Baby Puss (1943) *** 1/2 (out of 4)One of the best in the series has Tom being dressed up as a baby by the little girl who lives with him. This leads to Tom being picked on by Jerry but things get even worse for the poor cat when a group of alley cats show up to continue the abuse. BABY PUSS is without question the best film in the series up to this point and it manages to feature one great laugh after another. For starters, the voice of the little girl is just so perfectly annoying that you really can't feel Tom's pain. The comedy aspect is extremely high and especially with the various abuses that Tom receives at the hands of the other cats. The diaper changing sequence is just a classic as is the scene where Jerry does some cross-dressing. Fans of the series will certainly love this one.

This short is one of my favorite Tom & Jerry shorts from 1943. In this short, Tom was forced to play "baby" for the little girl of the house and he did not like it one bit! except for the milk from the bottle. Then when the child left the room, Jerry peeks from behind a doll house and sees Tom, who is enjoying the bottle (for the milk) and mocks him by playing "Rock-a-Bye Baby" on the turntable and pretends to be a baby himself - I love that part. Tom is furious and chases Jerry into the doll-house. Just when it seems that Tom has Jerry cornered, Nancy returns and scolds Tom again. Tucking Tom back in bed, Nancy threatens to feed him castor oil if he gets out again.Jerry emerges from the doll house and runs to the window to get the attention of Meathead (from the short Sufferin' Cats! ), Butch and Topsy, Tom's three alley cat friends who are outside. When the trio see Tom, they begin to make fun of him. When Tom confronts the other cats, they continue to tease and humiliate him...poor Tom. Overall, I love this cartoon.

Even by Tom and Jerry's own violent standards, Baby Puss is disturbingly callous. It begins with an unusual premise - the usual 'owner', the plump black maid, is nowhere to be seen, and Tom appears to have been catnapped by an annoying little girl who wants to play mummy-and-baby with him. Tom puts up with this nonsense because he loves the bottled milk she feeds him, but this cosseted life comes to an end when Jerry invites Tom's alley cat friends to see how their leader is being humiliated. This leads to a lengthy slapstick sequence in which Tom is bullied relentlessly, and maybe it's because he's dressed as a toddler that I found this quite hard to take, especially the part where his head is blown up like a balloon and later stamped on repeatedly. I'm no wimp and I usually love violent cartoons, but this seemed too close to child abuse for comfort. Having said that, there are plenty of laughs and even - unusually for a 1940s cartoon - a couple of jokes about vomiting!

This is one of my favorite Tom and Jerry cartoons. There isn't much plot, but everything that happens is just so delightful, funny, and beautifully animated, it's hard not to love. Tom's bratty alleycat friends are always fun to watch, and Tom is definitely at his most helpless and adorable. For old music fans, Baby Puss features a dozen great old standards brilliantly orchestrated.