Fantastic!

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The Egg and Jerry is a CinemaScope retread of the not-particularly-memorable Hatch Up Your Troubles (1949), wherein a baby woodpecker mistakes Jerry for his mother and proceeds to peck away at any wooden objects it can find, including Tom's deckchair, which kick-starts the inevitable chase routine with Jerry doing his best to ensure the safety of the bird.The only real difference between this and the original (picture ratio aside) is that this version features some truly horrible, slapdash backgrounds, no doubt the result of a cost cutting exercise by Hanna-Barbera. My advice: watch Hatch Up Your Troubles instead, or any one of the many excellent early Tom and Jerry shorts.

Essentially a CinemaScope remake of Hatch Up Your Troubles, The Egg and Jerry will please any fans of Tom and Jerry, as it did with me. Of course, you know exactly how it's going to end and the colours, especially when the woodpecker hatches and it and Jerry first meet, are not always easy on the eyes. However, the animation style is the same as in Hatch Up Your Troubles and while not as sumptuously coloured everything is still very well-drawn. The music is outstanding, merging perfectly with the action and especially the characters' gestures and reactions to the situation as well as sounding lively and lush. The gags are simple but funny and well-timed, the best being Tom being unfolded inside the sun-bed/chair and the woodpecker trying to peck its way out of Tom after being swallowed. There are several cute moments particularly the ending, and Jerry trying to indicate that he is not the woodpecker's "mamma" is done to touching effect. Tom and Jerry are their likable selves and as well as resourceful the woodpecker is adorable. All in all, cute and entertaining, well worth watching. 8/10 Bethany Cox

A baby woodpecker's egg falls out of a tree whilst it is trying to hatch itself. In doing so, it rolls into Jerry's house, and problems arise when not only does the little woodpecker think that Jerry is its 'Mama', but it gets a bit peck-happy and destructive. Unsurprisingly when Tom gets caught up in the action, Jerry comes to the little bird's rescue... This is a CinemaScope remake of the 1949 Tom and Jerry cartoon, 'Hatch Up Your Troubles'. Apart from the wider screen display, the other difference is in the imagery. This time around, due to rising costs of cartoons at the time, although the animation is identical to the earlier cartoon, the colours are less easy on the eye, and the backgrounds are also more schematic. Definitely best enjoyed in its original 1949 version.