Lee Eisenberg During his first few years as director, Chuck Jones actually veered more away from the zany comedy that had come to characterize Warner Bros. animation (although he did direct a few wacky cartoons, it seems like his work only turned to the totally crazy once he started directing Bugs Bunny). Two of his cartoons from this era - both stripped of their opening credits in the Blue Ribbon reissue - were so bereft of zaniness that it's a surprise that they even came from Termite Terrace: "Old Glory" and "Tom Thumb in Trouble".The latter portrays a woodsman and his minuscule son Tom (would so tiny a boy actually use the mature form instead of the diminutive Tommy?) living alone in a log cabin. When the dad goes out and Tom nearly drowns, a bird flies in and saves the tyke. And then the dad arrives home and assumes that the bird attacked little Tom! Has the world run completely amok?! Here's what I mean by calling this cartoon a combination of Wagner's music and Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". In the scene where Tom walks through the snow-laden forest in search of the bird, we hear "Ride of the Valkyries" (which Chuck Jones later used in "What's Opera, Doc?" when Elmer sings "Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit!"). The Hitchcock connection arises in the scene where the dad finds the bird with Tom. It's clear that the bird crashed through the window - you may recall the scene where Jessica Tandy's character finds the man with his eye pecked out - and it looks as though the avian has turned violent.OK, so I'm probably the only person who interpreted this cartoon like that. It's just that with the more saccharine cartoons, I like to maintain full sanity by coming up with weird interpretations. Overall, this one's okay in a pinch.

Clark Richards Little Tom Thumb is just happy to be alive. Every day he wakes up and wrestles with the morning alarm clock in a fun, cute and harmless way. After the clock has been turned off, Tom eagerly emulates the larger than life actions of his gargantuan (by anyone's standards) father. This is just Tom's way of getting himself ready for another day of household chores, in a fun, cute and harmless way. However, before starting up with those chores, little Tom Thumb must bathe himself properly. Tom gets himself clean by bathing in the water inside the cupped hands of his father. Does that sound cute? Well, that's because it is. But you know what? It gets cuter. Tom actually uses his father's thumb as a diving board. However, once Tom's bath is over, Tom's father goes outside to take care of some 'big boy' errands. Little Tom Thumb is left alone to his own devices as he gets down to doing some chores around the house, namely taking care of the dirty dishes. Tom has many dishes to clean, and he gets each cup and dish to sparkle with an intense attention to detail that only a person of his size can give. The custom made devices that Tom uses to clean the dishes are fun, cute, but somewhat harmful.Before Tom is able to complete his chores he accidentally slips on the cleaning soap and falls into the sink. Little Tom isn't used to pools of this size and it looks like little Tom is bound to drown. That is until a little birdie comes to his rescue.As the bird crashes through the window from outside, Tom's father senses his son is in trouble. The bird manages to save little Tom just in time, but this life saving ends up looking like a murder in progress in the eyes of Tom's father. This guilty by appearance scenario predates the one used by Hitchcock in 'North By Northwest' by some twenty years. The bird escapes from the house within an inch of his life. Tom tries to explain to his father what actually happened, but his father won't listen, instead he tells Tom to go to bed. Tom betrays his father's demands by sneaking out at night when his father is asleep. Tom is in a search to find and then to apologize to his feathered friend. The ending resolves the father, son and bird conflict rather beautifully, as the three end up falling asleep in the same bed…. in a fun, cute and harmless way, of course.7/10. Clark Richards

TxMike The TCM network shows film "shorts" as a time filler between movies and this one was shown right before the 'Tom Thumb' feature length movie with Russ Tamblyn. This animated short shows a typical winter day for Tom and his dad. Tom is so small, he takes a bath in the water held in dad's hands. When dad goes outside to labor, Tom uses a tiny mop and suds to clean a plate, as a normal size person might clean a kitchen floor. But Tom has a mishap and falls into a pot of soapy water and cannot get out, the sides are so slippery.A bird about Tom's size is watching from outside, and flies so hard into the window to break it and rescue Tom. Dad, who looks much like 'Bluto' of the Popeye, comes back to find the broken window, Tom wet and barely conscious, and tries to swat the bird before it flies back out the window. Tom writes a very large (for him) note at night telling dad he is going out to find the bird that saved him. Dad is worried but Tom finds the bird, and flies home on the back of the bird which is about his size. The story ends with the three of them sleeping soundly, the bird making its nesting place in dad's beard. Cute animated film short.

TheMan3051 Directed by Chuck Jones, this is a beautiful cartoon of a tiny little boy. Who stays home alone washing the dishes as his father works. Fate has it that he falls down to the water and begins to drown. However, a his little bird friend saves him but the father thinks the bird attacked him. And that's where the conflict begins.This cartoon is kind of Disney-ish but it works and it's a great short!4(****)out of 4(****)stars