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Tom and Jerry (originally known as Jasper and Jinx) is an American franchise consisting of animated theatrical shorts, television shows and specials, a feature film, and direct-to-video films. It was created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn Mayer, and it centered on a never-ending rivalry between a cat (Tom) and a mouse (Jerry) whose chases and battles often involved slapstick comedy and minimal dialogue.[1]

WarnerMedia currently owns the rights to Tom and Jerry, with Warner Bros. and its subsidiaries handling production and distribution of new animated content.

Tom and Jerry is currently available on the Boomerang channel and streaming service, along with other MGM cartoons.
History

"Tom and Jerry" was a commonplace phrase for youngsters indulging in riotous behavior in 19th-century London. The term comes from Life in London, or Days and Nights of Jerry Hawthorne and his elegant friend Corinthian Tom (1823) by Pierce Egan.[2] However Brewer notes no more than an "unconscious" echo of the Regency era original in the naming of the cartoon.[3]

Before Tom and Jerry; MGM branches into cartoons[]

TomandJerryTitleCards

The four title cards used in the original Tom and Jerry shorts.

In 1934, MGM contracted with animation producers/directors Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising to produce a new series of color cartoons. Harman and Ising came to MGM after breaking ties with Leon Schlesinger and Warner Bros., and brought with them their popular Looney Tunes character, Bosko. These were known as Happy Harmonies, and in many ways resembled the Looney Tunes' sister series, Merrie Melodies. The Happy Harmonies regularly ran over budget, and MGM dismissed Harman-Ising in 1937 to start its own animation studio.[4] The two would eventually be rehired, however.

Early development and Puss Gets the Boot[]

In June 1937, animator and story man Joseph Barbera began to work for the Ising animation unit at MGM, the largest studio in Hollywood at the time. He learned that co-owner Louis B. Mayer wished to boost the animation department by encouraging the artists to develop some new cartoon characters, following the lack of success with its earlier cartoon series based on the Captain and the Kids comic strip. Barbera then teamed with fellow Ising unit animator and director William Hanna and pitched new ideas, among them was the concept of two "equal characters who were always in conflict with each other". An early thought involved a fox and a dog before they settled on a cat and mouse. The pair discussed their ideas with MGM cartoon studio head Fred Quimby, who gave them the green-light to produce one cartoon short despite a lack of interest in it.

The short, Puss Gets the Boot, featured a cat then named Jasper and an unnamed mouse (named Jinx in pre-production) and an African-American housemaid named Mammy Two Shoes. It was released onto the theater circuit on February 10, 1940 and the pair were advised by management not to produce anymore cartoons about the cat and the mouse. So MGM focused on other cartoons including Gallopin' Gals (1940) and Officer Pooch (1941).

Matters changed, however, when Texas businesswoman Bessa Short sent a letter to MGM asking whether more cat and mouse shorts would be produced, which helped convince management to commission a series. A studio contest held to rename both characters was won by animator John Carr, who suggested Tom would be the name for the cat and Jerry would be the name for the mouse after the Christmastime drink. Carr was awarded a first place prize of $50. Puss Gets the Boot was a critical success, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Short Subject: Cartoons in 1941 despite the credits listing Ising and omitting Hanna and Barbera.

Production continues[]

After MGM gave the green-light for Hanna and Barbera to continue, the studio entered production on the second Tom and Jerry cartoon, The Midnight Snack (1941). The pair would continue to work on the series for the next fifteen years of their career. Early into the series, Jerry never started the conflict, and shorts typically involved Tom losing by the end. The composer of the series, Scott Bradley, made it difficult for the musicians to perform his score which often involved the twelve-tone technique developed by Arnold Schoenberg. The series developed a quicker, more energetic and violent tone which was inspired by the work of MGM colleague Tex Avery. Hanna and Barbera made minor adjustments to Tom and Jerry's appearance so they would "age gracefully". Jerry went on to lose weight and his long eyelashes, while Tom lost his jagged fur for a smoother appearance, had larger eyebrows, and received a white and grey face with a white mouth. He adopted a quadrupedal stance at first, like a real cat, to become increasingly and almost exclusively bipedal.

Hanna and Barbera produced 114 cartoons for MGM, thirteen of which were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Subject and seven went on to win, breaking the winning streak held by Walt Disney's studio in the category. Tom and Jerry won more Academy Awards than any other character-based theatrical animated series. Barbera estimated the typical budget of $50,000 for each Tom and Jerry cartoon which made the duo take "time to get it right". A typical cartoon took around six weeks to make. He and Hanna did not work with a script beforehand, instead worked on the story as they drew scenes. Quimby was credited as the producer of all cartoons until 1955.

The rise in television in the 1950s caused problems for the MGM cartoon studio, leading to budget cuts on Tom and Jerry cartoons due to decreased revenue from theatrical screenings. In an attempt to combat this, MGM ordered that all subsequent shorts be produced in the widescreen CinemaScope format; the first, Touché, Pussy Cat!, was released on December 1954. However, the studio found that re-releases of older cartoons were earning as much as new ones, resulting in the executive decision to cease production on Tom and Jerry and later the animation studio on May 15, 1957. The final cartoon produced by Hanna and Barbera, Tot Watchers, was released on August 1, 1958. The pair were fired and focused on their own company Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Tom and Jerry returns to theaters[]

On July 18, 1961, MGM announced that it was going to resume filming of Tom and Jerry cartoons. Thirteen new shorts were produced by Rembrandt Films, led by Czech-American cartoonist, Gene Deitch in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now called Czech Republic in later years).

Deitch's shorts were commercial successes. In 1961, the Tom and Jerry series became the highest-grossing animated short film series of that time, dethroning Looney Tunes, which had held the position for 16 years; this success was repeated once more in 1962. However, unlike the Hanna-Barbera shorts, none of Deitch's films was nominated for or won an Academy Award. Deitch stated it was due to his team's inexperience as well as their low budget, him "hardly having a chance to succeed", and "understanding the negative reactions" to his shorts. He believed: Yhey could all have been better animated – truer to the characters – but our T&Js were produced in the early 1960s, near the beginning of my presence here, over a half-century ago as I write this!" Despite the criticism, some fans wrote positive letters to Deitch, stating that his Tom and Jerry shorts were their personal favorites due to their quirky and surreal nature. The shorts were released on DVD in 2015 in Tom and Jerry: The Gene Deitch Collection.

Production returns to America[]

After the last of the Deitch cartoons were released in 1962, Chuck Jones, who had been fired from his 30-plus year tenure at Warner Bros. Cartoons, started his own animation studio, Sib Tower 12 Productions (later renamed MGM Animation/Visual Arts), with partner Les Goldman. Beginning in 1963, Jones and Goldman went on to produce 34 more Tom and Jerry shorts, all of which carried Jones' distinctive style.

Jones had trouble adapting his style to Tom and Jerrys brand of humor, and a number of the cartoons favored full animation, personality and style over storyline. The characters underwent a slight change of appearance: Tom was given thicker eyebrows, a less complex look, sharper ears, a longer tail and furrier cheeks, while Jerry was given larger eyes and ears, a lighter brown color, and a sweeter expression.

Some of Jones' Tom and Jerry cartoons are reminiscent of his work with Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, including the uses of blackout gags and gags involving characters falling from high places. Jones co-directed the majority of the shorts with layout artist Maurice Noble. The remaining shorts were directed by Abe Levitow and Ben Washam, with Tom Ray directing two shorts built around footage from earlier Tom and Jerry cartoons directed by Hanna and Barbera, and Jim Pabian directed a short with Maurice Noble. Various vocal characteristics were made by Mel Blanc and June Foray. These shorts contain a memorable opening theme, in which Tom first replaces the MGM lion, then is trapped inside the "O" of his name.

Though Jones's shorts were generally considered an improvement over Deitch's, they had varying degrees of critical success. MGM ceased production of Tom and Jerry shorts in 1967, by which time Jones had moved on to television specials and the feature film The Phantom Tollbooth. The shorts were released on DVD in 2009 in Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection, except they were not in their original 4:3 format.

Tom and Jerry shorts hit the TV[]

Beginning in 1965, the Hanna and Barbera Tom and Jerry cartoons began to appear on television in heavily edited versions. The Jones team was required to take the cartoons featuring Mammy Two Shoes and remove her by pasting over the scenes featuring her with new scenes. Most of the time, she was replaced with a similarly fat white Irish woman; occasionally, as in Saturday Evening Puss, a thin white teenager took her place instead, with both characters voiced by June Foray. The standard Tom and Jerry opening titles were removed as well. Instead of the roaring MGM Lion sequence, an opening sequence featuring different clips of the cartoons was used instead. The title cards were also changed. A pink title card with the name written in white font was used instead.

Debuting on CBS' Saturday morning schedule on September 25, 1965, Tom and Jerry moved to CBS Sundays two years later and remained there until September 17, 1972.

New Tom and Jerry shows[]

In 1975, a new Tom and Jerry Show was produced by Hanna-Barbera and MGM Television. These 48 seven-minute short cartoons were paired with Grape Ape and Mumbly cartoons, to create The Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape Show, The Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape/Mumbly Show, and The Tom and Jerry/Mumbly Show, all of which initially ran on ABC Saturday mornings between September 6, 1975 and September 3, 1977. In these cartoons, Tom and Jerry became nonviolent pals who went on adventures together and often teamed up, as Hanna-Barbera had to meet strict rules against violence for children's TV in the time. This format was no longer used in the newer Tom and Jerry entrees due to negative reception and angry complaints from fans.

Filmation (in association with MGM Television) also tried their hands at producing a Tom and Jerry TV series. Their version, The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show, debuted in 1980, and also featured new cartoons starring Droopy, Spike (from Tom & Jerry, and the same version also used in Droopy), Slick Wolf, and Barney Bear, not seen since the original MGM shorts. The Filmation Tom and Jerry cartoons were noticeably different from Hanna-Barbera's efforts, as they returned Tom and Jerry to the original chase formula, with a somewhat more "slapstick" humor format. Like the 1975 show, this show was not as well received by audiences as the original shorts, and lasted on CBS Saturday mornings from September 6, 1980 to September 4, 1982.

New owners; New content[]

The rights to MGM's pre-May 1986 library was purchased by Turner Entertainment in August 1986.

Tom and Jerry returned to television in 1990 with Tom & Jerry Kids, a co-production with Hanna-Barbera and Turner Entertainment. A year into the show's run, Turner would buy Hanna-Barbera from then-owner Taft Broadcasting.

A feature film, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, was released in 1992 (1993 in the USA), and it was the only time Tom and Jerry spoke regularly. The film bombed at the box office and was given negative reviews by film critics and fans, resulting that Tom and Jerry would never be given this concept type again. Around this time, Tom and Jerry shorts were being re-broadcast on Turner's Cartoon Network. The shorts contained new voice-over work for Mammy Two Shoes performed by Thea Vidale to remove the stereotypical black jargon featured on the original cartoon soundtracks.

Time Warner purchased Turner Entertainment in 1996, giving Warner Bros. full control of the Tom and Jerry franchise. In 2001, a made-for-TV short, The Mansion Cat aired on Boomerang. Direct-to-video movies were made during that period, starting with Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring in 2002. The new Tom and Jerry theatrical short, The Karate Guard, was written and co-directed by Barbera and debuted in Los Angeles cinemas on September 27, 2005.

In 2006, Warner Bros Animation produced their very first TV series for the franchise, Tom and Jerry Tales. Unlike The Tom and Jerry Show from 1975 and Comedy Show, Tom and Jerry Tales brings back the source material from the Golden-era, which received positive attention from the audiences. Warner Bros. Animation produced The Tom and Jerry Show from 2014 to 2021, with provided by Renegade Animation and is the first series to be done in flash animation instead of the usual traditional hand-drawn style.

On February 20, 2021, Warner Bros. released two new shorts onto HBO Max titled Tom and Jerry Special Shorts to honor the 81st anniversary of Tom and Jerry, as well as to promote the 2021 film. These shorts share the style of the other HBO Max original Looney Tunes Cartoons, also produced by Warner Bros. Animation.

A new Tom and Jerry series made its debut on July 1, 2021 as a Max Original on HBO Max, called Tom and Jerry in New York, which basically served as a spin-off of The Tom and Jerry Show by having the exact same animation style and slapstick, except that (as the title implies) the events take place in the city of New York City. It was also loosely based on the 2021 film, as the humans in the series were shown with the faces intact.

On November 11, 2022, Cartoon Network in Japan premiered a new series of animated shorts, Tom and Jerry (Anime series), marking the first Japanese production based on the property. The November 11, 2022 premiere coincided with Cartoon Network's celebration of Cheese Day, which is organized by cheese industry in Japan.

On July 25, 2023, the Southeast Asian version of Tom and Jerry animated shorts was announced, to be presented on Cartoon Network Asia alongside HBO Asia streaming platform HBO GO before it was aired globally. The animated shorts, which was set in Singapore, was produced by Warner Bros. Discovery Asia-Pacific Carlene Tan, with animation by Aum Animation Studios India alongside Singapore-based Robot Playground Media and Chips and Toon Studios for both the stories and designs.

Back on the Screens[]

Plans for a live-action Tom and Jerry film were announced in 2009, after the success of Alvin and the Chipmunks, and would’ve follow Tom and Jerry's origins over a Chicago backdrop. The film would’ve been produced by Dan Lin, from a script written by Eric Gravning.

On April 6, 2015, plans shifted from a live-action film to a fully animated film, that would stay "in the same vein as the source material". In October 2018, it was announced that Tim Story would direct a live-action/animated Tom and Jerry film for Warner Bros., which began filming in 2019. It was reported that Story was in discussions with Warner Bros. executives about what he was interested in directing, even before directing the new Shaft film. When the Tom and Jerry film was brought up, Story immediately "mentioned his admiration for the characters and how he'd love tackling that property."

In March 2019, it was reported that Zoey Deutch and Olivia Cooke were frontrunners for the lead live-action role of Kayla, “who teams up with Tom to stop the pesky Jerry from ruining an important event for herself.” Additionally, Sofia Carson, Elle Fanning, Jennifer Lawrence, Ariel Winter, Naomi Scott, Meg Donnelly, Hailee Steinfeld, Yara Shahidi, Kelly Marie Tran, Becky G and Isabela Moner were all in consideration for the role.[13] Later that month, it was reported that Peter Dinklage was being considered for the role of Terrance, Kayla's boss and the human antagonist of the film.

In April, Chloë Grace Moretz was in final negotiations to star in the film. Moretz described Kayla as "a lot like Jerry" and as "a girl who gunned for what she wanted to achieve but realizes that time and honesty is what will prevail in the end", as well as "a total goofball", the latter aspect which allowed Moretz to "lean into who [she is] in real life". She also said Kayla is "a little unlikeable with some of the decisions she makes", yet she still wanted the character to feel likeable.

Moretz was inspired in her performance by Bob Hoskins' performance as Eddie Valiant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, as well as by actresses Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Aniston, Lucille Ball, and Meg Ryan. In May 2019, Michael Peña joined the cast in the role Dinklage was eyed for. Colin Jost, Ken Jeong, Rob Delaney, Jordan Bolger and Pallavi Sharda were added to the cast in July. Patsy Ferran was revealed to be part of the cast in September 2019.

In November 2020, Nicky Jam and Lil Rel Howery revealed that they have been cast in the film in voice roles. On December 2, 2020, Jam revealed that he will be the voice of Butch Cat in the film. Principal photography began in July 2019 at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in Hertfordshire, England. The film was shot by cinematographer Alan Stewart, on the Sony VENICE cinema cameras and Panavision Primo 70 and Primo Artiste Lenses.

Animators were present during filming, allowing cast members to improvise while figures of the titular characters were handled by puppeteers. Filming ended before the industry's shutdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Animation services were provided by Framestore, who hired 3D animators with a passion for 2D animation for the project.

The strategy the animators used was to base the animation off a stylized 3D/CGI VFX modeling medium through a vintage 2D finish by creating innovative rigging, animation techniques used to create 2D animation, and custom tools such as lighting and rendering, resulting in the film's 3D/CGI animation maintaining the look, feel, and spirit of 2D animation, in the vein of the original classic shorts in the 1940s and 1950s.

The animators also used early Tom and Jerry shorts as reference and inspiration for the animation sequences. Work on the animation was done remotely during the pandemic, with the filmmakers doing creative exploration on certain shots, and finalizing material through production groups.

It was originally scheduled to be released on April 16, 2021, but was pushed up to December 23, 2020. The film was then pushed back to March 5, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before moving up a week in order to avoid competition with Disney's Raya And The Last Dragon.

On July 22, 2020, it was announced that Tim Story's recurring collaborator and composer Christopher Lennertz was set to compose the score of the film. The album was released by WaterTower Music on February 12, having 30 tracks. Tom & Jerry was released in the United States on February 26, 2021, by Warner Bros. Pictures, in theaters and for a month streaming on HBO Max.

The movie coincidentally released on Tex Avery's birthdate, in which the movie stars for a brief second one of Avery's characters, Droopy, on a Joker parody billboard and in an animal shelter.

Samba TV estimated that 1.2 million U.S. households streamed the film over its opening weekend on HBO Max.

In Other Media[]

Comic books[]

Tom and Jerry began appearing in comic books in 1942, as one of the features in Dell Comics' Our Gang Comics. In 1949, with MGM's live-action Our Gang shorts having ceased production five years earlier, the series was renamed Tom and Jerry Comics. That title ran 212 issues with Dell before being handed off to Western Publishing, where it ran until issue #344 in 1984. Tom and Jerry continued to appear in various comic books for the rest of the 20th century. Tom and Jerry comics were also extremely popular in Norway, Germany, Sweden, the UK, the Netherlands, and Australia.

Comic strip[]

A Tom and Jerry comic strip was syndicated from 1950 to 1952. Although credited to MGM animation studio head Fred Quimby, experts believe the strips were ghosted by Gene Hazleton and possibly Ernie Stanzoni and Dan Gormley.[66] Tom and Jerry was revived as a comic strip from 1989 to 1994, syndicated to the South American market by Editors Press Service. The strip was produced by Kelley Jarvis[67] during this era, with the exception of a short period in 1990–1991 when it was done by Paul Kupperberg & Rich Maurizio.

Video games[]

The pair have appeared in a number of video games as well, spanning titles for systems for the Sega Genesis plus also Sega Game Gear and the Sega Master System and their rival console around the 1990s, Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES and Nintendo 64 to more recent entries for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube and also on the portable Nintendo consoles, Game Boy and Nintendo DS.

Tom to Jerry: Nanairo[]

Tom to Jerry: Nanairo (Japanese: とむとじぇりーナナイロ, romanized: Tomu to Jerī Nanairo, lit. 'Tom and Jerry: Seven Colors') is a short-lived series of Japanese comics authored by Chara Chara Makiart as a spin-off of Tom and Jerry. It was first featured in the August 2021 issue of the Nakayoshi magazine. Nanairo, along with Chara Chara Makiart's other project Harapeko Penguin Cafe, was cancelled in December 2021 as Kodansha (Nakayoshi's publisher) has terminated its contract with the creative unit after one of Makiart members was found guilty for sexually assaulting a minor.

Musical adaptation[]

A musical, or music drama (音楽劇, ongaku geki), adaptation of the cartoon series, titled Tom and Jerry: Purr-Chance to Dream (トムとジェリー 夢よもう一度, Tomu to Jerī Yume yo Mōichido), debuted in Japan in 2019 in advance of the series' upcoming 80th anniversary.[69][70] The musical was composed by Masataka Matsutoya, staged by Seiji Nozoe, and written by Shigeki Motoiki.

Trivia[]

  • It took 6 or more weeks to make a short.

Gallery[]

Gallery
Main article: Tom and Jerry/Gallery

Main characters[]

International


Censorship[]

Main article: Censorship of Tom and Jerry

Broadcast[]

Country Channel(s) Title Language Premier Date(s)
United States Cartoon Network
Boomerang
Fox Kids(Tom and Jerry Kids)
WB Kids
Tom and Jerry English 1996 April 5
2006 June 4
United Kingdom Cartoon Network
Boomerang
CITV
Tom and Jerry English 1992 May 1

2001 June 2

Canada Cartoon Network
Teletoon
Tom & Jerry English

French

2014 March 2
Latin America Cartoon Network
Boomerang
WB Kids
Tom y Jerry Spanish 1999 August 5

2004 May 4

Brazil Cartoon Network
Boomerang
SBT
WB Kids (Only movies are dubbed)
Tom e Jerry Portuguese 2000 August 2
2004 May 10
2007 June 1
Lithuania LNK Tomas ir Džeris Lithuanian TBA
Latvia LNT
TV5
Toms un Džerijs Latvian 2002-2012
2002-2005
Estonia TBA Tom ja Jerry Estonian TBA
Germany Cartoon Network
Boomerang
Super RTL
WB Kids
Tom und Jerry German 2010
2004 December 1
2015 March 12 ; 2021 July 12
Sweden MTV3 Tom na Jerry Swedish 2007
Finland TBA Tom ja Jerry Finnish TBA
France France 3
Boomerang
WB Kids (Only movies and Show are dubbed)

Cartoon Network (For a short time)

Tom et Jerry French 2012

2006

Spain Boing
WB Kids (Only movies and Show are dubbed)

Cartoon Network

Tom y Jerry Spanish 2013

(2000-2013)

Singapore Cartoon Network
Boomerang
Tom and Jerry English 2007
Southeast Asia Cartoon Network
Boomerang
Tom and Jerry
Tom va Jerry
ทอมและเจอร์รี่
湯姆貓與傑利鼠
English
Vietnam
Thai
Mandarin
Cantonese
2007

2008

Saudi Arabia Cartoon Network
Spacetoon
MBC 3
توم و جيري
Tom and Jerry
Arabic
English
2000 (Spacetoon)
2011 (CN Arabic)
Morocco Cartoon Network
توم و جيري Arabic 2010
Taiwan Cartoon Network 湯姆貓與傑利鼠 Mandarin 2009
Japan Cartoon Network
WB Kids (Not dubbed)
トムとジェリー Japanese 2003
South Korea Cartoon Network
Boomerang
톰과 제리 Korean 2006
2015
Australia Cartoon Network
Boomerang
Tom and Jerry English 2007
2009
Indonesia Cartoon Network
Tom dan Jerry Bahasa Indonesian 2005
2006
2007
Africa Cartoon Network
Boomerang
Tom and Jerry English 2000

2004

Pakistan
India
Cartoon Network Tom and Jerry English

Hindi

2005
Poland Cartoon Network
Boomerang
Tom i Jerry Polish 2004

2006

Russia Cartoon Network
Boomerang
Carousel

WB Kids (Not dubbed)

Том и Джерри Russian 2003
Israel Arutz HaYeladim טום וג'רי Hebrew 2009
Turkey Cartoon Network
Boomerang
Tom ve Jerry Turkish 2017 (Cartoon Network)
Italy Boomerang (+1)

Boing
WB Kids (Not dubbed)

Tom & Jerry Italian 2003 (+1 in 2008)

December 2015

China Nunuyy

Weibo
China Central Television
bilibili
360kan

猫和老鼠 Mandarin

English

October 1991
References
  1. "Show Shops" - The Pittsburgh Press (8/31/1947)
  2. "Oxford English Dictionary" (2nd edition) (1989)
  3. "Brewer's Dictionary of Irish Phrase & Fable" (2004)
  4. "Making Short Work of It" - The Deseret News (7/30/1937)
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