In the Bag (II) (1932) User Reviews

A short starring the Van Beuren team called Tom and Jerry.

[llltdesq · 6/10 · 17 November 2006]

This short stars a Mutt and Jeff-like pair named Tom and Jerry, who came and disappeared before the more famous pair debuted for MGM somewhat later. This is one of their shorts-not one of their best, but also not one of their worst either. Because I want to discuss this with some details, this is a spoiler warning:

This short starts out with the duo in an airplane and shows a bird being pulled into the propeller and coming out as the in-flight meal. The bird had a last posthumous laugh, however, because the plane goes into a nosedive almost immediately afterward. The tall one jumps out with a parachute, but he has a rougher landing than the short one who rode the plane down.

They start walking, only to be trailed by a horse. A bit later, they spot a "Wanted" poster offering a $1000 reward for a bad guy, who just happens to be behind that very tree! They manage to trick him, pull his hat down over him and ride off on the horse (though why they didn't just grab him and take him in for the reward is a question for the scriptwriter to answer).

Tom and Jerry wind up in a saloon in a little town, where there are drinking gags and musical interludes, with Tom and Jerry playing a tune. The bad guy makes an unusual entrance and robs the patrons of the saloon. Riding after the bad guy during a funny chase scene, the little one finally ropes him. knocks him out and takes him back to town to collect the reward-which he promptly leaves outside with his taller partner, who puts it down. The bad guy comes to and switches bags, taking the reward.

The tall one, with the encouragement of the horse, takes the bag he thinks has the reward and rides off, leaving the bad guy free to escape. The tall one double-crosses the horse, thinking to make himself even richer. The ending is cute and I won't spoil it here.

This short is on the DVD Attack of the '30s Characters and is well worth seeing, as is the whole DVD. Recommended.

In the Bag was a pretty amusing cartoon starring Tom & Jerry. No, not the famous cat-and-mouse team!

[tavm · 5/10 · 10 September 2013]

Just watched this Tom & Jerry cartoon on YouTube. Wait, while this stars a couple of cartoon characters by the name I just mentioned, it's not the famous cat-and-mouse team but a couple of humans-one tall, one short-created at the Van Beuren studio years before the more famous pair were thought of at M-G-M which means these characters were no longer used by that later time. Anyway, this was a plot less animated short which began on an airplane with the two riding on it with a bizarre gag involving a duck, the propeller, and dinner and goes on to take them out west where they encounter a bad guy but don't really apprehend him-despite the reward poster on the tree-until nearly the end. In summary, In the Bag has some pretty funny gags but no plot just filler stuff for the six required minutes. Worth a look for any animation buffs looking for vintage stuff.

In the very strange bag

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 14 November 2017]

The Van Beuren Tom and Jerry (as said already not the famous cat and mouse, this is a human duo that lasted for just under 30 cartoons, 29 if memory serves correct, between 1931 and 1933) series was interesting but uneven and not easy to rate as an overall whole. At the series' best, the cartoons were good, very good in a few cases. At its worst, they were really bad.

Although in the weaker half of the series, there are worse Tom and Jerry cartoons than 'In the Bag'. The execution here may be excessively strange and senseless and lacks the ingredients that made other "strange" Tom and Jerry cartoons (and there are plenty, the series' style is absurdist) work, but it at least doesn't have anything that will cause offense and has a few good elements. There are good things, the best thing about it is the music score which is the high point of even the worst cartoons and is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and full of energy, doing so well with enhancing the action.

There is a nicely done setting, some decent attention to detail in a few of the backgrounds and good movement synchronisation with the music.

Gags-wise there are moments, the highlights being the duck, the propeller and the very cute ending.

However, once again, most of the animation didn't do it for me. There are worse-looking cartoons in the series, at least the backgrounds and some of the synchronisation was decent, but it is not one of the most visually interesting ones like 'Wot a Night'. Too much of it is crude and simplistic with a fair share of static moments. Tom and Jerry look primitive, and none of the supporting characters are well drawn and all are also uninteresting in personality.

While the Tom and Jerry cartoons are absurdist and weird in their style of humour, this didn't come through enough in the gags and 'In the Bag' is sadly an example of a cartoon from the series where the increasing weirdness of the unexpected turns didn't work. It worked in 'Rocketeers', which had good timing, good gags and a few interesting visuals to help it. The gags generally aren't enough, the comic timing lacks energy and it's visually unappealing throughout.

Story-wise, 'In the Bag' just became too disjointed and even for a series where one shouldn't expect sense things just got increasingly confused. It's a paper thin cartoon in story once again, true of most cartoons in the series, with everything feeling like filler.

In summary, very strange and sadly for 'In the Bag' not in a good way. It felt too anaemic, with not enough gags, energy or imagination, for the customary absurdist bizarre style of the series to work properly. 4/10 Bethany Cox