Smarty Cat (1955) User Reviews

Nice to see some favourites, but as a cartoon you may question the point

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 6 January 2013]

I can understand why people won't be a fan of Smarty Cat. It is virtually plot less, merely an excuse to string some snippets of old favourites together, and the material is nothing new apart from a very nice touch at the beginning. And as wonderful as the featured cartoons are(the best being Solid Serenade), I wasn't sure of what relevance they were to one another. So you can see why people will question the point of it all. The animation is wonderful thought, lusciously coloured and beautifully drawn. The music in Tom and Jerry has always brought life to the gags and such and it is still the catchy and jauntily orchestrated scoring I know and love. The gags in the featured cartoons range from very amusing to often hilarious, and if there is anything that Smarty Cat isn't it's dull. Tom and Jerry are still their likable selves. So all in all, it was nice and pleasant but somewhat pointless at the same time. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Efficient people will give these so-called "cheater episodes" . . .

[pixrox1 · 7/10 · 18 October 2022]

. . . of the Tom & Jerry franchise high marks for cutting out all of the fluff, padding and extraneous garbage from a trio of longer films. In this case, if you watch SMARTY CAT, then there's no need to view SOLID SERENADE, CAT FISHING and FIT TO BE TIED. You can skip those three, and still get the merit badge for being a Tom & Jerry c-o-m-p-l-e-t-i-s-t. This interlocked quartet of pictures also serves to remind viewers that the team churning out the first 114 of these despised and repetitious tales cut every corner they could to please their Poverty Row bean counting masters, a gang of misers only interested in earning the quickest possible buck. That's why the animation team is so tiny, in comparison to more legitimate organizations such as Warner, Paramount (aka, F-l-e-i-s-c-h-e-r) and even Dizzy. If the aforementioned trio are considered the high school animation graduates, the Groaning Fat Cat rabble setting the art form back with their ultra lazy style can be seen as the reform school first grade dunces.

A clip show but still a solid 8

[rufenerchristopher · 8/10 · 15 April 2024]

It is just a clip show? But in 1955 the animation was still good crisp and clean and the bits were funny fit to be tied is hilarious I give it a solid eight clip show or not I love the animation before they got lazy and cheap the backgrounds are good the trees look like trees you know that's refreshing! I would say from 56 on back the animation was good and Tom and Jerry in the 60s when Chuck Jones was doing them we're very Grinchy like they all looked like the Grinch? They didn't look like the original Tom and Jerry's? I'm not trying to dig on Chuck Jones because his Warner Brothers stuff was amazing but his 60 stuff all looks like the Grinch to me.

Great clips, but at the end of the day it's still a lazy compilation.

[BA_Harrison · 5/10 · 1 May 2017]

Tom invites his alley cat pals over for an evening of home movies, the films on show being excerpts from several previous Tom and Jerry cartoons in which Spike the bulldog is made to look a fool.

Smarty Cat is one of those lazy compilations made on the cheap, and as such probably won't hold that much appeal for those who have already seen the featured cartoons in full. Of course, the bits shown are all great, and guarantee laughs (the snippet from Fit to be Tied is hilarious), but in the end this is still a clip show and can't really be rated much higher than 5/10. My advice: watch the full length cartoons instead.

Smart, if economic, cartoon.

[Antzy88 · 4 August 2001]

Tom lets his three friends (including Butch, the black alley cat) into the house so they can view Butch's cine-film footage showing Tom getting the better of Spike (also known as 'Killer' in one of the clips); however, Jerry keeps wanting to watch, and keeps being kicked out. Cue clips from previous cartoons: 'Solid Serenade', 'Cat Fishin'' and 'Fit To Be Tied', the latter of which Jerry invites Spike, who was sleeping outside, to see... Good, but it's a shame some of the bits from the actual cartoon itself (as opposed to the clips from the ones released before) are noticeably repeated.

Hate It When They Do This

[ccthemovieman-1 · 4/10 · 29 November 2007]

Well, here's another case of lazy studio executive at MGM (or whomever) who decide to issue a cartoon in which they don't have to use much creativity or brainpower to write because almost all of it is just a collection of past cartoons.

In this case, we get previous Tom and Jerry episodes such as "Solid Serenade," "Fit To Be Tied," and "Cat Fishin.'" Those three are rolled into this one in which Tom shows film footage to some of his pals, like the alley-cat "Butch." Only the beginning where Tom invites his pals and starts rolling the projector, and a small bit at the end, are new material.

Once again, this kind of cartoon is either very good or a total waste, depending on whether you have seen these previous cartoons. If you haven't, you'll get a lot of laughs out of this, especially if you root for Tom. But if have seen these, then this is pointless.