Old Rockin' Chair Tom (1948) User Reviews

'Lightning' Strikes......For A Short Time

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 15 October 2007]

"Lightning" was funny! "Lightning" is a new, younger cat Mammy Two Shoes employs to get rid of "that mouse" (Jerry) because Tom is not getting the job done. "You is getting' too old for mouse-catchin,' she says.

By the way, the PC morons who correct Mammy's grammar worked overtime in this cartoon, changing every one of her sentences. I guess that's better than having her voice dubbed in by these Gestapo-like Liberals who, according to another reviewer here, have done that. I watch these T&J cartoons on disc, which has the actual audio but changes the words on the subtitles and has in the insufferable Whoopi Goldberg give a disclaimer on every disc

Anyway, this is a funny cartoon, thanks to "Lightning," who looks like a cat wearing a Devil's Halloween suit, and Mammy's reaction to him and what's happening. It's always nice, too, to see Tom and Jerry actually on the same side. They team up here to get rid of "Lightning." Boy, there are tons of violent scenes in this cartoon, more than normal which is saying a lot.

Tom and Jerry vs. Lightning

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 24 June 2010]

The story is a little on the unexceptional side, but everything else ensures for a very enjoyable Tom and Jerry cartoon as per usual. What makes this cartoon is the electric chemistry between Tom, Jerry, Lightning and Mammy Two Shoes- Tom and Jerry are both likable and Mammy Two Shoes has a more significant role here, but it is Lightning who steals the cartoon and he gets his comeuppance at the end as he must be very devious indeed to trick Mammy Two Shoes into thinking that Tom is getting old and incompetent. The animation is lovely, the music is rousing, the sight gags are clever and the violence is indeed violent but effective enough. Plus I liked the ending, it was quite sweet to see Tom sharing his treat once in a while. Overall, very enjoyable. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Enjoyable

[rbverhoef · 7/10 · 20 October 2004]

I like the Tom & Jerry cartoons where they realize they need each other and this one is a perfect example. Jerry is teasing Mammy and she calls for Tom to help her. Of course he messes things up so Mammy takes measures of her own by taking a new cat. The first job of that cat; kick Jerry out. After Tom is blamed for something the new cat has done he is kicked out as well. Tom and Jerry realize they have to work together to keep their comfortable place in the house.

The cartoon has some nice touches in the beginning but really starts with the arriving of the new cat. The best gag comes when the new cat wants to kick Jerry out for the second time but Jerry does that for himself. An enjoyable cartoon with a happy Tom & Jerry ending, with one last gag involving poor Tom, of course.

Classic Tom and Jerry mangled by the politically correct!

[world_of_weird · 10 December 2004]

I had this Tom and Jerry classic on videotape when I was a kid and watched it over and over again, until the tape broke. It's full of manic slapstick, sight gags and outright lunacy, and even the sappy ending works nicely. But when I watched it a couple of days ago on DVD, I noticed that a seemingly innocent gag has been demolished by the redubbing of Mammy's voice - in the original, when the rival cat, Lightning, makes Tom up as a decrepit senior citizen with the help of a cotton wool beard and a walking cane, Mammy sarcastically says "You take care of poor old Uncle Tom", but in the DVD, the word "Uncle" has been removed completely. Does 'Uncle Tom' constitute a racist insult, and if so, is it really so inflammatory that it needs removing from a DVD primarily aimed at children and vintage animation buffs? Even more bizarrely, the same DVD leaves several of the 'blackface' gags intact!

Thomas gets replaced

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 4 October 2012]

When Thomas the Cat fails to prevent Jerry tormenting Mammy Two Shoes he finds himself replaced by a younger, ginger cat named Lightning who soon kicks Jerry out of the house. Lightning soon frames Tom for his raid on the fridge and Tom is out too. If things are to return to the status quo then Tom and Jerry will have to team up to defeat the new cat... and with the help of a magnet and a flat iron they do just that!

This starts off as a fairly standard Tom and Jerry cartoon but once Lightning is on the scene things get more interesting; I loved how he was shown as a crackling bolt of electricity every time he ran. Tom and Jerry don't team up very often so it makes a refreshing change to see them not fighting each other for the whole show. I expected the gag with the magnet and the iron to be a brief one shot gag but it was rather fun to see them keep it up right until the end... even to the point of having Tom break his foot on it as he kicked Lightning out of the house! Overall this was a fun short; just make sure you watch the original version starring the voice of Lillian Randolph not the more recent censored version.

The new tenant

[Horst_In_Translation · 8/10 · 23 November 2017]

"Old Rockin' Chair Tom" (admittedly a very random, almost off-topic title) is a color cartoon from 1948, so this one will have its 70th anniversary next year. The name in the title as well as the fact that this is a Hanna Barbera production makes it obvious of course that these 7 minutes are another Tom and Jerry short film. In this one here, they continue the successful trend of including one other character with a great deal of screen time and T&J's interactions with it. With this, I am of course not referring to Mammy Two-Shoes who is voiced competently as always by Lilian Randolph (It's a Wonderful Life), but to the new ginger cat who is brought in when Tom's owner is no longer happy with his mice-catching skills. But Tom as well as Jerry are not too happy with being kicked-out, so for the rest of the film they are friends trying to establish the status quo again and Tom does not even try to steal from Jerry's half of the cake at the very end of the film, which shows how happy he must be being back as the cat-in-charge. I personally did not like the whole magnet/flat-iron comedy too much here, but everything else was very funny and entertaining. The first half was maybe slightly better, especially the parts before the ginger cat enters when we see an unusually destructive Jerry, but even in the second half there are good moments like when Tom gets framed for food theft, the moment that somehow establishes the new cat as an antagonist. Okay that is all I think. It was a funny good watch with great animation of course and this is my favorite short film from 1948. A must-see for cartoon lovers.

No new cats!

[CuriosityKilledShawn · 7/10 · 29 May 2007]

Jerry is tormenting Mammy-Two-Shoes (dubbed to sound less 'offensive' in the version that I watched and I suspect they have rewritten some of her dialogue too) but Tom is too slow and too lazy to catch him. Annoyed with this, she introduces a new orange cat called Lightning and kicks Tom out of the house, along with Jerry, for good.

But Lightning turns out to be a glutton and T&J reckon it's time they teamed up and hatch a plan to give Lightning what he deserves (IE a painful walloping and framing him). Some good gags and visual humor along with a more original plot make this a better than average T&J short.

When Paul Bunyan wields his ax . . .

[pixrox1 · 7/10 · 26 September 2022]

. . . in a Dizzy film, it seems apt and natural. However, when Jerry the Mouse or rapacious rodent strong-arms this tool to chop Ms. Two-Shoes' stool out from under her, it makes no sense. Doubtless the losers at the House of the Groaning Fat Cat would like to picture an amoeba as a chainsaw menace, if only they could figure out the logistics of doing so. But rodents such as voles, moles, squirrels, chipmunks, mice and rats are bad enough when they come as they are. There is no need to "enhance" them with lumberjack equipment. Simply spreading their leavings around is enough to close any legitimate business or restaurant, as downtown Detroit's oldest hot dog shop learned this month.

Meet "Lightning", The New Cat

[StrictlyConfidential · 6/10 · 1 July 2021]

"Old Rockin' Chair Tom" was originally released back in 1948.

Anyway - As the story goes - When a new, faster cat named Lightning enters the house, Tom and Jerry team up to thwart his plans.

Unexceptional antics from the cat and mouse duo.

[BA_Harrison · 5/10 · 29 June 2008]

When Tom is unable to stop Jerry from pestering a frightened Mammy Two Shoes, a new, faster, more efficient mouser is brought into the house: Lightning, a red-furred devil of a cat, so quick that he actually looks like a bolt of lightning!

Although, on the surface, Lightning appears to be the perfect cat, he is actually as untrustworthy and mischievous as Thomas, helping himself to the contents of the fridge as soon as Mammy's back is turned. However, being a rather smart cat, he frames poor old Tom, who is booted out of the house (closely followed by Jerry).

Miffed at being bested by the new arrival, Tom and Jerry team up to get revenge and earn their places back in the house.

A rather derivative adventure (and one that suffers from some awful re-dubbing by the PC police on my copy), Old Rockin' Chair Tom is full of the usual gratuitous violence one expects from the guys, but really doesn't offer anything particularly new to fans. There are a couple of reasonably funny gags involving the use of a magnet, but don't expect this one to stick in the memory for long.