Tetrady not as good as all the hype

Matylda Swan It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit" is an American/Czechoslovakian cartoon from 1962, so this one had its 55th anniversary last year and despite the age, it is still among the later Tom and Jerry works. This is also proven by Gene Deitch having taken over at that point already from Hanna Barbera in this MGM production that runs for a bit over 6.5 minutes as they always do. I would say that story-wise and comedy-wise it isn't too bad and probably not worse than some of the weaker HB original T&J cartoons, maybe even better. The melon scenes were kinda okay and the martial arts judo stuff wasn't too shabby either, at least at the very end when the ground breaks under Tom. The title is really random though as it only refers to the first minute. And Jerry must be quite a talented fighter if he picks up all these amazing skills from a book without actual training. The film's biggest weakness though was not just the background animation, but the complete lack thereof and the longer it goes the more painful it becomes to see. Eventually it is just the two central characters in front of one background color. Essentialism is one thing, but I just cannot approve of that. A bit of a pity as plot- and comedy-wise it was solid for the most part, but the lows are lower than the highs are high, so I give this one a thumbs-down and recommend skipping the watch here.

BA_Harrison As the voice-over for director Gene Deitch's The Tom & Jerry Cartoon Kit explains: "Anyone can now enter the lucrative field of animated cartoons". We know, Mr. Deitch—you're living proof!This one does away with a plot entirely, the cartoon consisting of totally random and surreal action, and keeps the need for drawing to an absolute minimum by making all of the backgrounds flat colour. What next? Pure white backgrounds? That would keep the costs down even further.Others here on IMDb seem to like The Tom & Jerry Cartoon Kit slightly more than Deitch's other efforts, but I don't get it, finding this just as wretched.

Brian Henke When I saw this cartoon on Cartoon Network, I saw the credits the dreaded words "directed by Gene Deitch" - I thought, this was going to be another stupid Deitch T&J short.Actually, it's a somewhat UNDERSTANDABLE toon that is the best of the Deitch era of T&J - and that's saying something.Sure the Eastern European animation is not up to par with the Hanna-Barbera era (watch a scene set in judo school), but the bizarre sound effects used in the other Deitch T&J's that can put any sane toon nut insane are barely noticed. The storyline is actually good. It's too bad that the other Deitch shorts were full of bad stories and bizarre sound effects, which led to MGM dismissing him after only thirteen shorts.Still I prefer the Hanna-Barbera days of T&J.

Robert Morgan When I was a kid, I would watch hours of Tom & Jerry every day (between TBS and the local stations, I could probably have spent 12 hours a day watching Tom & Jerry). I didn't know much about the history of animation, but I figured out a few "styles"... Early Hanna-Barbera, 50's Hanna-Barbera, Chuck Jones-style, 60's style, Filmation, and... the Gene Deitch ones.I instinctively didn't like the Filmation ones, but the Gene Deitch vignettes... these are the things the nightmares of children are built upon.I don't know how to properly convey how weird these things are in the pantheon of Tom & Jerry cartoons. Gene Deitch was a master animator, but of avant-garde subjects; his angular, flat style just doesn't work- it feels like you're watching a badly dubbed cartoon, rather than new-style animation. It actually felt like I was watching a cartoon done in a third-world country that "appropriated" the T&J characters- Stalinist cartoons, perhaps.The sounds, too... Tom & Jerry always had creepy bits (who doesn't remember "Don't you believe it!" after Tom gets blown up by the atomic white mouse?) but the Deitch shorts... the sf/x all sound synthesized and strange. If Jerry is confused, what do you hear? Not a tiny voice going "Hmmm", but a wobbling-sheet-metal sound, as if it were being done in an echo chamber.The over-all effect is the same feeling I get when watching Italian horror/sexploitation flicks, or Jorge Buttgereit's work (Nekromantik, Der Todesking)- this is *definitely* not what I should feel like when watching a Tom & Jerry cartoon...