Sufferin' Cats! (1943) User Reviews (13)

Two-Against-One.....Sort Of

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 10 July 2007]

Two cats fighting over Jerry? Yup, that's the case here. Tom is just tormenting his buddy but some stray outside means to have Jerry as part of a submarine sandwich. Jerry tries to smooch up to each cat, playing up to one to stay away from other. That only works once for each cat.

After that, this is just one big chase scene, but that's par for the course for a Tom and Jerry cartoon. What's different is that there are two cats chasing the mouse. Thankfully, for Jerry's sake, the cats are also beating each other up while trying to hold onto the elusive mouse. Finally, Jerry starts producing pain for both cats, something he's used to doing to poor Tom.

All in all, it makes for a fairly wild eight minutes, with most of the laughs in the second half of it, particularly when Tom is about to chop Jerry in half, but then gets another idea whispered in his ear from "the Devil." As always, the devil's advice winds up to be the wrong kind

great antics

[movieman_kev · 8/10 · 30 May 2005]

Tom the cat has got Jerry the mouse on a fishing line and is toying with him much to Jerry's chagrin. So after he gets away he runs into a cat that scares Tom. Jerry think he's saved onto to realize that the second cat just wants to eat him himself. What follows is classic slapstick as the two cats fight over who gets the meal. But they both get their just desserts in the end. Tom and Jerry are in their top form here and are a delight to watch as they ALMOST are (the feature film where they're best pals is horrid, but I digress).This hilarious cartoon can be found on disc one of the Spotlight collection DVD of "Tom & Jerry"

My Grade: A-

Good Fun.

[Otavio-clubpenguin · 8/10 · 14 July 2014]

Sufferin' Cats and The Bowling alley cat in my opinion are the best early Tom and Jerry shorts. This one got really good laughs.

The Story is about Tom chasing Jerry, then an Alley Cat appears (His name is Meathead), and then they start to fight each other in order to get Jerry.

The Story might sound too simple, but the excellent animation, perfectly timed gags really help. And this episode is a musical fun! I couldn't stop humming to the song, it's really Jazzy and Catchy, it accomplishes the action on the cartoon, it's flawless.

The Highlights of the cartoon are when Tom and Meathead decide to cut Jerry in a half to have equal parts to each other, but Tom's evil thought make him steal Jerry by a whole.

All of these elements help this cartoon stand out.

I Recommend it to every Tom and Jerry fan.

Sufferin' Cats!

[Michael_Elliott · 27 December 2015]

Sufferin' Cats! (1943)

*** (out of 4)

Jerry is once again running away from Tom who wants to eat him but he makes the mistake of running into another cat. Af first Jerry thinks he's safe but it turns out this cat wants to eat him too so now the mouse finds himself running away from two cats. SUFFERIN' CATS! is another winner for the series and once again we're taken away from the house setting, which allows for some new and creative action. One of the highlights happen when the cats agree to cut Jerry in half and share him but of course something else happens. This short is fast, fun and contains enough action to keep it entertaining throughout.

Some viewers will feel that they've fallen victim to a . . .

[pixrox1 · 6/10 · 27 August 2022]

. . . classic "bait and switch" scam, as the finale of SUFFERING CATS! Seems to promise that the nuisance pest Jerry finally will be subdivided for a tasty, though admittedly small, treat. Alas, no such luck befalls the millions of normal people who each have their own sad tales of Real Life rodents indiscriminately spoiling holiday feasts, family heirlooms and household peace--sometimes accomplishing this hat trick in mere minutes. It is NOT very funny when the mutt supposedly guarding the hen house eats the hens! However, SUFFERING CATS! Takes itself literally, inflicting continual pain upon its pair of beleaguered felines and giving the vile vermin a misplaced "last laugh."

Top Flight T&J

[martin63 · 9/10 · 3 October 2001]

MGM animation of the thirties and forties could often seriously rival the Disney studio for sheer lushness and elegance, and generaly had them beat for comedy. "Sufferin' Cats" is a charming and funny early Tom and Jerry romp in which Tom is allowed to display a resoucefulness almost on a par with his rodent rival.

A fun Tom and Jerry cartoon, but not a classic

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 13 November 2012]

I adore Tom and Jerry and always have done. Sufferin' Cats is not one of my favourites though, seeing as it is an early T&J I was expecting the sense that they were still finding their feet and that was the case here. The story here is very routine, I do agree with those who have said that Sufferin' Cats is little more than one big chase, while the first half is not as funny or as crisply paced as the second, which is where the fun begins. The gags in the second half are genuinely funny on the other point of view, the standout being Tom battling his devil conscience and it goes pear-shaped from there. The ending is amusing as well. The animation is clean and beautifully drawn, while the music adds so much to the effectiveness of the gags and is orchestrated in such a vibrant way. All three characters are great, two cats fighting over one mouse is not a new idea but done in a very entertaining way here, and have inspired interplay between them. Tom and Jerry themselves are true to personality, and the second cat is a good contrast to Tom. All in all, not a classic but fun. 7/10 Bethany Cox

An Insufferable Battle for Jerry

[Kalashnikovin · 8/10 · 5 November 2022]

Since T&J started, they were a controversial and fun duo, their Cartoons enjoyed the madness that you would expect from a Merrie Melodies directed by Clampett, their Humor based on Violence was what stood out the most and at the same time, what I like the most about the series, come on, violence is the key to success here, right?.

Tom the Cat seems to be having fun in the Old Way, Of course, in these times Cats still retain those areas of Laziness and Appetite that the ancients had, but nowadays a cat without the need of a mouse has fun, come on!, even with a stick and a Stone manages to have fun, and Tom is a clear example of this, with a Fishing Rod He makes his Adversary suffer, giving him the Opportunity to Flee and then pulling him to his location.

The Game does not last long, since Jerry gets rid of Tom and they chase each other, Jerry finds a Metthead Prototype and that's where the problems begin...

Both parts do not match, So Jerry plays with their Minds to Force them to Fight (In pretty rough ways by the way) to see who gets their Dominion, or well, Eats it.

The Plot is not as Interesting as Bill and Joe came up with, but their Execution was pretty good, it has some twists and enough funny scenes to be considered "Good", It has Exuberant Animation in the detail, The inclusion of a new character was somewhat more interesting and Methead takes advantage of some ways to make the comedy work, the music complements the action and coordinates very well with it, the humor is fun, and boy are you going to laugh.

In conclusion, it is not the Most Entertaining or the most Original, but despite its limits, it becomes fun in several ways.

Fun, but unexceptional.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 14 March 2008]

As Tom and Jerry's creators get fully into their stride, so the duo become more and more like the cat and mouse we all know and love. Sufferin' Cats sees the cartoon's style developed even further, with the content becoming more 'violent' and the characters more defined—unfortunately, the story is the one weak element to this episode, with the whole thing being nothing more than a huge frantic chase scene (which is fun, for a while at least).

There are some quite funny visual gags, and a fine example of the old 'devil on the shoulder' routine, as Tom deliberates whether he should cut Jerry in two—in order to share the mouse with an alley cat with whom he has been competing—or plant the axe's blade in his rival's head (my 4 year old son actually found this bit disturbing). But on the whole, this short is a distinctly average offering.

A Funny Rival Cartoon

[maxschoby · 7/10 · 12 October 2023]

Sufferin' Cats is a rather basic cartoon. A very basic rivalry between Tom and another cat (Meathead in this case) and Jerry playing both sides. The cartoon is very solid all around, with some funny jokes, some good animation, and fine backgrounds. The cartoon is just a little bland, mostly because of how it aged. This type of plot, Tom's rivalry, is better developed in later cartoons, with more success than this one. This makes this cartoon kind of worse, at it is now a subpar cartoon when compared to later tries. While done better, Sufferin' Cats is funny, and quite unique in the 1943 shorts.

Double Trouble

[StrictlyConfidential · 6/10 · 27 June 2021]

"Sufferin' Cats!" was originally released back in 1943.

Anyway - As the story goes - Jerry faces double trouble when an alley cat joins Tom to pursue a mouse dinner.

Rather generic cartoon

[CuriosityKilledShawn · 5/10 · 12 September 2006]

Nothing of any particular interest or originality happens in this short. Tom is having his usual fun tormenting Jerry but the mouse runs into a stray cat and pretends to be best friends with him (by kissing him-gay lovers?) to upset Tom. Soon both cats are feuding over Jerry whilst being set-up by him. Oh, do watch my sides as they just might split!

I wasn't really impressed and there's not a lot to laugh at in the 8-minute running time. The short actually has some dialogue in it but there's no credited voices for some reason on this page. There's nothing I can recommend about this cartoon as it is Tom and Jerry at their most basic. The title is rather generic too.

Somewhat different idea, but it's not really working

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 25 July 2017]

If you know Tom & Jerry a bit, world's most famous cat and mouse duo, then you certainly also know the general idea behind these many many cartoons starring the two. Cast hunts mouse and mouse fights back most of the time. But this one here is different. It is basically Tom and another cat arguing who gets Jerry for dinner. Jerry plays along until almost the very end, but then the phrase "When two fight, the third one laughs last." becomes reality and Jerry shows us what he is capable of. Sadly, I would say that this approach and plot idea are not really working and I found most of the comedy fairly forgettable and the slapstick also wasn't too great to be honest. It is probably among Hanna/Barbera's more known T&J works, even if it did not get the Oscar nomination, but it's certainly not among their best. Basically every time Jerry is on screen, it gets better, but it's just not (frequent) enough. At 8 minutes, it is slightly longer than they usually are. The year of production is 1943 (75th anniversary in 2018), the days of WWII still, and this time is probably also when Tom and Jerry may have been at their peak in terms of popularity. The good thing as always is that you can enjoy it pretty much without subtitles, even if you don't speak English at all. Even the scene towards the end with little devil Tom speaks for itself. All in all, this is one of the weaker recent episodes from the series. I give it a thumbs-down and don't recommend checking it out.