Before the popular cat and mouse pair Tom and Jerry, there was the Van Beuren’s cartoons of Tom and Jerry. At those cartoons, two guys starred a series of bizarre adventures paying plumbers, musicians, fishers, etc., with a similar style of the one developed of Fleischer Studios.
According to Wikipedia, 26 episodes were made, and 11 of them are available on-line, almost all made in 1932. Some of them are presented as “Dick and Larry” cartoon and I found the answer of it at Don Markstein’s Toonopedia: Its cartoons were briefly brought back into commercially viability in the early days of television, when everything was in black and white. Since there was already a Tom & Jerry, they were re-dubbed Dick and Larry. As color came in, they faded into complete obscurity.
Before the Cat and Mouse: Van Beuren’s Tom and Jerry is an excellent site about those Tom & Jerry, with the complete filmography, history and more interesting related information. And Big Cartoon DataBase gives has a cartoon list with details about each episode. Below, the list of where watch or download the cartoons on-line.
- A Spanish Twist (1932): download at Archive or Public Domain Movies; watch it here.
- A Swiss Trick (1931): download at Archive; watch it here.
- Barnyard Bun (1932): download at PDM; watch it here.
- Hook & Ladder Hokum (1933): download at Archive; watch it here.
- In The Bag (1932): download at Archive; watch it here.
- Jolly Fish (1932): download at PDM; watch it here.
- Pencil Mania (1932): download at PDM; watch it here.
- Piano Tooners (1932): download at Archive or PDM; watch it here.
- Plane Dumb (1932): download at Archive or PDM; watch it here.
- Pots and Pans (1932): download at Archive; watch it here.
- Redskin Blues (1932): download at PDM; watch it here.
- Rocketeers (1932): download at Archive; watch it here.
- The Tuba Tooter (1932): download at PDM; watch it here.
Or try the Tom and Jerry Festival with 8 episodes to download as a torrrent.
Update: Watch all the videos in sequence at Videos with Bibi on Van Beuren’s Tom and Jerry I, Van Beuren’s Tom and Jerry II and Van Beuren’s Tom and Jerry III.
