Tom's Owner is a character in the Gene Deitch Tom & Jerry shorts.
He was voiced by the late Allen Swift, who also voiced Herman from Herman and Catnip.
What Makes Him a Scrappy?[]
- He constantly harmed Tom anytime the latter annoyed him.
- While he was meant to be funny, being a source of slapstick, he was instead seen as abusive and violent, doing things that were far beyond what the characters had previously done. This includes:
- Stomping on one of his paws.
- Tying him up in the bucket he collects fish in.
- Burning Tom's head with a grill.
- Forcing Tom to drink an entire bottle of soda pop.
- Tying him up to an ottoman, after he nearly drowned in a swimming pool.
- Wrapping a shotgun around Tom's head, and then shooting it.
- Slamming Tom's fingers with a lunchbox lid.
- Likely due to the fact that the character is human, and because he's established to be Tom's owner, and not an anthropomorphic rival like Spike or Butch, the above attempts at slapstick seems far more grisly than humorous.
- His slasher smile can come off as disturbing to some audiences.
- His design is out of place and looks like something out of a 1950's-1960's Hanna-Barbera, UPA, or Pink Panther cartoon rather than Tom and Jerry.
- His design is also taken from TerryToons character, Clint Clobber.
- Due to him Tom sometimes is seen crying, which proves once again that this character isn't funny, but cruel. Even Jerry is sometimes shown to be horrified by his abuse.
- In Sorry Safari, he tries to kill some endangered animals for his own amusement.
- He's basically a 1960's MGM version of Smolder the Bear from Disney's Timon & Pumbaa, but without none of the charm or humor Smolder had.
- He never gets his comeuppance except for a brief scene at the ending of Sorry Safari, but even there, he took Tom and a black rhino with him.
Trivia[]
- Gene Deitch himself understood the complaints people had for the character, who was stated by many fans to be too vile and violent even by the show’s standards, and subsequently removed him from the shorts after only three appearances. After this, he was never seen again in all the franchise.
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 Scrappies
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Animated Features Live-Action Features Shorts | ||
 Scrappies
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Animated Films Other Live-Action Films Animated Television Family Guy and The Cleveland Show American Dad! Bob's Burgers Other Live-Action Television Shorts See Also | ||