Heavenly Puss (1949)

Very well executed

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Absolutely the worst movie.

Absolutely Fantastic

This short opens with Tom sleeping by the fire and Jerry sneaking on to the table to steal some food; Tom wakes and sees him and is soon after him. As Jerry tries to flee upstairs Tom tugs on the carpet; as he keeps pulling the piano on the landing approaches the top of the stairs then tumbles down and squashes Tom against the wall. It looks as if Tom's used up his nine lives as a gold escalator appears and takes him to the golden gates where recently deceased cats are queuing to board the Heavenly Express. As Tom tries to board he is told he can't as he spent his life tormenting Jerry... if he is to board he must get a signed letter of forgiveness from Jerry within one hour; should he fail he will go straight to hell! He wakes up and desperately tries to get Jerry to sign it; Jerry isn't in a forgiving mood so he will need a lot of persuading!This was a great short with plenty of good laughs; with all the things that have happened to Tom and Jerry before it is amazing that neither of them has 'died' before. There is less violent action than usual but that is no bad thing as the scene where Tom ascends the escalator and tries to board the Heavenly Express were entertaining. There was one shock in there too... we hear how other cats died before three kittens emerge from a dripping sack suggesting that they had been deliberately drowned and the gatekeeper a shakes his head and says 'what some people won't do'... pretty dark for a cartoon. Tom's attempts to get Jerry to forgive him were fairly funny; almost the opposite of his usual behaviour. There is a little twist at the end... after all Tom can't really be dead as he has more cartoons to star in.

When I had watch this short, it's kind of like Disney's "Pluto's Judgement Day" (your judgement day nightmare) of course I thought of "Judgement Day" as in when you had died your soul will be judged. I had always question myself of the concept of Heaven and Hell, and OH! those little kittens are SO cute and I felt sorry for them; some people are just cruel.Well down to basics : In this short, Tom got "killed" while chasing Jerry. He goes to heaven and meets the cat who meets dead cats boarding the "Heavenly Express." Tom is given one hour to have Jerry sign a certificate of forgiveness. If Jerry signs, he goes to Heaven; if he doesn't then he goes to Hell. I love the ending and Jerry's "O-K what just happen?" look on his face, when Tom kisses him.

In this cartoon Tom and Jerry have their usual chases but then Tom gets crushed by a piano rolling down the stairs. Tom's soul arrives at the pearly gate but if he wants to go with "The Heavenly Express" to heaven Jerry must sign a document that says he forgives Tom or else Tom goes to hell. This is in my opinion one of the lesser Tom and Jerry shorts from the 40,s. It's no wrong about the music which is great and the animation is great too but I don't really like the plot. I think the scene when Tom is in heaven and Spike is the devil are the only things that makes this short watchable. The end is also pretty cute but i won't spoil that. My grade: C

It's not hard to get tired of the bad reputation cats have been given in animated cartoons (Warner Brothers had Pussyfoot as a sympathetic feline, but that's one of the few). They seem to serve only as punching bags for dogs and persecutors of mice and birds. In this cartoon, we have Tom threatened with condemnation to an animal version of Christian hell populated, of course, by devil dogs, and for what? For following his instincts, nothing more. If Christians can be condemned for following their instincts, there must not be many of them in their version of heaven.Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield, perhaps said it best: "Way down under, we're all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by theirs." Seeing the way Hanna and Barbera always cast Tom as the endless oppressor and the foil for Jerry's sadistic manipulation makes me want to do two things: watch only Chuck Jones Tom & Jerry cartoons, where the motivations were distilled to their purest essence (the chase for its own sake) and to go find a few mice for my own cats to play with while I watch and cheer them on.