How To Slam a Newspaper By Jerry Mouse of Prague

No, this post won’t bash the Gene Deitch Tom and Jerry cartoons made in Czechoslovakia. They do have some redeeming factors. One is they never included an annoying duck that became Yakky Doodle. Another is they never featured a way-too-cute little French mouse.

Instead, we’ll simply post the frames from a scene in Mouse Into Space (released March 1962). Todd Dockstader’s story has Jerry reading a newspaper ad encouraging mice to enlist in the space programme, promising “There are no cats in outer space!” Here's an in-between as Jerry turns to look at Tom.



Fed up with Tom trying to kill him, first with a pistol, and then a bomb, Jerry has had enough, and storms off out of the scene after slamming down a newspaper. The action takes place pretty quickly, though it still seems a little jerky on screen. These are the drawings, one for each frame (exceptions noted below).



The drawing below is held for four frames.



The next two drawings are held for two frames.



33 frames in all, less than a second and a half. Lots of jagged impact animation, isn't there?

Vaclav Bedrich is given an "animation director" credit, though Deitch is credited as the director. Who did what is your guess. Gene isn't around any more to ask.