‘The Tom and Jerry Show Season 1 Part 2: Funny Side Up’ DVD Review

You might not know this, but Tom & Jerry are back. If you’re expecting what you and I watched as children, you may be dreaming. It’s not that the 2014 reboot, The Tom and Jerry Show, is bad–far from it; you’re just never going to get the same feelings you had with the original.

I embarked on my three-hour Tom and Jerry quest bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and hoping for the best, but what I got makes me feel a little off. Part 2 of the show’s first-season DVD collection, titled Funny Side Up, starts out exactly how you would expect; Tom chases Jerry, and Spike the dog naps. Most of the DVD is as such, and it is fun and zany and violent–just like the original. But then…there’s something that just doesn’t feel the same.

Tom and Jerry Show Funny Side Up ep4

A couple of episodes in, and I still couldn’t put my finger on it. What was it that made this experience so different from what I enjoyed as a child? Tom still steps on rakes: classic. Jerry still laughs maniacally at every one of his feline counterpart’s mishaps: double-classic. They have even given us more mouse-on-cat fireworks! But still, something was off. Then, it hit me–it was the dialogue. It’s not that it’s bad. There just seems to be too much of it.

Unless I’m misremembering, the Tom & Jerry I loved was 95% hijinks and 5% dialogue. Neither the ferocious cat nor the precocious mouse seemed to ever talk. This isn’t the case for the 2014 series; there’s actually a lot of dialogue, which just gives the show a different feel. Not a bad feel, per se, but it takes away from the nostalgia I expected would accompany the show.

Some episodes feature more dialogue than others, and one thing that can take you out of the zone is, some of the voices seem familiar. Not Tom or Jerry’s voice is familiar, but Jerry’s nephew, Tuffy, is voiced by famed voice actor Kath Soucie, and, if you’re like me, you may immediately identify this voice actor with Phil and Lil from Rugrats. This definitely took me for a spin–and really threw me off as well. Other stars, like Jason Alexander, Gary Cole, and Chris Parnell, are also easy to pick out.

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I can’t remember if it was present in the original series, but there are some extremely funny jokes in this series that kids may not understand. They’re not overtly sexual jokes by any means–just some dry humor that takes a sophisticated comedy palate to really appreciate. Not that sophisticated, but definitely over the heads of the four-year-old viewers of this show.

Another interesting difference is the animation. It’s sharp and layered, unlike the original that had a classic Warner Bros. look. Again, this isn’t a bad thing, but it might definitely turn off any lovers of the old. The show does, however, stay true to the original by only animating humans from the neck down. Like always, it’s a fun treat that maintains the absurdity of the animal’s perspective.

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The only thing I can say I really didn’t like was any episode where Jerry was the pet of the two witches, Hildie and Beatie. Those storylines were always a bit dull and convoluted. Call me old-fashioned, but I just don’t want witches clunking up my Tom and my Jerry.

Bottom line, the show isn’t really for me; it’s for children. I would absolutely love to watch it with my hypothetical child. I’d love to show that child the old stuff, too, but I think we will have a blast with any variety of that troublesome mouse and that if-you-get-right-down-to-it-he-is-kind-of-an-asshole cat.

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