Emkay-09 Growing up, I didn't realize that this short had narration. When I was watching the same short in another state years later, I suddenly noticed the narration (especially the coffee and cigarettes part) but every time I saw this on the WPIX NY station, there was only music and sound fx. That made for a trippy ride. But then again, I grew up on a lot of cartoons that were considered trippy. A lot of cartoons today are either too talky or everyone's shouting. But it does raise the question, why was there a version of this without narration? But this is one of the Gene Deitch T&J cartoons that I remember the most. It looked like it was set in some sort of two dimensional Be-bop Jazz world, which actually worked for the music that was playing. It never occurred to me that these were not American made, only that they were different from the Chuck Jones cartoons as much as the Chuck Jones toons were different from the Hanna Barbera (40s-50s) versions. Of course the classic HB shorts are the best, but I would put the Deitch versions a close second just because I like the atmospheric mood. It's just too bad that Gene Deitch hasn't been more prolific. His trippy style, while admittedly unusual for T&J, would have been ideal for serious science fiction adventure cartoons.

themadstork Okay so it's pretty far out there, but it isn't as bad as the safari one or the one where the same guy is barbecuing. Those are really, really wretched. Almost as bad as the series where Tom and Jerry are actually friends. I don't know maybe I just appreciate weird, but I thought there were a few cool moments in this one.

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...