Animator Breakdown of Tom & Jerry's "Pecos Pest"
Here it is! Tom and Jerry's final short produced exclusively in academy ratio before they moved to CinemaScope for good.
During the cartoon's production, budget cuts were inevitable due to shifting focus from film, to television. For example, animation would be recycled when Uncle Pecos was singing his song. In an attempt to bring audience back to film, MGM's cartoon studio decided to shift to CinemaScope. Initially, they would switch back and forth between academy ratio, and CinemaScope before this short. This short is best known for Uncle Pecos singing his Crambone song, a variation of Frog Went a-Courting. The short was animated by the four principal animators of Tom and Jerry; Ed Barge, Irv Spence, Ray Patterson, and Ken Muse, with this cartoon being the final time all four of these worked on the same cartoon.
The meat of the cartoon is limited as Pecos' song takes up nearly two minutes of the short's run time. Ray Patterson, with this being his last cartoon before leaving the studio, animates the first sequence were Jerry meets Uncle Pecos. Patterson animates, perhaps, the greatest character expressions out of any other animator. A trait Patterson used is that he would occasionally draw characters cross-eyed, a trait that Ed Barge or Ken Muse almost never did.
Ken Muse finishes animating Pecos' song. After Pecos' guitar string gets plucked, he would go out of Jerry's mousehole in search of any form of replacement; with Jerry giving a concerned look. (animated by Irv Spence) Searching for a string, he finds a sleeping Tom and plucks one of his six, though, usually four in other cartoons, whiskers. Muse's use of solid and flexible animation is clear with him animating Pecos plucking Tom's first two strings, which makes Jerry have to save his oblivious uncle. Tom is seen more as a victim rather as an antagonist in this short, as he is scared of Pecos.
In an attempt to seek refuge, Jerry, with his singing uncle in is hands, accidentally falls into a grated hatch, as animated by Ed Barge. Usually, Barge's animation is round and on-model, but in this sequence, he animates Tom with loose and exaggerated expressions. Tom barricades hole, and hides behind a door thinking he's safe. Pecos slams it on Tom while looking for him; with Jerry trying to stop him. Spence's use of his signature quick animation further enhances the scene where Tom uses various items to stop Pecos.
Barge animates the scene where Tom covers his face with a knight helmet. One of Barge's traits is that he animates characters sliding on the floor in the opposite direction they were walking before coming to a halt, as shown when Pecos stops to notice Tom's helmet. After Tom's plan backfires, he runs into a closet, animated by Irv Spence. Ken Muse animates a lengthy scene of Pecos playing his encore. With the simple and recycled animation used in these scene and the beginning scene, Fred Quimby, the producer of the cartoon, must've liked this cost-effective approach.
After Pecos' string gets plucked again, Tom surrenders, and lends him a whisker, animated by Ed Barge. Ken Muse animates the scene where Pecos departures from the house. In the next night, Tom and Jerry watches Pecos play his song via television, with Pecos having to break through the screen to grab Tom's final whisker, as animated by Irv Spence. Patterson animates the last scene with Pecos ending his song.
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