Down Beat Bear

1956
7| 0h7m| NR| en
Details

A dancing bear escapes from the zoo and finds his way to Tom and Jerry's house. He dances with Tom, making it impossible for Tom to call the authorities; Jerry takes every opportunity to play music and keep Tom and the bear dancing

Director

Producted By

MGM Cartoon Studio

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime. Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...
Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
BA_Harrison Jerry is relaxing to some jazz when Tom comes into the room to read his paper and turns the music off. While the cat and mouse take it in turns to turn the radio on and off, there is an announcement that a dancing bear has escaped from the carnival and a reward for his capture is being offered. Inevitably, the bear crosses paths with Tom, who immediately sees dollars, but the cat cannot claim his reward because every time Jerry plays some music, the bear grabs Tom for his dancing partner.I'm going to be fairly forgiving of the cruder animation style for this cartoon simply because the idea of Tom cutting a rug with a bear is so funny. Sure, it would have been nicer to see the level of detail that the earlier cartoons had, but with Tom reluctantly waltzing, jitterbugging and tangoing with the dance-crazy circus bear, this caper is still one of the best of this particular era and well worth watching.7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.
ccthemovieman-1 No movie or cartoon is guaranteed to entertain, but if this cartoon doesn't bring at least a smile to your face a few times I would be shocked. Between the music and the sight gags, somewhere in here you are going to have some big laughs and/or smiles.. (If not - if you can't laugh at this - why are you watching cartoons?)Oh, man, is this the 1950s or what? Dig the modern furniture in hear and the "hip" jazz and Dixieland numbers. This will really be nostalgic for anyone around 60 years of age and older, but people of any age should laugh at the dancing bear. He's a cool bear, having escaped from the circus, and he just wants to eat and dance to some fast music.He gets plenty of both at Tom's house (there are no humans around) with the jukebox in the living room. I won't say more, except this is a fun cartoon, fun for the eyes and the ears.This is presented in the widescreen CinemaScope and is part of Disc 2 of the Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Volume Two DVD.
nnwahler Probably the last of the TRULY GREAT Tom & Jerrys--from HB, of course.....I've noted that the other poster has bashed Hanna-Barbera for their animation. Let me mention that the Fred Quimby you've always seen at the end of the credits was really a do-nothing PRODUCER; H-B were the DIRECTORS, and their 40s and 50s Tom and Jerrys constitute their proudest contribution to the art of animation. In many of these late-50s T&Js, it's the THIRD-PARTY character that's supposed to provide the most interest, and and the creators really hit on a superb example this time with the bear. He's utterly likable and (refreshingly) is no violent threat to Tom (Tom's more annoyed than anything else; most likely he's most alarmed at Jerry taking off at the end to collect the reward money for the bruin's return). SUPERBLY animated dance sequences; frenetically paced; a treat all the way through.
Mary-18 It always irritated me when Jerry decided to mess with Tom's mind just for the pure pleasure of it. Here, Tom attempts to collect a reward on find a runaway dancing bear, and Jerry thwarts him by continuously creating music, causing the bear to grab Tom and jitterbug with him. There really is no other purpose or plot, and it's hard to know who to root for, since none of the three characters have any personality. There's really just one joke here, repeated until the ending seems obvious. But for Hanna-Barbera, the animation is surprisingly good, and it's always nice to see that Jerry has been able to find such nice mouse-sized furniture for his hole-in-the-wall apartment.