"The Bowling Alley-Cat" is another Hanna Barbera cartoon starring Tom and Jerry as you may have guessed from the title already, a pretty nice play on words there and even if the title only features Tom, Jerry is the one who keeps having the last laugh like so many other times. At exactly 8 minutes, this one's slightly longer than they usually are and it was released back in 1942, so during the days of WWII, and this means that it had its 75th anniversary last year already, which makes it one of the oldest T&J cartoons and from Tom's looks you can see that pretty well as he changed a lot physically from his original form the more cartoons got released over the years. Actually this is number 007 (Bond anyone?). The two are at the bowling alley and it is really just the duo at that point, o other customers, no other animals, no other employees, just the cat and the mouse he is trying to catch. This results in several funny and witty sequences that in fact not only involve jokes on pins and balls (and their faces), but also jokes on other sports like ice skating very early on. I enjoyed the watch here. It's among the better, but not best Tom and Jerry cartoons I have seen (and I have seen lots) just like it is among the more, but not most, known cartoons starring this duo. Go see it, it's worth it in my opinion.

The Bowling Alley-Cat (1942)*** (out of 4)The action and laughs are the same but the setting is different. Jerry is at the bowling alley having some fun when he runs into Tom and chaos follows. THE BOWLING ALLEY-CAT has pretty much everything that the previous Tom and Jerry shorts did but the big difference here is that the action has gone from the house to a bowling alley. While there's really nothing new here there's no question that the new settling allowed for some creative fun. One of the highlights is when Tom plans on eating Jerry but instead gets pounded by some bowling balls. The animation is quite good as you'd expect and there's no doubt that the comic duo were really starting to come into their own.

While it is slow in pace to begin with, Bowling Alley-Cat is still very enjoyable. It doesn't belong in the best of their cartoons, but in my opinion it is one of their better early ones. For one thing, the animation is lovely, crisp and clean and smooth in general. True, Tom looks like a kitten here, but for 1942 this animation was not bad at all, quite the contrary. The music was a delight, hearing the Waltz from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty was a real plus, and the sight gags were both original and funny. Also I loved this because it was different, it all takes place in a bowling alley rather than the house, it was really nice to see something new once in a while. Overall, different and enjoyable, definitely worth the watch. 9/10 Bethany Cox

This is one of the early Tom & Jerry cartoons and also one of the best. The animation is superb and extremely well done. The antics of both Tom and Jerry as they try to outwit each other are classic. The parts of Tom trying to bowl with a ball that's much too heavy for him are some of the most fluid and natural looking animation of the entire time period. This and another two other sports shorts they made (Tennis Chumps, 1949, and Cue Ball Cat, 1950) have to be on list of top Tom & Jerry cartoons ever. Definitely one of my all-time favorites.