The Camera of Dicky Moe

Gene Deitch made a dozen Tom and Jerry cartoons at his studio in Czechoslovakia in an exercise that brings about much debate amongst old-time animation fans. Some people love them. Others think they’re horrible. Frankly, and I don’t mean any disrespect to Mr. Deitch, I’m not a fan of them.

To be honest, the Tom and Jerry series was already downhill when Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera were still making the cartoons and things never improved when Chuck Jones took a crack at them after Deitch’s efforts. Jones’ cartoons look nice but I defy anyone to have any empathy for his version of the characters.

Deitch’s Tom and Jerrys are just too quirky for me. I won’t get into a whole shopping list of reasons but one thing that’s always bothered me is how jerky the action is at times, especially when impact is shown on the screen. I never understood what was happening until writing this post when I took a look frame-by-frame.

Here’s an example from the infamous “Dicky Moe” (1961). After some mismatched shots, and no dialogue when the Captain is gesticulating like he’s shouting, Tom is shanghaied. During the scene, the Captain shoves a brush in the cat’s mouth with inexplicably reverbed sound effects. I imagine Tod Dockstader, a pioneer in electronic music, had something to do with it.



Then Tom is tossed against the side of the ship. What I didn’t realise is the impact is so jerky because the camera suddenly moves in on the animation from one shot to the next.




Then the camera jerks sideways on the drawings while it pulls back at the same time. Some drawings are on one frame, others on two. It’s just a weird visual effect to me.

If you’re wondering what I mean by “matching shots,” here’s a good example. The Captain should be standing in the same place and have the same expression when the shot is cut from a close-up to a medium. But he’s not. Why? Style or an accident?



Gene wrote about the difficulties in making the series. You can read about it here on the AWM site (ignore error messages and scroll down). You can visit Gene’s web site here.

These cartoons were made a couple of years after my favourite Deitch series: Tom Terrific. And it’s one that seems to get the universal praise that “Dicky Moe” doesn’t.