The usual antics of Tom and Jerry interfere with a man trying to barbecue.The usual antics of Tom and Jerry interfere with a man trying to barbecue.The usual antics of Tom and Jerry interfere with a man trying to barbecue.
- Director
- Writer
- Star
Allen Swift
- Tom's Owner
- (voice)
- …
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAt approximately 3:13 into the film, and again two seconds later, as Tom slides the length of the table, you can clearly make out what appears to be a Heineken bottle and a Del Monte can.
- GoofsWhile Tom slides across the table toward the soon-to-erupt "Kooky Kola" bottle, he obviously passes through the same area twice (two seconds apart), as all the food packages and dishes are in exactly the same place both times.
Featured review
The whole Gene Deitch series... some of the comments that have made about them, like they were made in a third world country...
In truth, they WERE farmed out. Metro closed its animation studio in 1957, whereupon Hanna Barbera took about a year to retool their team to produce their legendary fodder for American television, including Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear.
By 1960, Metro belatedly realized that they had made a telling financial blunder (even though the last handful of shorts by H-B for Metro were, to a one, pitiful) and contracted with Deitch to produce exactly one "season" of Tom and Jerry cartoons at a fraction of the budget they had earlier enjoyed.
In a move that presaged all the later cartoon outsourcing to Korea, Deitch farmed all the work out to a low budget studio in Czechoslovakia. The Czech people were known for their production of innovative and iconoclastic cartoons - and let us be clear, Deitch was an artistic genius. You can tell from his work from the post-War period forward (largely collected in a coffee table book by Fantagraphics years later). But this stuff... this stuff... disastrous.
Other commenters here have gone over the malevolent violence of the "owner" character in this series, and the bargain basement schlocky music, and the ghastly, soulless drawings that truly took character animation back a full 30 years. However, there is one moment in "High Steaks" which has confused me for a long, long time.
In a sequence where Tom goes fleeing out of the yard (the grill might be burning on his tail or something), Jerry follows him as far as a street corner, then stops. Then a telephone is heard to ring.
This is the WTF moment of the whole cartoon. It has no context. I am more or less convinced that a phone rang during the recording session for the rinky-dink music, and it was just left in there. It's sort of like when Ringo Starr, drunk and stumbling, knocked over some gear during a recording session for the "Yellow Submarine" soundtrack, and the sound was left in for all eternity.
It's been said - and not without accuracy - that the Chuck Jones T&J's of 1964-66/7 were no great shakes, that they looked brilliant on screen but had none of the soul of the HB originals. Chuck Jones himself was on record agreeing with this assertion. Personally I do disagree but only for the few shorts in which Jones, Michael Maltese, and composer Eugene Poddany collaborated - the results are classic Jones and wonderful to behold. But even the lamest entries in the series Jones produced show cohesiveness, attention to quality and detail, and the ability to build a story out of a series of chase gags.
With little if any exception, the Deitch T&Js show none of these qualities. The only thing WORSE than these, are the T&Js that H-B themselves produced for TV years later in which - for the sake of Standards & Practices - Tom and Jerry are toothless, dimensionless friends in which Jerry sports a disastrous red bow-tie for no reason. Years later, this was lampooned in "The Simpsons" in the episode where Itchy and Scratchy succumb to PC pressure and "share, and share, and share and share and share."
In truth, they WERE farmed out. Metro closed its animation studio in 1957, whereupon Hanna Barbera took about a year to retool their team to produce their legendary fodder for American television, including Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear.
By 1960, Metro belatedly realized that they had made a telling financial blunder (even though the last handful of shorts by H-B for Metro were, to a one, pitiful) and contracted with Deitch to produce exactly one "season" of Tom and Jerry cartoons at a fraction of the budget they had earlier enjoyed.
In a move that presaged all the later cartoon outsourcing to Korea, Deitch farmed all the work out to a low budget studio in Czechoslovakia. The Czech people were known for their production of innovative and iconoclastic cartoons - and let us be clear, Deitch was an artistic genius. You can tell from his work from the post-War period forward (largely collected in a coffee table book by Fantagraphics years later). But this stuff... this stuff... disastrous.
Other commenters here have gone over the malevolent violence of the "owner" character in this series, and the bargain basement schlocky music, and the ghastly, soulless drawings that truly took character animation back a full 30 years. However, there is one moment in "High Steaks" which has confused me for a long, long time.
In a sequence where Tom goes fleeing out of the yard (the grill might be burning on his tail or something), Jerry follows him as far as a street corner, then stops. Then a telephone is heard to ring.
This is the WTF moment of the whole cartoon. It has no context. I am more or less convinced that a phone rang during the recording session for the rinky-dink music, and it was just left in there. It's sort of like when Ringo Starr, drunk and stumbling, knocked over some gear during a recording session for the "Yellow Submarine" soundtrack, and the sound was left in for all eternity.
It's been said - and not without accuracy - that the Chuck Jones T&J's of 1964-66/7 were no great shakes, that they looked brilliant on screen but had none of the soul of the HB originals. Chuck Jones himself was on record agreeing with this assertion. Personally I do disagree but only for the few shorts in which Jones, Michael Maltese, and composer Eugene Poddany collaborated - the results are classic Jones and wonderful to behold. But even the lamest entries in the series Jones produced show cohesiveness, attention to quality and detail, and the ability to build a story out of a series of chase gags.
With little if any exception, the Deitch T&Js show none of these qualities. The only thing WORSE than these, are the T&Js that H-B themselves produced for TV years later in which - for the sake of Standards & Practices - Tom and Jerry are toothless, dimensionless friends in which Jerry sports a disastrous red bow-tie for no reason. Years later, this was lampooned in "The Simpsons" in the episode where Itchy and Scratchy succumb to PC pressure and "share, and share, and share and share and share."
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Tom und ich in Nachbars Garten
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime7 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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