Episode 914: Jerry Wants to Visit Wrath on Tom

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Jordan Stokes and Pete Fenzel dash and dart in playful mayhem around the 2023 version of Tom & Jerry, a reimagining of the cat and mouse duo set against the vibrant backdrop of Singapore. The series (available on HBO Max and Cartoon Network Asia’s YouTube Channel), is a painstaking work of classic animation slapstick, with zero dialogue and maximum expression, and has been a captivating surprise.

Jordan and Pete discuss the history of Tom & Jerry as MGM’s answer to Walt Disney, the birth of Hannah Barbera out of Tom & Jerry’s success, and how the practical considerations of 1940s and 1950s animation shaped the aesthetic and kinetic vocabulary of Tom & Jerry, which the 2023 show recaptures and reimagines so expertly.

The duo also parse the new show’s pacing, complexity, and delicate use of theme and symbol, and the simple patterns that it spins into densely intertwined nonverbal plots with layers of setup and payoff, from its exploration of the smell and taste of Durian to its take on how notions of creation and destruction changed with the development of modern art.

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• FULL EPISODE: What’s That Smell? | Tom and Jerry | Cartoon Network Asia
• FULL EPISODE: Colorful Chase | Tom and Jerry | Cartoon Network Asia
• Tom & Jerry’s 85th Anniversary Celebration | Best Episodes | Cartoon Network Asia on YouTube
• Children’s recognition of slapstick humor is linked to their Theory of Mind, by Ebru Ger, Moritz M. Daum and Mirella Manfredi, Frontiers in Cognition: Perception, Volume 3, 21 May, 2024
• The Road to Mars, by Eric Idle on Wikipedia
• Traditional animation: Cels, on Wikipedia
• 60 years of tourism: Mapping Singapore’s journey as a top destination, by Sarah Stanley in the Straits Times
• Chef Donald on Disney Video

Episode 914: Jerry Wants to Visit Wrath on Tom originally appeared on Overthinking It, the site subjecting the popular culture to a level of scrutiny it probably doesn't deserve. [Latest Posts | Podcast (iTunes Link)]