Tom and Jerry, a household name for children all over the world until the early 2000s, was an animated series of short films created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera about a cat’s neverending endeavor a clever mouse.
The mid-20th century was a time when slapstick comedy was at its peak. Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd, through their unique style of slapstick comedy, entertained the audience as well as giving social messages. During the 1940s, animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera created an animated show with a simple plot of a cat chasing a mouse, which would become a global phenomenon all over the world. The cat named Tom keeps on chasing the mouse Jerry with the intent to devour him, but using his wit, Jerry saves himself each time, creating some humorous moments filled with over-the-top physical comedy for the audience to enjoy and have a laugh at.
In real life, cats would naturally overpower the mice. However, Tom and Jerry were created with the intention of being equal and always in conflict with one another. Naturally, it lends itself to the formula of chasing with a lot of excitement, action, comedy, and violence that is required for an entertaining series. The first episode was titled “Puss Gets the Boot,” and the characters were named Jasper and Jinx. The show would see a quadruped non-anthropomorphic cat chasing an anthropomorphic bipedal mouse, where the mouse would outwit the cat, with the cat’s own deeds backfiring on him. Both the cat and the dog use excessive violence on each other, with the cat taking the majority of the hits. Hanna-Barbera took the approach of silent film characters being inspired by their idol, Charlie Chaplin, using slapstick comedy to go on with the narrative and not using any dialogue. What made this show different is that it did not follow any traditional storyline, and the plot would move along with one physical act after another.
When the short was released, it was a success among the audience, making them want more. “Puss Gets the Boot” was even nominated for the Oscars for Best Animated Short Subject, Cartoons. This encouraged the makers to make more of the cartoon, however, they were not happy with the names Jasper and Jinx. Later on, the characters were named Tom and Jerry.
The second short was titled “The Midnight Snack,” which had a slightly altered design for Tom, but Jerry’s remained the same with his signature eyelashes. Design-wise Tom and Jerry did not alter much over their initial run of 114 episodes covering seventeen years. However, there were changes made later on in Tom’s design, from being a quadruped to an anthropomorphized bipedal cat, and Jerry’s eyelashes were removed.
The characters did not evolve as much over the years, however, their stylistic approach did. The shorts would follow the same chase formula with a changed location, and side characters were added to add more layers to the stories. As usual, Tom would face defeat in most of the shorts, in some, he would emerge victorious. In other shorts, both Tom and Jerry would team up and be the winners, and other characters would be the losers.
Other characters would include a small grey mouse named Nibbles, who wore diapers and could not speak. In a few parodies of “Three Musketeers,” a slightly older version of the grey mouse would appear who could speak. On screen, this version did not have a name, but in the comics, he was referred to as Tuffy. Another popular character was Spike, the bulldog, who was anthropomorphic and could speak. He had an adorable son named Tyke, who could only bark.
Butch is an alley cat who steals and is an adversary to Tom, since he also wants to eat Jerry. Moreover, another reason for Tom’s adversary is Toodles, a female white furry, whom both want to pursue. Each of the characters is loved by the audience.
Tom and Jerry became very popular, and by 1942 they had their own theme song, For the animated short “The Yankee Doodle Mouse,” they won their first Oscar in 1943.
From 1940 to 1958, Tom and Jerry was produced under the banner of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) by Fred Quimby, with Henna-Barbera as the animators, which was the golden age of the animated series. However, over the years, Tom and Jerry were produced by different studios with different animators using their own signature style of animation. That is why, one particular style of animation can not be seen in the Tom and Jerry cartoons.
Over the years, Tom and Jerry’s story narratives changed to cater to the newer generations. It survived an unbelievable eight decades on screen, and one can not but eternally love the show. In 2021, Tom and Jerry were seen in a live-action/computer-animated movie, Tom and Jerry, starring the titular characters along with Chlo Grace Moretz and Michael Pea, and this is not the last time. With its humongous fan base all over the world, it will not be impossible to see this incredible show reach its centenary.
Writer:
Risalat Rahman Hridoy
Intern, Content Writing Department
YSSE