Tom and Jerry

Tom and Jerry is a series of theatrical animated cartoon films created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, centering on a rivalry between a cat (Tom) and a mouse (Jerry) whose chases include slapstick comedy. Hanna and Barbera ultimately wrote, produced and directed 114 Tom and Jerry shorts at MGM cartoon studios in Hollywood from 1940 to 1957. The original series is notable for having won seven Academy Awards, tying with Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies as the theatrical animated series with the most Oscars. A longtime television staple, Tom and Jerry has a worldwide audience and has been recognized as one of the most famous and longest-lived rivalries in American cinema.
MGM released an additional 13 entries in 1961 produced by Rembrandt Films led by Gene Deitch in central Europe. Chuck Jones's Sib-Tower 12 Productions produced another 34 entries between 1963–1967, creating a total of 161 theatrical entries.
Tom and Jerry resurfaced in made-for-television series' produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Filmation Studios starting in the 1970s. The feature-length film, Tom and Jerry: The Movie was released in 1992, and was followed by their first made-for-television short, Tom and Jerry: The Mansion Cat for Boomerang. The most recent Tom and Jerry theatrical short, The Karate Guard (2005), was written and co-directed by Barbera.
Time Warner (via its Turner Entertainment division) currently owns the rights to Tom and Jerry: Warner Bros. handles distribution. Since the merger, Turner has produced Tom and Jerry Tales for The CW's Saturday morning "The CW4Kids" lineup, and several Tom and Jerry direct-to-video films in collaboration with Warner Bros. Animation.


Tom and Jerry - Main Characters
Tom - A gray housecat who lives a pampered life and gets his kicks by tormenting a little brown mouse named Jerry.
Jerry - A sadistic brown house mouse who can stir up trouble just as much as his nemesis Tom can.
Spike - A bulldog who helps protect Jerry from Tom.
Butch - A black alley cat who wants nothing more than to eat Jerry. Tom has actually rescued Jerry from Butch on more than one occasion.


The series features comedic fights between an iconic set of enemies, a house cat and mouse. The plots of each short usually center on Tom's numerous attempts to capture Jerry and the mayhem and destruction that ensues. Tom rarely succeeds in catching Jerry, mainly because of Jerry's cleverness, cunning abilities, and luck. Despite this, there are also several instances within the cartoons where they display genuine friendship and concern for each other's well-being. Other times, the pair set aside their rivalry in order to pursue a common goal, such as when a baby escaped the watch of a negligent teen babysitter, causing Tom and Jerry to pursue the baby and keep it away from danger.
The cartoons are infamous for some of the most violent cartoon gags ever devised in theatrical animation, with Tom using everything from axes, hammers, firearms, explosives, traps and poison to try to murder Jerry. On the other hand, Jerry's methods of retaliation are far more violent due to their frequent success, including slicing Tom in half, shutting his head in a window or a door, stuffing Tom's tail in a waffle iron or a mangle, kicking him into a refrigerator, plugging his tail into an electric socket, pounding him with a mace, club or mallet, causing a tree or an electric pole to drive him into the ground, sticking matches into his feet and lighting them, tying him to a firework and setting it off and so on.[1] Because of this, Tom and Jerry has often been criticized as excessively violent. Despite the frequent violence, there is no blood or gore in any scene.[2]:42[3]:134
Music plays a very important part in the shorts, emphasizing the action, filling in for traditional sound effects, and lending emotion to the scenes. Musical director Scott Bradley created complex scores that combined elements of jazz, classical, and pop music; Bradley often reprised contemporary pop songs, as well as songs from MGM films, including The Wizard of Oz and Meet Me In St. Louis. Generally, there is little dialogue as Tom and Jerry almost never speak; however, minor characters are not similarly limited, and the two lead characters are able to speak English on rare occasions and are thus not mute. For example, the character Mammy Two Shoes has lines in nearly every cartoon in which she appears. Most of the vocal effects used for Tom and Jerry are their high-pitched laughs and gasping screams.
Before 1954, all Tom and Jerry cartoons were produced in the standard Academy ratio and format; in 1954 and 1955, some of the output was dually produced in dual versions: one Academy-ratio negative composed for a flat widescreen (1.75:1) format and one shot in the CinemaScope process. From 1955 until the close of the MGM cartoon studio a year later, all Tom and Jerry cartoons were produced in CinemaScope, some even had their soundtracks recorded in Perspecta directional audio. All of the Hanna and Barbera cartoons were shot as successive color exposure negatives and printed by Technicolor; the 1960s entries were done in Metrocolor. The 1960s entrees also returned to the standard Academy ratio and format, too. The 2005 short The Karate Guard was also filmed in the standard Academy ratio and format, too.


Tom and Jerry - Fun Facts

* Tom and Jerry were created by animation duo Hanna-Barbera.
* Itchy and Scratchy from The Simpsons are a spoof on Tom and Jerry.
* Tom and Jerry has won seven Academy Awards.
* Tom and Jerry almost never speak in the classic episodes but are voiced in Tom and Jerry Tales, which debuted in 2005 on Kids' WB.
* Tom and Jerry: The Movie was released back in 1992.


Tom and Jerry - Quotes
"I'm Tom." - Tom
"I'm Jerry." - Jerry
"You talk!" - Both
"Well sure I talk, what do you think I am, a dummy?" - Tom
"You said it, I didn't." - Jerry