God, the post-Chuck Jones Roadrunner cartoons with the electric guitar instead of a full orchestra. Deadly stuff. There's a conspiracy theory that Rudy Larriva, the director of those ones, was snubbed by Jones early in his career, so pissed all over Jones's creation as revenge.
See also - Tom and Jerry when Tom is miaowing and hissing in the 'O' and his head looks too big. I believe FRED QUIMBY had virtually no input on any of them but if his name was missing on the intro then buyer beware.
The thing is, Chuck Jones did those ones, and they're not technically bad, but they're not good either, and he clearly wasn't comfortable doing them. Sometimes they showed Dicky Moe, one of the ultra-weird Tom and Jerrys made in the disturbing Czechoslovakian style. Brr.
The Deitch ones are horrible, aren't they? With Tom being horribly mistreated by his sadistic owner, which only makes Jerry complicit in the abuse. After that, the Chuck Jones ones feel heartwarming.
Which is weird, as Deitch hated the violence of T&J. (He'd just won an Oscar for an anti-war cartoon.) Also, his animators, being based in Prague, had never actually seen a Tom & Jerry cartoon in their lives. What could go wrong?
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