Solid Serenade

Here's an animator breakdown for one of the most popular (and funniest) Tom & Jerry cartoons ever made, Solid Serenade (1946). I recently bought a 16mm print of this one (so it will be at MANC '07) and am in awe of all the wonderful animation in it. Ken Muse of course steals the show with Tom's rendition of "Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't My Baby", but there is some beautiful Ray Patterson animation. Mike Lah animates a lot of footage on this one, and it features many of his hilarious walk cycles.

Ray was uncredited on this picture as he briefly left MGM to go to England, to train animators for David Hand on the ANIMALAND series. (That doesn't surprise me, as the designs of a lot of those characters look like something Ray would draw.)

- Dog sleeping to Tom bouncing off on bass: Ray Patterson
- Tom starts singing to Jerry stomping off upstairs: Ken Muse
- Jerry puts iron into pie: Ed Barge
- Tom gets iron in face: Muse
- Tom chases Jerry through kitchen to dog coming back to house: Barge
- Dog puts in bigger teeth to Tom running on 'front legs': Patterson
- Tom runs behind wall to Tom slamming the dog on the ground after wooing him : Mike Lah
- Tom scurries behind corner to iris out : Pete Burness (this is not subtitled correctly in the video)

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Solid Serenade
Uploaded by thadk

The bit by Muse with Tom getting angry, not at the fact that he got hit in the face, but that someone is heckling him, is the kind of thing that I feel separates good from great animation.