85-588: Puss Gets the Boot is a 1940 American animated short film and the first short in what would become the Tom and Jerry cartoon series, though neither are yet referred to by these names. It was directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera , and produced by Rudolf Ising . It is based on the Aesop's Fable , The Cat and the Mice . As was the practice of MGM shorts at the time, only Rudolf Ising
170-470: A live-action/animated hybrid film was released. In 2019, a musical adaptation of the series, titled Tom and Jerry: Purr-Chance to Dream , debuted in Japan, in advance of Tom and Jerry ' s 80th anniversary. The series features comic fights between an iconic set of adversaries, a house cat (Tom) and a house mouse (Jerry). The plots of many shorts are often set in the backdrop of a house, centering on Tom (who
255-426: A nameless mouse , who is trying to run away while he keeps grabbing the tail to keep him from running anywhere. Eventually, the mouse breaks free but goes into Jasper's mouth, narrowly escaping. Jasper then draws a hole on the wall to trick the mouse into entering it. The mouse bangs against the wall so hard that it knocks him out. Jasper revives him using water from the fish tank and picks him up. Having slowly realized
340-450: A 1932 story by Damon Runyon , who took them from the name of a popular Christmastime cocktail , itself derived from the names of two characters in an 1821 stage play by William Moncrieff , an adaptation of 1821 Egan's book titled Life in London where the names originated, which was based on George Cruikshank 's, Isaac Robert Cruikshank 's, and Egan's own careers. Puss Gets the Boot was
425-500: A baby escapes the watch of a negligent babysitter, causing Tom and Jerry to pursue the baby and keep it away from danger, in the shorts Busy Buddies and Tot Watchers respectively. Despite their endless attacks on one another, they have saved each other's lives every time they were truly in danger, except in The Two Mouseketeers , which features an uncharacteristically morbid ending, and Blue Cat Blues , where both sit on
510-435: A conscience and save him. Occasionally, they bond over a mutual sentiment towards an unpleasant experience and their attacking each other is more play than serious attacks. Multiple shorts show the two getting along with minimal difficulty, and they are more than capable of working together when the situation calls for it, usually against a third party who manages to torture and humiliate them both. Sometimes this partnership
595-437: 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. 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 continued to work on the series for the next fifteen years of their career. The composer of
680-501: A fox and a dog before they settled on a cat and mouse. The pair discussed their ideas with producer Fred Quimby , then the head of the short film department who, despite a lack of interest in it, gave them the green-light to produce one cartoon short. The first short, Puss Gets the Boot , features a cat named Jasper and an unnamed mouse, named Jinx in pre-production, and an African American housemaid named Mammy Two Shoes. Leonard Maltin described it as "very new and special [...] that
765-439: A fox and a dog before they settled on a cat and mouse. The pair discussed their ideas with producer Fred Quimby , then the head of the short film department who, despite a lack of interest in it, gave them the green-light to produce one cartoon short. The short, Puss Gets the Boot , featured a cat named Jasper and an unnamed mouse, and an African American housemaid. Leonard Maltin described it as "very new and special [...] that
850-869: A half-century ago as I write this!" Despite the criticism, Deitch's Tom and Jerry shorts are appreciated by some fans due to their uniquely surreal nature. The shorts were released on DVD in 2015 in " Tom and Jerry: The Gene Deitch Collection ". The 1960s entries were done in Metrocolor but returned to the standard Academy ratio and format. After the last of the Deitch cartoons were released, 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, and
935-481: A house cat. By the final "fade-out" of each cartoon, Jerry usually gets the best of Tom. Other results may be reached. On rare occasions, Tom triumphs, usually when Jerry becomes the aggressor or he pushes Tom a little too far. In The Million Dollar Cat , Jerry learns that Tom will lose his newly acquired wealth if he harms any animal, especially mice. He then torments Tom a little too much until he retaliates. In Timid Tabby Tom's look-alike cousin pushes Jerry over
SECTION 10
#17331058023171020-649: A house, Deitch's shorts opted for more exotic locations, such as a 19th-century whaling ship, the jungles of Nairobi , an Ancient Greek acropolis, or the Wild West. In addition, Mammy Two Shoes was replaced as Tom's owner by a bald, overweight, short-tempered, middle-aged white man, who bore a striking resemblance to another Deitch character, Clint Clobber . Just like Spike the Bulldog, he was also significantly more brutal and violent in punishing Tom's actions as compared to previous owners, often beating and thrashing Tom repeatedly;
1105-476: A leading role. Even though Tom and Jerry almost never speak, the shorts also often had dialogue from other characters. Minor characters are not similarly limited, and the two lead characters speak English on rare occasions. 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. Tom , named "Jasper" in his debut appearance,
1190-472: 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 the cat and Jerry the mouse after the popular Christmastime cocktail , itself derived from the names of two characters in an 1821 stage play by William Moncrieff , an adaptation of 1821 Pierce Egan 's book titled Life in London where
1275-417: 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 the cat and Jerry the mouse. Carr was awarded a first-place prize of $ 50, equivalent to $ 1,087 in 2023. It has been suggested, but not proven, that the names were derived from
1360-487: A railroad track at the end after being jilted by girlfriends. The cartoon irises out with the whistle of an oncoming steam train. The cartoons are known for some of the most violent cartoon gags ever devised in theatrical animation: Tom may use axes, hammers, firearms, firecrackers, explosives, traps and poison to kill Jerry. Jerry's methods of retaliation are far more violent, with frequent success, including slicing Tom in half, decapitating him, shutting his head or fingers in
1445-501: A script beforehand. After coming up with a cartoon idea together, Barbera would flesh out the story by drawing a storyboard and provide character designs and animation layouts . Hanna did the animation timing - planning the music and temporal beats and accents the animation action would occur on - and assigned the animators their scenes and supervised their work. Hanna provided incidental voice work, in particular Tom's numerous screams of pain. Despite minimal creative input, as head of
1530-544: A short with Maurice Noble. Various vocal characteristics were made by Mel Blanc , June Foray and even Jones himself. 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
1615-536: A slight psychedelic influence. Jones had trouble adapting his style to Tom and Jerry ' s 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 (resembling Jones' Grinch , Count Blood Count or Wile E. Coyote ), a less complex look (including the color of his fur becoming gray), sharper ears, longer tail and furrier cheeks (resembling Jones' Claude Cat or Sylvester ), while Jerry
1700-426: A smoother appearance, had larger eyebrows, and received a white and gray 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. Seven went on to win, breaking the winning streak held by Walt Disney's studio in
1785-468: A total of 166 shorts . A number of spin-offs have been made, including the television series The Tom and Jerry Show (1975), The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show (1980–1982), Tom & Jerry Kids (1990–1993), Tom and Jerry Tales (2006–2008), and The Tom and Jerry Show (2014–2021). In 1992, the first feature-length film based on the series, Tom and Jerry: The Movie , was released. 13 direct-to-video films have been produced since 2002. In 2021,
SECTION 20
#17331058023171870-421: A window or a door, stuffing Tom's tail in a waffle iron or a mangle , kicking him into a refrigerator, getting him electrocuted, pounding him with a mace , club or mallet , letting a tree or electric pole 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. While Tom and Jerry has often been criticized as excessively violent, there
1955-560: Is Toots who appears in Puss n' Toots , and calls him "Tommy" in The Mouse Comes to Dinner . He is interested in a cat called Toots in The Zoot Cat although she has a different appearance to the original Toots. The most frequent love interest of Tom's is Toodles Galore , who never has any dialogue in the cartoons. Despite five shorts ending with a depiction of Tom's apparent death, his demise
2040-631: Is a black, cigar-smoking alley cat who also wants to eat Jerry. He is Tom's most frequent adversary. For most of the shorts he appears in, he is usually seen rivaling Tom over Toodles. Butch was Tom's chum as in some cartoons, where Butch is leader of Tom's alley cat buddies, who are mostly Lightning , Topsy , and Meathead . Butch talks more often than Tom or Jerry in most shorts. Butch and Toodles were originally introduced in Hugh Harman 's 1941 short The Alley Cat , but were integrated into Tom and Jerry rather than continuing in their own series. Nibbles
2125-484: Is a gray and white domestic shorthair cat . "Tom" is a generic name for a male cat. He is usually but not always, portrayed as living a comfortable, or even pampered life, while Jerry , whose name is not explicitly mentioned in his debut appearance, is a small, brown house mouse who always lives in close proximity to Tom. Despite being very energetic, determined and much larger, Tom is no match for Jerry's wits. Jerry possesses surprising strength for his size, approximately
2210-475: Is a small gray mouse who often appears in shorts as an orphan mouse. He is a carefree individual who very rarely understands the danger of the situation, simply following instructions the best he can both to Jerry's command and his own innocent understanding of the situation. This can lead to such results as "getting the cheese" by simply asking Tom to pick it up for him, rather than following Jerry's example of outmaneuvering and sneaking around Tom. Many times Nibbles
2295-468: Is an ally of Jerry in fights against Tom, including being the second Mouseketeer. He is given speaking roles in all his appearances as a Mouseketeer, often with a high-pitched French tone. However, during a short in which he rescued Robin Hood, his voice was instead more masculine, gruff, and cockney accented. Mammy Two Shoes is a heavy-set, middle-aged black woman who often has to deal with the mayhem generated by
2380-468: Is credited. It was released to theaters on February 10, 1940, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . In the first short, the cat is named Jasper, and appears to be a scruffy, battle-hardened street cat, more malicious than the character that Tom would develop into over time. The unnamed mouse (named Jinx during the pre-production) is similar to who would become the Jerry character, albeit slightly thinner. The basic premise
2465-517: Is forgotten quickly when an unexpected event happens, or when one character feels that the other is no longer necessary. This is the case in Posse Cat , when they agree that Jerry will allow himself to be caught if Tom agrees to share his reward dinner, but Tom then reneges. Other times, Tom keeps his promise to Jerry and the partnerships are not quickly dissolved after the problem is solved. Tom changes his love interest many times. The first love interest
2550-459: Is generally shown injured or in a bad situation while Jerry smugly cuddles up to Spike unscathed. Tom sometimes gets irritated with Spike. An example is in That's My Pup! , when Spike forces Tom to run up a tree every time his son barked, causing Tom to hang Tyke on a flag pole. At least once, Tom does something that benefits Spike, who promises not to interfere ever again, causing Jerry to frantically leave
2635-525: Is never permanent . He even reads about his own death in a flashback in Jerry's Diary . He appears to die in explosions in Mouse Trouble , after which he is seen in heaven , Yankee Doodle Mouse and in Safety Second , while in The Two Mouseketeers he is guillotined offscreen . The short Blue Cat Blues ends with both Tom and Jerry sitting on the railroad tracks with the intent of suicide while
Puss Gets the Boot - Misplaced Pages Continue
2720-533: Is no blood or gore in any scene. 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 used contemporary pop songs and songs from other films, including MGM films like The Wizard of Oz and Meet Me in St. Louis , which both starred Judy Garland in
2805-412: Is often enlisted by a human) trying to capture Jerry, and the mayhem and destruction that follows. Tom rarely succeeds in catching Jerry, mainly because of Jerry's cleverness, cunning abilities, and luck. However, on several occasions, they have displayed genuine friendship and concern for each other's well-being. At other times, the pair set aside their rivalry in order to pursue a common goal, such as when
2890-421: Is safe from Tom. Tyke loves his father and Spike loves his son and they get along like friends, although most of time they would be taking a nap or Spike would teach Tyke the main facts of life of being a dog. Like Spike, Tyke's appearance has altered throughout the years, from gray, with white paws, to creamy tan. When Tom & Jerry Kids first aired, this was the first time that viewers heard Tyke speak. Butch
2975-489: Is the first, and so far only installment of the series where the famous cat-and-mouse duo regularly speaks or is able to be understood by humans. In that film, Tom was voiced by Richard Kind , and Jerry was voiced by Dana Hill . In his attempts to catch Jerry, Tom often has to deal with Spike, known as "Killer" and "Butch" in some shorts, an angry, vicious but gullible bulldog who tries to attack Tom for bothering him or his son Tyke while trying to get Jerry. Originally, Spike
3060-583: Is the one that would become familiar to audiences; in The Art of Hanna-Barbera , Ted Sennett sums it up as "cat stalks and chases mouse in a frenzy of mayhem and slapstick violence". Though the studio executives were unimpressed, audiences loved the film and it was nominated for an Academy Award . This short ultimately lost to The Milky Way (1940 film) , a MGM short about three kittens who lost their mittens and were forced to go to bed without their dinner of milk. A cat named Jasper takes great pleasure in tormenting
3145-456: The "Made In Hollywood, U.S.A." phrase on the end title card. Due to Deitch's studio being behind the Iron Curtain , the production studio's location is omitted entirely on it. After the 13 shorts were completed, Joe Vogel, the head of production, was fired from MGM. Vogel had approved of Deitch and his team's work, but MGM decided not to renew their contract after Vogel's departure. The final of
3230-498: The "Mouse" on his title and writing "CAT", resulting in Tom spelling out the word out loud before reluctantly pointing at himself. One short, 1956's Blue Cat Blues , is narrated by Jerry in VoiceOver , voiced by Paul Frees , as they try to win back their ladyfriends. Jerry was voiced by Sara Berner during his appearance in the 1945 MGM musical Anchors Aweigh . Tom and Jerry: The Movie
3315-550: The 13 shorts, Carmen Get It! , was released on December 21, 1962. Deitch's shorts were commercial successes. In 1962, 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. However, unlike the Hanna-Barbera shorts, none of Deitch's films were nominated for any Academy Awards . In retrospect, these shorts are often considered
3400-629: The 1940s. She was mostly restored in the DVD releases of the cartoons, with an introduction by Whoopi Goldberg on the Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection: Vol. 2 DVD set, explaining the importance of African-American representation in the cartoon series, however stereotyped. "Tom and Jerry" was a commonplace phrase for young men given to drinking, gambling, and riotous living in 19th-century London , England . The term comes from Life in London ; or, The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., and his elegant friend, Corinthian Tom (1821) by Pierce Egan ,
3485-430: The 1946 short Solid Serenade . In that short and Zoot Cat , Tom woos female cats using a deep, heavily French-accented voice in imitation of then-popular leading man, actor Charles Boyer . At the end of The Million Dollar Cat , after beginning to antagonize Jerry he says, "Gee, I'm throwin' away a million dollars... BUT I'M HAPPY!". In Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring , Jerry says, "No, no, no, no, no." when choosing
Puss Gets the Boot - Misplaced Pages Continue
3570-559: The British sports journalist who authored similar accounts compiled as Boxiana . However Brewer notes no more than an "unconscious" echo of the Regency era , and thus Georgian era , origins in the naming of the cartoon. In August 1937, animator and storyman Joseph Barbera began to work at MGM , then the largest studio in Hollywood. He learned that co-owner Louis B. Mayer wished to boost
3655-468: The Deitch/Snyder team had seen only a handful of the original Tom and Jerry shorts, and since the team produced their cartoons on a tighter budget of $ 10,000, the resulting films were considered surrealist in nature, though this was not Deitch's intention. The animation was limited and jerky in movement compared to the more fluid Hanna-Barbera shorts, and often utilized motion blur . Background art
3740-629: The Hanna and Barbera cartoons were shot as successive color exposure negatives in Technicolor . In 1961, MGM revived the Tom and Jerry franchise, and contracted European animation studio Rembrandt Films to produce 13 Tom and Jerry shorts in Prague , Czechoslovakia . All were directed by Gene Deitch and produced by William L. Snyder . Deitch wrote most of the cartoons, with occasional assistance from Larz Bourne and Eli Bauer . Štěpán Koníček provided
3825-421: The MGM cartoon studio, Quimby was credited as the producer of all cartoons until 1955. The rise in television in the 1950s caused problems for the MGM animation 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, Pet Peeve ,
3910-479: 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
3995-527: 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 , who joined Harman-Ising Productions in 1930, 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
4080-413: The blame, while Jerry overhears. Afterward, Jerry usually does anything he can to interrupt whatever Spike is doing, while Tom barely manages to stop him, usually getting injured in the process. Usually, Jerry eventually wrecks whatever Spike is doing in spectacular fashion, and leaves Tom to take the blame, forcing him to flee from Spike and inevitably lose. Off-screen, Spike does something to Tom, and Tom
4165-683: The boot." Tom and Jerry Tom and Jerry is an American animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera . Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , the series centers on the enmity between the titular characters of a cat named Tom and a mouse named Jerry . Many shorts also feature several recurring characters . In its original run, Hanna and Barbera produced 114 Tom and Jerry shorts for MGM from 1940 to 1958. During this time, they won seven Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film , tying for first place with Walt Disney 's Silly Symphonies with
4250-402: 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. As per standard practice for American animation production at the time, Barbera and Hanna did not work with
4335-447: The character and his extreme treatment of Tom was poorly received. To avoid being linked to Communism, Deitch modified the Czech names of his crew in the opening credits of the shorts to look more conventional to English-speaking audiences, e.g. Štěpán Koníček became "Steven Konichek" and Václav Lídl became "Victor Little". These shorts are among the few Tom and Jerry cartoons not to carry
SECTION 50
#17331058023174420-414: The edge. Occasionally and usually ironically, they both lose, usually because Jerry's last trap or attack on Tom backfires on him or he overlooks something. In Chuck Jones' Filet Meow , Jerry orders a shark from the pet store to scare Tom away from eating a goldfish. Afterward, the shark scares Jerry away as well. They occasionally end up being friends, although there is often a last-minute event that ruins
4505-422: The equivalent of Tom's, lifting items such as anvils with relative ease and withstanding considerable impacts. Although cats typically chase mice to eat them, it is quite rare for Tom to actually try to eat Jerry. He tries to hurt or compete with him just to taunt Jerry, even as revenge, or to obtain a reward from a human, including his owner(s)/master(s), for catching Jerry, or for generally doing his job well as
4590-416: The feature film The Phantom Tollbooth . The shorts were released on DVD in 2009 on Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection . 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
4675-635: The house and run into the distance, in Hic-cup Pup . Spike is well known for his famous " Listen pussycat! " catchphrase when he threatens Tom, his other famous catchphrase is " That's my boy! " normally said when he supports or congratulates his son. Tyke is described as a cute, sweet-looking, happy and lovable puppy. He is Spike's son. Unlike Spike, Tyke does not speak and only communicates, mostly towards his father, by barking, yapping, wagging his tail, whimpering and growling. Spike would always go out of his way to care and comfort his son and make sure that he
4760-473: The house and slams the door shut. As Jasper is dragged away, the mouse waves to him, sticks his tongue out, puts a HOME SWEET HOME sign (seen earlier in the hole on the wall trick) in front of his hole, and enters it. In June 1937, animator and storyman Joseph Barbera began to work for the Ising animation unit at MGM , then the largest studio in Hollywood. He learned that co-owner Louis B. Mayer wished to boost
4845-403: The house. Jasper sulks off, the mouse chuckles at him and this causes Jasper to chase him, but when the mouse holds a glass over the edge of the table, Jasper backs off after seeing the maid furiously walking away with the remains of the broken flowerpot, fearing that he will begin to get himself into trouble again. After the mouse puts the glass down, Jasper sees his chance and rushes at him, but
4930-525: The late 1940s led to both a slight softening of Spike's character and a short-lived spin-off theatrical series called Spike and Tyke . Most cartoons with Spike in them conform to a theme: usually, Spike is trying to accomplish something, such as building a dog house or sleeping, when Tom and Jerry's antics stop him doing it. Spike then presumably due to prejudice, singles out Tom as the culprit, and threatens him that if it ever happens again, he will do "something horrible" to him, effectively forcing Tom to take
5015-543: The lead characters. Voiced by character actress Lillian Randolph , she is often seen as the owner of Tom. Her face was only shown once, very briefly, in Saturday Evening Puss . Mammy's appearances have often been edited out, dubbed, or re-animated as a slim white woman in later television showings, since her character is a mammy archetype that had been protested as racist by the NAACP and other civil rights groups since
5100-455: The maid into thinking Jasper violated her ultimatum. The maid once again enters the room in frustration just as the mouse swims in Jasper's milk bowl, uses his tail as a towel and finally kicks Jasper, causing him to drop all of the dishes, creating a huge mess and framing him for making it. The mouse flees the scene and dives into his hole just as the maid hits Jasper with a broom, throws him out of
5185-522: The most awards in the category. After the MGM cartoon studio closed in 1957, MGM revived the series with Gene Deitch directing an additional 13 Tom and Jerry shorts for Rembrandt Films from 1961 to 1962. Tom and Jerry became the highest-grossing animated short film series of that time, overtaking Looney Tunes . Chuck Jones produced another 34 shorts with Sib Tower 12 Productions between 1963 and 1967. Five more shorts have been produced since 2001, making
SECTION 60
#17331058023175270-435: The mouse holds Jasper back by threatening to drop the glass again. Then the mouse drops the glass and Jasper rushes to catch it. The mouse throws more cups, making it very hard for Jasper to catch them all. As the mouse walks away with the last cup, feeling confident that he has the advantage, Jasper drops a bunch of pillows on the ground. When the mouse tries to expel Jasper by dropping the glass, it stays intact when it lands on
5355-408: The musical score for the Deitch shorts. Sound effects were produced by electronic music composer Tod Dockstader and Deitch. The majority of vocal effects and voices in Deitch's films were provided by Allen Swift and Deitch. Deitch states that, being a " UPA man", he was not a fan of the Tom and Jerry cartoons, thinking they were "needlessly violent". However, after being assigned to work on
5440-421: The names originated, which was based on George Cruikshank 's, Isaac Robert Cruikshank 's, and Egan's own careers. 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. After MGM gave the green-light for Hanna and Barbera to continue,
5525-474: 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 lost weight and his long eyelashes, while Tom lost his jagged fur for
5610-399: The series, he quickly realized that "nobody took [the violence] seriously", and it was merely "a parody of exaggerated human emotions". He also came to see what he perceived as the "biblical roots" in Tom and Jerry's conflict, similar to David and Goliath , stating "That's where we feel a connection to these cartoons: the little guy can win (or at least survive) to fight another day." Since
5695-485: The shop to remove his ring. In The Mouse Comes to Dinner , Tom speaks to his girlfriend Toots while inadvertently sitting on a stove: "Say, what's cookin'?", to which Toots replies "You are, stupid." Another instance of speech comes in Solid Serenade and The Framed Cat , where Tom directs Spike through a few dog tricks in a dog-trainer manner. In Puss Gets the Boot , Jerry prays for his life when Tom catches him by
5780-461: The situation, the mouse punches Jasper in the eye, causing him to yelp and screech in pain. The angry cat chases the mouse and accidentally bumps into a Greek pillar, where it breaks upon falling onto him along with the flowerpot that was standing on it. The maid enters the room and scolds Jasper for his unacceptable behavior despite it being an accident, issuing him an ultimatum that if she catches him having broke something, he will get kicked out of
5865-412: The soft surface of one of the pillows. The mouse tries to escape but Jasper catches him by the tail. Jasper inadvertently throws the mouse onto a shelf, where he escapes and begins pelting him with several dishes, making sure that Jasper will "get the boot." Jasper begins to feel tired of holding all the dishes, and can only watch as the mouse drops one last dish on the ground, breaking it, and thus alerting
5950-544: 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
6035-399: The strongest part of the scream on the soundtrack, and Jerry's nervous gulp. The only other reasonably common vocalization is made by Tom when some external reference claims a certain scenario or eventuality to be impossible, which inevitably thwarts Tom's plans – at which point, a bedraggled and battered Tom appears and says in a haunting, echoing voice "Don't you believe it!", a reference to
6120-431: The studio entered production on The Midnight Snack (1941). The pair would continue to work on Tom and Jerry cartoons for the next fifteen years of their career. Motion Picture Exhibitor reviewed the short on March 6, 1940: "Puss teases the mouse but when the latter learns that breakage in the house will lead to Puss being thrown out, the fun begins. Windup has the crockery crashing, the mouse victorious, Puss getting
6205-426: The studio's first self-produced series of theatrical cartoon short subjects, directed by William Hanna , Bob Allen, and Friz Freleng . The short-lived series was unsuccessful, ending after one year and a total of 15 cartoons. Following that cancellation, Freleng returned to Warner Bros. , where he had earlier been an animation director. The Captain was voiced by Billy Bletcher , Mama was voiced by Martha Wentworth ,
6290-416: The tail. Jerry has whispered in Tom's ear on several occasions. In Love Me, Love My Mouse , Jerry calls Toots "Mama". Co-director William Hanna provided most of the squeaks, gasps, and other vocal effects for the pair, including the most famous sound effects from the series, Tom's leather-lunged scream, created by recording Hanna's scream and eliminating the beginning and ending of the recording, leaving only
6375-492: The then-popular 1940s radio show Don't You Believe It! . In Mouse Trouble , Tom says "Don't you believe it!" after being beaten up by Jerry, which also happens in The Missing Mouse . In the 1946 short Trap Happy , Tom hires a cat disguised as a mouse exterminator who, after several failed attempts to dispatch Jerry and suffering a lot of accidents in the process, changes profession to Cat exterminator by crossing out
6460-433: 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 Captain and the Kids (film series) In 1938, the comic strip The Captain and the Kids (Rudolph Dirks' parallel version of his own strip The Katzenjammer Kids ) was adapted by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , becoming
6545-407: The truce. One cartoon that has a friendly ending is Snowbody Loves Me . Both characters display sadistic tendencies, in that they are equally likely to take pleasure in tormenting each other, although it is often in response to a triggering event. However, when one character appears to truly be in mortal danger from an unplanned situation or due to actions by a third party, the other will develop
6630-438: The whistle of an oncoming train is heard foreshadowing their imminent death. Although many supporting and minor characters speak, Tom and Jerry rarely do so themselves. One exception is The Lonesome Mouse where they speak several times briefly, primarily Jerry, to contrive to get Tom back into the house. Tom more often sings while wooing female cats. For example, Tom sings Louis Jordan 's " Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby " in
6715-409: The worst of the Tom and Jerry theatrical output. Deitch stated that due to his team's inexperience as well as their low budget, he "hardly had a chance to succeed", and "well understand[s] the negative reactions" to his shorts. He believes "They 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
6800-415: Was done in a more simplistic, angular, Art Deco -esque style. The soundtracks featured sparse and echoic electronic music , futuristic sound effects , heavy reverb and dialogue that was mumbled rather than spoken. According to Jen Nessel of The New York Times , "The Czech style had nothing in common with these gag-driven cartoons." Whereas Hanna-Barbera's shorts generally took place in and outside of
6885-660: Was given larger eyes and ears, a lighter brown color, and a sweeter, Porky Pig -like expression. Some of Jones' Tom and Jerry cartoons are reminiscent of his work with Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner , included 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
6970-708: Was released in November 1954. 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 decided to leave and went on to focus on their own production company Hanna-Barbera Productions , which went on to produce such popular animated television series including The Flintstones , Yogi Bear , The Jetsons and Scooby-Doo . Before 1954, all Tom and Jerry cartoons were produced in
7055-444: Was to change the course of MGM cartoon production" and established the successful Tom and Jerry formula of comical cat and mouse chases with slapstick gags. It was released onto the theatre circuit on February 10, 1940. The pair, having been advised by management not to produce any more, focused on other cartoons including Gallopin' Gals (1940) and Officer Pooch (1941). Matters changed when Texas businesswoman Bessa Short sent
7140-455: Was to change the course of MGM cartoon production" and established the successful Tom and Jerry formula of comical cat and mouse chases with slapstick gags. It was released onto the theatre circuit on February 10, 1940, and the pair, having been advised by management not to produce any more, focused on other cartoons including Gallopin' Gals (1940) and Officer Pooch (1941). Matters changed, however, when Texas businesswoman Bessa Short sent
7225-439: Was unnamed and mute, aside from howls and biting noises as well as attacking indiscriminately, not caring whether it was Tom or Jerry though usually attacking Tom. In later cartoons, Spike spoke often, using a voice and expressions, performed by Billy Bletcher and later Daws Butler , modeled after comedian Jimmy Durante . Spike's coat has altered throughout the years between gray and creamy tan. The addition of Spike's son Tyke in
#316683