The Million Dollar Cat (1944)

Excellent, a Must See

Admirable film.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Aunt Harriet leaves Tom $1m on the condition that he doesn't harm a living thing, even a mouse. Naturally, this gives Jerry free rein to torment Tom, but a cat can only be pushed so far...This one is a fairly predictable example of Tom and Jerry knockabout fun-nothing exceptional, but enjoyable enough for fans of the cat and mouse. Jerry helping himself to Tom's food at every turn is vert amusing, as is his ability to suddenly appear despite Tom's best efforts to distance himself from the rodent (Jerry reappears even after being tricked into leaping out of the window of Tom's Park Avenue penthouse apartment).The finale holds few surprises, with Tom finally losing his patience and attacking Jerry. He's thrown away his fortune, but he's happy!

"The Million Dollar Cat" is an American cartoon from 1944, so this one was released during the days of WWII, and this means it has its 75th anniversary next year. It is a Hanna Barbera production and yes you guess correctly that here we got another Tom & Jerry cartoon and like the others it runs for 7 minutes, slightly under, and even without an Oscar nomination or even win, this is still today among the more, maybe even most, known starring the world's most famous cat-and-mouse duo. Tom for once is the master of the house this time having sent mail to him even and he inherits a huge sum of money under the premise that he can never harm Jerry (or any other living creature) again. I must say as a consequence Jerry is an unlikable nuisance really in here and is just annoying for the rest of the film. Luckily, Tom's instincts prevail eventually and I am happy he's happy, even if it is still somewhat strange to hear him talk. By the way, Bill Hanna voiced Tom himself there. Overall, an okay little cartoon, one of the better T&J cartoons I'd say, but not one of the best. See it if you like old animation.

Yet another delightful Tom and Jerry cartoon. The best? Probably not. The funniest? Same answer really. Entertaining? Very! In short I thoroughly enjoyed this cartoon. It did have a nice story, probably not the most original but is still effective, and the sight gags are very funny and inventive. What I loved most about The Million Dollar Cat though was the animation, the backgrounds were lovely, the colouring audacious, the characters well drawn and the skyscrapers wonderful and majestic to look at. True, there are better looking Tom and Jerry cartoons, but for its time it is perfectly reasonable. The music as always is energetic, while Tom and Jerry are both great as Jerry constantly reminds Tom "not even a mouse". Overall, very entertaining and well animated. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Tom the cat stands to inherit a cool million dollars even on the stipulation that he can't harm one single living thing even a mouse. So of course Jerry the mouse has a field day with this news and torments Tom unmercifully, but you can only push a cat so far. This is a humorous cartoon. Tom speaks in this one, but it's not as grating as it was in the "Zoot Cat" short so I didn't mind quite as much. While it's not one of Tom and Jerry's best if you like these type of animated shorts, you could really do worse than this one. This cartoon can be found on disc one of the Spotlight collection DVD of "Tom & Jerry" My Grade: B+