"Old Rockin' Chair Tom" (admittedly a very random, almost off-topic title) is a color cartoon from 1948, so this one will have its 70th anniversary next year. The name in the title as well as the fact that this is a Hanna Barbera production makes it obvious of course that these 7 minutes are another Tom and Jerry short film. In this one here, they continue the successful trend of including one other character with a great deal of screen time and T&J's interactions with it. With this, I am of course not referring to Mammy Two-Shoes who is voiced competently as always by Lilian Randolph (It's a Wonderful Life), but to the new ginger cat who is brought in when Tom's owner is no longer happy with his mice-catching skills. But Tom as well as Jerry are not too happy with being kicked-out, so for the rest of the film they are friends trying to establish the status quo again and Tom does not even try to steal from Jerry's half of the cake at the very end of the film, which shows how happy he must be being back as the cat-in-charge. I personally did not like the whole magnet/flat-iron comedy too much here, but everything else was very funny and entertaining. The first half was maybe slightly better, especially the parts before the ginger cat enters when we see an unusually destructive Jerry, but even in the second half there are good moments like when Tom gets framed for food theft, the moment that somehow establishes the new cat as an antagonist. Okay that is all I think. It was a funny good watch with great animation of course and this is my favorite short film from 1948. A must-see for cartoon lovers.

When Thomas the Cat fails to prevent Jerry tormenting Mammy Two Shoes he finds himself replaced by a younger, ginger cat named Lightning who soon kicks Jerry out of the house. Lightning soon frames Tom for his raid on the fridge and Tom is out too. If things are to return to the status quo then Tom and Jerry will have to team up to defeat the new cat... and with the help of a magnet and a flat iron they do just that!This starts off as a fairly standard Tom and Jerry cartoon but once Lightning is on the scene things get more interesting; I loved how he was shown as a crackling bolt of electricity every time he ran. Tom and Jerry don't team up very often so it makes a refreshing change to see them not fighting each other for the whole show. I expected the gag with the magnet and the iron to be a brief one shot gag but it was rather fun to see them keep it up right until the end... even to the point of having Tom break his foot on it as he kicked Lightning out of the house! Overall this was a fun short; just make sure you watch the original version starring the voice of Lillian Randolph not the more recent censored version.

I had this Tom and Jerry classic on videotape when I was a kid and watched it over and over again, until the tape broke. It's full of manic slapstick, sight gags and outright lunacy, and even the sappy ending works nicely. But when I watched it a couple of days ago on DVD, I noticed that a seemingly innocent gag has been demolished by the redubbing of Mammy's voice - in the original, when the rival cat, Lightning, makes Tom up as a decrepit senior citizen with the help of a cotton wool beard and a walking cane, Mammy sarcastically says "You take care of poor old Uncle Tom", but in the DVD, the word "Uncle" has been removed completely. Does 'Uncle Tom' constitute a racist insult, and if so, is it really so inflammatory that it needs removing from a DVD primarily aimed at children and vintage animation buffs? Even more bizarrely, the same DVD leaves several of the 'blackface' gags intact!

I like the Tom & Jerry cartoons where they realize they need each other and this one is a perfect example. Jerry is teasing Mammy and she calls for Tom to help her. Of course he messes things up so Mammy takes measures of her own by taking a new cat. The first job of that cat; kick Jerry out. After Tom is blamed for something the new cat has done he is kicked out as well. Tom and Jerry realize they have to work together to keep their comfortable place in the house.The cartoon has some nice touches in the beginning but really starts with the arriving of the new cat. The best gag comes when the new cat wants to kick Jerry out for the second time but Jerry does that for himself. An enjoyable cartoon with a happy Tom & Jerry ending, with one last gag involving poor Tom, of course.