| Tom And Jerry (mgm) |
Article Index for Tom And |
Website Links For Tom |
Information AboutTom And Jerry (mgm) |
|
Tom and Jerry were an Animated Cat (''Tom'') and Mouse (''Jerry'') team who formed the basis of a Massively Successful Series Of Theatrical Short Animated Films created, Written and Directed by animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (later of Hanna-Barbera fame). The series was produced by Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1940 until 1958 , when the studio's animation unit was closed down. MGM , in 1960 , outsourced the production of ''Tom and Jerry'' to Rembrandt Films (led by Gene Deitch ) in Eastern Europe. In 1963 , production of ''Tom and Jerry'' shorts returned to Hollywood with Chuck Jones ' Sib-Tower 12 Productions ; this series lasted until 1967 . ''Tom and Jerry'' later resurfaced in TV cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera ( 1975 - 1977 ; 1990 - 1993 ) and Filmation Studios ( 1980 - 1982 ). The original Hanna-Barbera shorts are notable for having won seven Academy Awards , tying it with Walt Disney 's '' Silly Symphonies '' as the most-awarded theatrical animated series. PLOT AND FORMAT The plots of each short usually center on Tom's frustrated attempts to catch Jerry, and the mayhem and destruction that ensues. Because they seem to get along in some cartoon shorts (at least in the first minute or so), it is unclear why Tom chases Jerry so much, but some reasons given may include:
Tom rarely succeeds in defeating Jerry, mainly because of Jerry's craftiness and cunning, but sometimes because of Tom's own stupidity. Tom usually only beats Jerry when Jerry becomes the instigator or crosses some sort of line; Jerry's cunning comes from being on the defensive (much like 's'' "cartoon-within-a-cartoon", '' Itchy And Scratchy '', mercilessly parodies the violence of ''Tom and Jerry'' by featuring even more extreme violence (and also blood). Usually, neither Tom nor Jerry speak in the cartoons. There are brief exceptions, but their vocals are generally restricted to screams of pain (almost entirely from Tom), or nervous gulps. Facial expressions and gestures easily convey the characters' feelings and intentions. Music plays a very important part in the shorts, emphasising the action and lending appropriate emotion to the scenes. Musical director Scott Bradley created complex scores that combined elements of jazz, classical, and pop music; Bradley often reprised actual contemporary pop songs, as well as songs from MGM films such as '' The Wizard Of Oz '' and '' Meet Me In St. Louis ''. Before 1953 , all ''Tom and Jerry'' cartoons were produced in the standard Academy Ratio and format; from 1953 to 1956 some of the output was dually produced in both Academy format and the Widescreen CinemaScope process. From 1956 until the close of the MGM animation studio a year later, all ''Tom and Jerry'' cartoons were produced in CinemaScope ; some even had their soundtracks recorded in Stereo . The 1960s Gene Deitch and Chuck Jones shorts were all produced in Academy format, but with compositions that made them compatible to be matted to Academy widescreen format as well. All of the Hanna and Barbera cartoons were produced in three-strip Technicolor ; the 1960s entries were done in Metrocolor . CHARACTERS Tom and Jerry Tom is a bluish-grey Housecat (or greyish-blue, depending on the short. His fur color is close to that of the Russian Blue breed of cats) who lives a pampered life, while Jerry is a small brown Mouse who always lives in close proximity to him. Tom is very quick-tempered and thin-skinned, while Jerry is independent and opportunistic. Though very energetic and determined, Tom is no match for Jerry's brains and wits. By the Iris-out of each cartoon, Jerry is usually shown triumphant, while Tom is shown as the loser. However, many other results have been reached: on rare occasions, Tom triumphs. Sometimes, usually ironically, they both lose. Once in a while, particularly at Christmas, Tom may actually save Jerry's life, or at least share gifts with him. On at least one occasion, their daily chase is portrayed as a sort of enjoyed routine between the two of them; in one particular episode, Tom is smitten with a female cat, and then Jerry, jealous, proceeds to break them up, after which Tom is grateful and they shake eachother's hands, and then they mutually start the chase again. Both characters display Sadistic tendencies, in that they are equally likely to take pleasure in tormenting each other. However, unlike Jerry, Tom has an enormously powerful conscience, and often panics if he thinks that Jerry is seriously injured, dying or dead. Jerry sometimes uses this to his advantage. Although many supporting and minor characters speak, Tom and Jerry rarely do so. Tom, most famously, sings while wooing female cats; for example, he lip-syncs to "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby" in the 1946 short '' Solid Serenade ''. His most noted spoken line occurs in two different shorts where Tom clearly says in an eerie, echoing voice "don't you believe it". Co-director William Hanna provided most of the squeaks, gasps, and other vocal effects for the pair, including the most famous sound effect from the series, Tom's leather-lunged scream (created by recording Hanna's scream and chopping the head and tail off the recording, leaving only the strongest part of the scream on the soundtrack). Other characters In his attempts to catch Jerry, Tom often has to deal with the intrusions of characters such as ''Butch'', a scruffy black alley cat who also wants to catch and eat Jerry; ''Spike'' (sometimes billed as ''Killer'' or ''Butch''), a vicious guard Bulldog who tries to beat up the cat; and Mammy-Two-Shoes , Tom's African American owner (voiced by Lillian Randolph ), who usually wallops the cat with a broom when he misbehaves. In the late 1940s , Jerry adopted a little gray mouse foundling named Nibbles (also known as ''Tuffy''). During the 1950s , Spike is shown to have a son of his own named Tyke , an addition that led to both a slight softening of Spike's character and a short-lived spin-off theatrical series ('' Spike And Tyke ''). Tyke's appearance also gave Jerry one more weapon against Tom, as disturbing Tyke was sure to bring Spike's wrath down on the apparent culprit, usually Tom. Occasionally Spike spoke, so to speak, using a voice and expressions modelled after Jimmy Durante , as in ''"Dat's my boy!"''. Another regular character in the series was ''Quacker'' the duckling, who was later adapted into Hanna-Barbera's character Yakky Doodle . Uncle Pecos , Jerry's uncle, made his only appearance in the cartoon "Pecos' Pest", released in 1955. He's a grey old mouse with a long white Mustache who stutters and plays the guitar, until his strings break and seeks replacements, using Tom's whiskers. Another relative is Cousin Muscles, a mouse (aethestically speaking an exact copy of Jerry) with exceptional strength with which he plagues the cats of his neighbourhood. HISTORY AND EVOLUTION The Hanna-Barbera years Oscar Nominated '' Puss Gets The Boot '', the very first Tom and Jerry cartoon.]] William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were both part of the Rudolf Ising unit at MGM's animation studio in late 1930s . Barbera, a storyman and character designer, was paired with Hanna, an experienced director, to start directing films for the Ising unit; the first of which was a cat-and-mouse cartoon called '' Puss Gets The Boot ''. Completed in late 1939 , and released to theatres on February 10 , 1940 , ''Puss Gets The Boot'' centers on Jasper, a grey tabby cat trying to catch an as yet unnamed rodent, but without breaking anything; Jasper's owner Mammy has threatened to throw Jasper out ("O-U-W-T, out!") if he breaks one more thing in the house. Naturally, the mouse uses this to his advantage, and begins tossing wine glasses, ceramic plates, tea pots, and any and everything fragile, so that Jasper will get thrown outside. ''Puss Gets The Boot'' was previewed and released without fanfare, and Hanna and Barbera went on to direct other (non-cat-and-mouse related) shorts. After all, said many of the MGM staffers, haven't there been enough cat-and-mouse cartoons already? The pessimistic attitude towards the cat and mouse duo changed when the cartoon became a favourite with theatre owners and with the of 1941. It lost to another MGM cartoon, Rudolph Ising's '' The Milky Way ''. However, producer Fred Quimby , who ran the MGM animation studio, quickly pulled Hanna and Barbera off the other one-shot cartoons they were working on, and commissioned a series featuring the cat and mouse. Hanna and Barbera held an intra-studio contest to give the pair a new name; animator John Carr won with his suggestion of "Tom and Jerry." It may be that this came from the First World War nicknames Tommy (referring to any British soldier) and Jerry (any German soldier). The Tom and Jerry series went into production with ''The Midnight Snack'' in 1941 , and Hanna and Barbera never helmed anything but the cat-and-mouse cartoons for the rest of their tenure at MGM. Academy Award winning cartoon '' The Cat Concerto '']] Tom's physical appearance evolved significantly over the years. During the early 1940s , Tom had an excess of detail--shaggy fur, numerous facial wrinkles, and multiple eyebrow markings--all of which were streamlined into a more workable form by the end of the 1940s; Jerry stayed essentially the same for the duration of the series. By the mid-1940s, the series had developed a quicker, more energetic (and violent) tone, thanks to inspiration from the work of MGM Animation colleague Tex Avery , who joined the studio in 1942 . Even though the basic theme of each short is virtually the same, Hanna and Barbera found endless variations on that theme. Barbera's storyboards and rough layouts and designs, combined with Hanna's timing, resulted in the most popular, successful, and highly acclaimed series the MGM animation department ever had. 13 entries in the ''Tom and Jerry'' series (excluding ''Puss Gets The Boot'') were nominated for the ; seven of them went on to win the Academy Award, breaking the Disney studio's winning streak in that category. ''Tom and Jerry'' won more Academy Awards than any other character-based theatrical animated series. ''Tom and Jerry'' remained popular throughout their original theatrical run, even when the budgets began to tighten a little in the 1950s and the pace of the shorts slowed slightly. However, after Television became popular in the 1950s, box office revenues decreased for theatrical films, and short subjects. At first, MGM combated this by going to all- CinemaScope production on the series; but after the MGM accountants realized that their re-releases of the older shorts brought in just as much revenue as the new films, the studio executives decided, much to the surprise of the staff, to close the animation studio. The MGM animation department was shut down in 1957, and the final of the 114 Hanna and Barbera ''Tom and Jerry'' shorts, '' Tot Watchers, '' was released on August 1 , 1958 . Hanna and Barbera started their own television animation studio, Hanna-Barbera Productions , in 1957 , which went on to produce such popular shows as '' The Flintstones '', '' The Jetsons '', and '' Scooby-Doo ''. The Gene Deitch era .]] In 1960 , MGM decided that they wanted to produce new ''Tom and Jerry'' shorts again, and had producer William Snyder make an arrangement with Czech animation director Gene Deitch and Deitch's studio, Rembrandt Films , to make the films overseas in Prague , Czechoslovakia . The Deitch/Snyder team turned out 13 shorts. The Deitch shorts are considered in general as being the worst of the ''Tom and Jerry'' theatrical shorts, although some have an affinity for their surreal qualities. Since the Deitch/Snyder team only saw a handful of the original ''Tom and Jerry'' shorts, the films that resulted from the arrangement were considered unusual and, in many ways, bizarre. The characters' gestures were often performed at high speed, often resulting in heavy motion blur. The soundtracks featured sparse music, spacey Sound Effects , dialogue that was mumbled rather than spoken, and featured heavy uses of Reverb . Also notable is the fact that these shorts are the only ''Tom and Jerry'' cartoons not to carry the phrase "Made In Hollywood , U.S.A." at the end. Due to Deitch's studio being behind the Iron Curtain , the production studio's location is omitted entirely. Deitch's own story of his work on ''Tom and Jerry'' can be found at his personal website . The Chuck Jones era .]] After the last of the Deitch cartoons were released, MGM turned to American director ; the remaining shorts were directed by Abe Levitow and Ben Washam , with Tom Ray directing two clip shows built around footage from the Hanna/Barbera era. MGM ceased production of animated shorts in 1967, by which time Sib Tower 12 had become part of MGM, and Jones had already begun to move on to television specials and the feature film '' The Phantom Tollbooth ''. Tom and Jerry hit television Beginning in her out, and replace her with a thin white woman. Lillian Randolph 's original voice tracks were replaced with June Foray performing in an Irish accent. Much of the extreme violence in the cartoons was also edited out. Starting out 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 . When shown on terrestrial television in the United Kingdom (from 1967 to 2000 , usually on the BBC ) ''Tom and Jerry'' cartoons were not cut for violence and Mammy was retained. As well as having regular slots, ''Tom and Jerry'' served the BBC in another way. When faced with disruption to the schedules (such as those occurring when live broadcasts overrun), the BBC would invariably turn to ''Tom and Jerry'' to fill any gaps, confident that it would retain much of an audience that might otherwise channel hop. This proved particularly helpful in 1993 , when '' Noel's House Party '' had to be cancelled due to an IRA bomb scare at BBC Television Centre - ''Tom and Jerry'' was shown instead, bridging the gap until the next programme. Tom & Jerry's new owners In 1986 , MGM was purchased by Ted Turner . Turner sold the company in 1988 , but retained MGM's pre-1986 film library, thus Tom and Jerry became the property of Turner Entertainment (where the rights stand today via Warner Bros. ), and have in subsequent years appeared on Turner-run stations, such as TBS , TNT , Cartoon Network , Boomerang , and Turner Classic Movies . Censorship Like a number of other animated cartoons in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, Tom and Jerry was not considered politically correct in later years. Some cartoons featured either Tom or Jerry in blackface following an explosion, which were subsequently cut when shown on television, as well as other ethnic stereotypes that were made fun of, particularly the black maid, Mammy Two Shoes, whose distinctive voice was dubbed in most of the cartoons that she appeared in. In one case, the character was reanimated as a slim, young, white lady (see ''Tom and Jerry hit television''.) POST-GOLDEN AGE CARTOONS ''Tom and Jerry Show'']] In 1975 , Tom and Jerry were reunited with Hanna and Barbera, who produced new ''Tom and Jerry'' cartoons for Saturday morning. These 48 7-minute short cartoons were paired with '' Grape Ape '' and '' Mumbly '' cartoons, to create ''The New Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape Show'', ''The Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape/Mumbly Show'', and ''The Tom & Jerry/Mumbly Show,'' all of which ran on ABC Saturday Morning from September 6 1975 to September 3 1977 . In these cartoons, Tom and Jerry (now with a red bow tie), who had been enemies during their formative years, became nonviolent pals who went on adventures together, as H-B had to meet the stringent rules against violence for children's TV. In 1980 , Filmation Studios (in association with MGM Television ) also tried their hands at producing a Tom and Jerry TV cartoon series, this one called ''The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show'' and also featuring new cartoons starring MGM cartoon star Droopy , and supporting characters such as Spike and Barney Bear , not seen since the original MGM productions. Although they returned Tom and Jerry to the original chase formula, the Filmation cartoons were of noticeably lesser quality than Hanna-Barbera 's efforts; this incarnation lasted on CBS Saturday Morning from September 6 1980 to September 4 1982 . One of the biggest trends for Saturday morning television in the 1980s and 1990s was the "babyfication" Of Older, Classic Cartoon Stars , and on September 8 , 1990 , '' Tom And Jerry Kids Show '', produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in association with Turner Entertainment , debuted on FOX , featuring a youthful version of the famous cat-and-mouse duo chasing each other. This time like before, Jerry wears his red bowtie while Tom now wears a red cap. Spike and his son Tyke, and Droopy and his son Dripple, appeared in back-up segments for the show, which ran until October 2 , 1993 . This also marks the first appearance of the gameshow host Cabaloose Cal (voiced by Phil Hartman ) and the laziest cat Clyde (voiced by Brian Cummings ) and his assistant Kyle (voiced by Pat Fraley ). Another new character, aptly named Wildmouse, was voiced by Frank Welker . In 2000 , a new Tom & Jerry cartoon entitled ''The Mansion Cat'' premiered on Cartoon Network . It featured Joseph Barbera as the voice of Tom's owner, whose face is never seen. In that cartoon, Jerry, housed in a Habitrail , is as much of a house pet as Tom is, and their owner has to remind Tom to not "blame everything on the mouse". A new Tom & Jerry short, entitled ''The Karateguard'', which had been directed and written by (but to save time, included with the '' I Am Weasel '' episode "My Friend, the Smart Banana" and the '' Cow And Chicken '' episode "Black Sheep of the Family"). A new series called ''Tom and Jerry Tales'' was produced at Warner Bros. in the first half of 2005. Thirteen half-hour episodes (each consisting of three shorts) were produced with only the 'foreign market' signed up. The show then came to the UK in February 2006 on the channel Boomerang and is set to air on Kids WB in the US {Link without Title} . "Tales" is the first Tom and Jerry TV series that uses the original style of the classic shorts along with the violence. This may explain why this series first aired outside of the US. FEATURE FILMS In 1945 , Jerry made an appearance in the live-action MGM musical feature film '' Anchors Aweigh '', in which, through the use of Special Effects , he performs a dance routine with Gene Kelly . In this sequence, Gene Kelly is telling a class of school kids a fictional tale of how he earned his medal of honor. Jerry is the king of a magical world populated with cartoon animals, whom he has forbidden to dance as he himself does not know how. Gene Kelly's character then comes along and guides Jerry through an elaborate dance routine, resulting in Jerry awarding him with a medal. Jerry speaks and sings in this film; his voice is performed by Sara Berner . Tom has a cameo in the sequence as one of Jerry's servants. Both Tom and Jerry appear with Esther Williams in a dream sequence in another MGM musical, '' Dangerous When Wet '' (1953). In the film, Tom and Jerry are chasing each other underwater, when they run into Esther Williams, with whom they do an extended synchronized swimming routine. Tom and Jerry have to save Esther from a lecherous octopus, who tries to lure and woo Esther into his (many) arms. '' and '' The Fast And The Furry '', the latter one based on a story by Joseph Barbera. Both were released on DVD in 2006. OTHER FORMATS Tom and Jerry began appearing in Comic Books in 1942 , as one of the features in '' Our Gang Comics ''. In 1949 , with MGM's live-action '' Our Gang '' shorts long out of production, the series was renamed ''Tom and Jerry Comics''. The pair continued to appear in various books for the rest of the 20th Century . The pair have also appeared in a number of Video Games as well, including:
TOM AND JERRY IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES Due to its lack of dialog, Tom and Jerry has been translated into various foreign languages. Tom and Jerry began broadcast in Japan in 1964. A 2005 nationwide survey taken in Japan by TV Asashi, sampling age groups from teenagers to adults in their sixties, in 2005 ranked ''Tom and Jerry'' #85 in a list of the top 100 Anime of all time, while their web poll taken after the airing of the list ranked it at #58. {Link without Title} Tom and Jerry is also well-known in China and South Korea. Tom and Jerry have long been popular in Germany . However, the cartoons are overdubbed with rhyming German-language verse that describes what is happening onscreen. The different episodes are usually embedded in the episode ''Jerry's Diary'' (1949), in which Tom reads about past adventures. THE OSCAR-WINNING SHORTS The following cartoons won the :
These cartoons were nominated for the , but did not win:
COMPARE TO
SEE ALSO REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|