cat Blues is no exception, but the short is too different from the others...

The beginning is Horrible, Tom on the train tracks waiting to be run over by it while Jerry tells us an incredibly well done but sad story.

The Short is Infamous for the Scene where both Tom and Jerry sit on the Train Tracks to be Crushed by the Same just because "Their wives found someone richer" and I don't think that's the World's Friendliest Moral.

The Animation is Pretty Cheap and Simple at this point, the Title Card is Simple with a Lamppost and the title of the short, but the simplicity sometimes helps as the card with that blue background looks very unsettling due to how empty it is, Both Tom and Jerry look pretty as always, their Cinemascope design is possibly one of the most memorable of the entire franchise, Butch looks Great as Always and is one of his Few Appearances at this time, the cat's design in my opinion is unattractive and a little ugly and straight up looks like a shoddy copy of Toddles Galore, the movements are decent but not too fluid, the backgrounds are empty like a desert but what little there is is nice and very well colored.

The Music in this Short is Far Superior to Most Tom and Jerry Shorts, I like how well done it is, The Sad Scenes have music too good and it's possibly one of the best Tom and Jerry shorts in terms of the Music we're talking about and that's all thanks to Scott Bradley!.

You must know by now that I always give short and boring messages about Sound Effects and Voice Acting so I'll sum it up in 1 word "Great".

Something that should be clarified is why Butch is Rich overnight?, but I think that is not important if not how unpleasant the Characters in the Short are, the cat, Butch and even Tom himself for having Ignored Jerry but he is forgiven because he is still a great character here.

As such, Blue Cat Blues is by far the creepiest Tom and Jerry short film (beating Down and Outing, High Steaks and Sorry Safari), its infamous scene where both leads commit suicide is Disgusting and too Sad for a Cartoon but it's a good short, It has Phenomenal Music and great Voice acting and makes us see a more serious version of the Characters and we get to see in depth the friendship of both, for everything I said earlier this short takes an 8!.

"Blue Cat Blues," released in November 1956, is one of the most surprising and emotionally heavy Tom and Jerry shorts. Directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the episode stands out for completely breaking with the comedic and cheerful tone that made the duo famous, delivering a dark, melancholic, and even reflective narrative-something very rare at the time for an animation by the duo.

The short begins with a striking scene: Tom sitting on train tracks, dejected and without the will to live, while Jerry watches from afar, narrating the sad story that led his friend there. The flashback shows one of the most human storylines in the series-Tom falling in love with a beautiful white cat and being manipulated and manipulated. The sequence of humiliations he suffers while trying to please her is tragically ironic: each sincere attempt is overcome by Butch, who here appears as a rich and arrogant rival.

The editing is simple, yet extremely effective, driven by a masterful soundtrack with melancholic jazz tones that reinforce the atmosphere of loneliness and hopelessness. The music replaces much of the traditional physical humor and becomes the main emotional narrator of the story.

The contrast between Tom's naiveté and the cruelty of reality gives the short film an unusual weight. When the ruined and powerless character sees his beloved marry Butch, the disillusionment becomes complete. The ending is devastating: after the flashback, Jerry tries to console his friend, but discovers that his own girlfriend also left him for someone richer. The little mouse, emotionally broken, decides to sit next to Tom on the tracks. The sound of the approaching train, getting louder and louder, ends the short without showing the impact-a brilliant and symbolic choice, leaving the tragedy hanging in the air.

Although many fans think this was the last short of the classic era, this is a misconception. The true conclusion to the original Hanna-Barbera cycle came two years later, in August 1958, with Tot Watchers. Blue Cat Blues isn't the end of the series, but it is undoubtedly the most courageous and somber of them all.

The message that remains is clear: however much the short film touches on themes of despair and loss, suicide is not the answer to problems. Emotional pain is real, but temporary, and the short film symbolically reminds us that neither unrequited love nor defeats justify giving up on life.

This is very different from the normal Tom and Jerry cartoon and, for most people, a flop. I see that's the consensus here, and I understand it. This effort at humor just didn't cut it for most people including me BUT it got better and better as it went on and I'm not so sure it was a failure in what it tried to say. Where it failed was the fact that the public didn't like it. Not being liked by the audience is the worst sin possible in the entertainment business.

Early on, there were a few gags that made me laugh, such as Tom (literally) "flipping his lid" and the excesses his rival, "Mr. Butch" went to, to impress the hot feline both he and Tom were after.

The narration tells us the sad tale of how Tom ruined himself over this woman. It's told through Jerry's voice which sounds more like a soft Keifer Sutherland than some little mouse that we'd expect. At first, it was annoying but then I got used to it, and almost laughed at the obvious attempt of the writers to make this overly melodramatic with lines like, "He willingly sold himself into slavery....for love." If you know a lot of 1950s movies, this sort of soapy story fits fit in. In fact, the more I watched this, the better it got as I laughed over this soap opera parody.