In the Sherlock Holmes movie, Red being so into the wolf seems odd. Then you realize she's most likely not intended to be the Red of the original Red Hot Riding Hood... but her Grandma in her youth, who is crazy for Wolfie.
In "That's My Mommy", Quacker immediately assumes that Tom is his mother seconds after hatching from his egg, and Jerry (unsuccessfully) tries to convince him otherwise. This might not make any sense at first, but it's an actual phenomenon in psychology known as "imprinting", in which young animals, especially birds, recognize the first moving stimulus as their parent or object of habitual trust. Essentially, Quacker "imprinted" Tom as his "mother."
Tom will often pick on Jerry not because he wants to eat him, but just for fun. Cats are some of the only animals known to toy with their prey for their amusement and nothing else, and will hunt even if they aren't hungry. This aspect of Tom's character is fairly accurate, in that sense.
It seems a little like a left field turn in "Love Me, Love My Mouse" that Toodles turns on Jerry so quickly when she finds out how he tastes after spending the whole short falling to Cuteness Proximity but it's less improbable when you see it as Jerry getting his Karma Houdini Warranty. Most of the trouble in the short was from Jerry constantly setting it up to look like Tom is trying to eat him. Tom wasn't happy about the whole mess but in a rare show of restraint he didn't actually try to get back at Jerry for it. Meanwhile Jerry kept giving him grief, in excess to anything Tom actually did manage to do him this time.
This would also explain why Tom decided to try and crush Jerry to death after hitting his Rage Breaking Point. While Tom is no stranger to overwrought murder attempts but this time It's Personal. Jerry outright won at the start, Tom decided it was better to just swallow the loss and make due for once instead of hitting back and that still wasn't enough for Jerry, who decided screwing with Tom with impunity was too good to pass up. A Cruel and Unusual Death was all Tom could think of after that kind of antagonism.
Also Tom doesn't actually retaliate until Jerry laughs at him getting tossed out on his rear. Tom didn't respond to his troublemaking up to that point likely because he saw it as just more of their usual dynamic or at least felt actively antagonizing Toodles wasn't a worthwhile tradeoff just to try and get at Jerry. Jerry outright mocking him for being thrown out by his Love Interest though? That's the line.
Tom's very blatant feelings for Toodles do a lot to explain why his actions in this short. He doesn't go after Jerry despite continual antagonism not just because Toodles is protecting him but because Tom genuinely cares about Toodles enough that he doesn't want to upset her. Tom finally has enough and tries to kill Jerry after the mouse laughs about him getting thrown out because not only is Jerry now dealing real damage to their relationship because he's utterly exploiting Toodles' goodwill but is openly enjoying the misery it cause for Tom. And Tom cheers at the end not just for Jerry getting his comeuppance but also for Toodles getting back at someone who was manipulating her the whole time.
Cartoon physics aside, one might wonder how Tom is able to endure so much physical abuse from Jerry. Then you remember the saying that Cats Have Nine Lives. On the other hand, it is clear that Tom needs more than nine lives to withstand all the stuff he had to endure.
In "Heavenly Puss", among the cats waiting to enter the Heavenly Express, we see a sack bouncing along with water splashing inside. It then opens itself to reveal three kittens that had been drowned in that sack. Yeah. St. Peter even shakes his head ruefully and mutters "What some people won't do" like he's seen it before.
In the time period this cartoon was made in, he unfortunately would have. It was common practice -especially for rural communities-to drown unwanted animal offspring.
So, did the white mouse die at the end of "The Missing Mouse", where the entire neighbourhood gets obliterated from a detonation of explosives that were pretty much kept inside its body?
Not just the white mouse, but what about Jerry, and all the other folks who didn't get out in time?
If Spike were ever caught mauling Tom, Tom's owner would immediately have Spike put to sleep, leaving his son an orphan.
As amusing as Mammy Two Shoes is on the surface, what kind of deranged, sociopathic person commits acts of grotesque violence against their pets? Especially for such minor crimes as stealing food or making a mess of the house?
Tom's male owner in the Gene Deitch era is a lot worse if you stop and think about it. Suppose this man's married with kids. The situation would be frightening.
Tom being Driven to Suicide because he fell for a Gold Digger female cat and drove himself into poverty in a failed effort to win her is terrible, and it only gets worse if you stop to think about what would happen to the ridiculously rich Butch if he ever lost his money or spent it all on his new wife. She’d probably dump him for some sucker who was rich, and would Butch follow in Tom’s footsteps?
"Baby Puss" has a subtle one, and it's easier to pick up on when you're an adult. The cartoon begins with a little girl, the daughter of the household, playing "mommy and baby" with Tom, dressing him up in baby clothes. Under any other circumstances, it'd be cute... but this kid is using some borderline-verbally-abusive language with Tom, calling him "bad" over and over again, threatening to spank him with her hairbrush, grumbling, "It ain't the work, it's the worry." By the time she says she's going shopping for a girdle downtown, you realize... this very small child is only repeating the kind of language she's heard every day. This borderline-abusive language. And it's not hard to realize where she's getting it from. What kind of upbringing does this poor kid have?
Values Dissonance. Back then corporal punishment was considered acceptable if the child was naughty and adults would also use harsher words.
