In the beginning Tom and Jerry amazed theater goers, won several awards, and became one of the most successful cartoons for MGM running from 1940-1958) under the guide of William Hannah and Joseph Barbera. The show struggled to stay current remerging in 1960 under the guide of a Czechoslovakian animation studio which produced some odd episodes before being tasked to Chuck Jones (Loony Tunes). Unfortunately Tom and Jerry’s real success was based in the Hannah-Barbera days and their later stints would prove short lived in each respect including this, The Tom and Jerry Tales which aired from 2006 and ending in 2008.

Its not hard to put your finger on the problem with Tom and Jerry Tales. For starters the music has taken a real down turn from its crazy Miles Davis/John Coltrane inspired jazz renditions which coincided with gestures, emotions, and the after effects of Tom getting smashed into a particular shape or design. The music here has the face of orchestration but remains repetitive and doesn’t mesh well with the old partnership the characters had with the music. Earlier Tom and Jerry had a basic cat chases mouse approach that, though repetitive, always managed to find some new angle be it pitting mouse against cat against dog or putting our beloved du in space. It just seemed that Tom and Jerry Tales tried to hard to create a theme for every episode (each episode consisting of three cartoons) which borrowed heavily from one to the next. While this rendition of Tom and Jerry is simply progress it deviates to much from the earlier Tom and Jerry, at least enough to turn this fan away. The color is softer, detail more rounded out rather then being sharp, story sometimes silly and or seemingly pointless. The fact that this is Tom and Jerry for a new generation does not excuse a lack of quality in my opinion. On the other hand my kids did sit through each disc with me laughing their heads off while I stared on with a small smirk. So in short if you’re an old fan of the show you probably wont find this release as enjoyable as the others but it seemed geared more towards kids who obviously love it. As always final judgment is yours. Enjoy.