GamesTom and Jerry is a series of animated theatrical shorts created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that centered on a never-ending rivalry between a housecat (Tom) and a mouse (Jerry) whose chases and battles often involved comic violence. Hanna and Barbera ultimately wrote and directed one hundred and fourteen Tom and Jerry cartoons at the MGM cartoon studio in Hollywood, California between 1940 and 1959, when the animation unit was closed. The original series is notable for having won the Academy Awards for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) seven times, tying it with Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies as the theatrical animated series with the most Oscars. In 2000, TIME named the series one of the greatest television shows of all time.
Beginning in 1960, in addition to the originals MGM had new shorts produced by Rembrandt Films, led by Gene Deitch in Eastern Europe. Production of Tom and Jerry shorts returned to Hollywood under Chuck Jones's Sib-Tower 12 Productions in 1963; this series lasted until 1967, making it a total of 161 shorts. The cat and mouse stars later resurfaced in television cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera and Filmation Studios during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, a feature film, Tom and Jerry: The Movie, in 1992 and released domestically in 1993 and in 2000, their first made-for TV short, Tom and Jerry: The Mansion Cat for Cartoon Network. The most recent Tom and Jerry theatrical short, The Karate Guard, was written and co-directed by co-creator Joe Barbera and debuted in Los Angeles cinemas on September 27, 2005.
Today, Time Warner (via its Turner Entertainment division) owns the rights to Tom and Jerry (with Warner Bros. handling distribution). Since the merger, Turner has produced the series, Tom and Jerry Tales for The CW's Saturday morning "The CW4Kids" lineup, as well as the recent Tom and Jerry short, The Karate Guard, in 2005 and a string of Tom and Jerry direct-to-video films - all in collaboration with Warner Bros. Animation.
Charactors
Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse
Thomas "Tom" Cat.
Tom is a blue-grey British longhair cat. He is the main protagonist and also the main antagonist of the story, who lives a pampered life, while Jerry is a small brown house mouse who always lives in close proximity to him and he is the second protagonist of the story. "Tom" is a generic name for a male cat or Warner Bros. cartoon character Sylvester was originally called "Thomas". Tom was originally called "Jasper" in the very first short, Puss Gets the Boot, while Jerry was named "Jinx". Tom is very quick-tempered and thin-skinned, while adorable mouse Jerry is independent and opportunistic. Jerry also possesses surprising strength for his size, lifting items such as anvils with relative ease and withstanding considerable impacts with them. Despite the typical cat eats mouse, it is actually quite rare for Tom to actually try and consume Jerry. Despite being very energetic and determined, Tom is no match for Jerry's brains and wits. By the final "iris-out" or "fade-out" of each cartoon, Jerry usually emerges triumphant, while Tom is shown as the loser. However, other results may be reached; on rare occasions, Tom triumphs, usually when Jerry becomes the aggressor or when he crosses some sort of line (the best example of which occurs in The Million Dollar Cat where, after finding out that Tom's newly acquired wealth will be taken away if he harms any animal, including a mouse, he torments Tom until Tom finally loses his temper and attacks him). Sometimes, usually ironically, they both lose, usually when Jerry's last trap potentially backfires on him after it affects Tom (An example is in Chuck Jones' Filet Meow short where Jerry orders a shark to scare Tom away from eating a goldfish. Afterwards, the shark scares Jerry away as well) or when Jerry overlooks something at the end of the course. Sometimes, they both end up being friends (only for something to happen so that Tom will chase Jerry again). Both characters display sadistic tendencies, in that they are equally likely to take pleasure in tormenting each other. However, depending on the cartoon, whenever one character appears to be in mortal danger (in a dangerous situation or by a third party), the other will develop a conscience and save him. Sometimes, 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.
Despite five shorts ending with a depiction of Tom's apparent death, his demise 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) and in Yankee Doodle Mouse, while in The Two Mouseketeers he is guillotined offscreen.
Jerry Mouse.
Although many supporting and minor characters speak, Tom and Jerry rarely do so themselves. Tom, most famously, sings while wooing female cats; for example, Tom sings Louis Jordan's "Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby" in the 1946 short Solid Serenade. In a couple of shorts, Tom, when romancing a female cat, woos her in a French-accented voice similar to that of screen actor Charles Boyer. At the end of The Million Dollar Cat after beginning to antagonize Jerry he says that he is throwing away a million dollars, but he is happy. 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 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, ironically happens to thwart 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 some famous World War II propaganda shorts of the 1940s. In one episode, Tom hires a mouse exterminator who, after several failed attempts to dispatch Jerry, changes profession to Cat exterminator by crossing out 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. Both Tom and Jerry speak more than once in the 1943 short The Lonesome Mouse. Tom and Jerry: The Movie is the first (and so far only) installment of the series where the famous cat-and-mouse duo regularly speak.
Recurring characters
Spike and Tyke
In his attempts to catch Jerry, Tom often has to deal with Spike (also known as "Killer" ), an angry, vicious but extremely dumb guard bulldog who tries to attack Tom for bothering his son Tyke (sometimes called "Junior") while trying to get Jerry. While they are in the cartoons, Tom and Jerry appears always while chasing and bothering his son. Originally Spike 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 grey and creamy tan. The addition of Spike's son Tyke in the late 1940s led to both a slight softening of Spike's character and a short-lived spin-off theatrical series (Spike and Tyke). Most cartoons with Spike in it has a system; usually Spike is trying to accomplish something (such as building a dog house or sleeping) when Tom and Jerry's antics stop him from 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 Tom (effectively forcing Tom to take the blame of anyone else) while Jerry overhears, afterwards 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 leaving Tom to take the blame, forcing him to fight Spike and inevitably lose (usually due to the fact the Tom is usually framed by Jerry and that Spike just doesn't like Tom) off-screen, finally Tom is generally shown injured while Jerry smugly cuddles up to Spike unscathed. At least once however Tom does something that benefits Spike, who promises not to interfere ever again; causing Jerry to frantically leave the house and run into the distance (in Hic-cup Pup).
Butch and Toodles Galore
Butch and Toodles Galore, in the 1946 Tom and Jerry short Springtime for Thomas.
Butch is a black alley cat who also wants to catch and eat Jerry. He is the most frequent adversary of Tom. However, for most of the episodes he appears in, he's usually seen rivaling Tom over Toodles. Butch also appeared as one of Tom's pals or chums as in some cartoons, where Butch is leader of Tom's buddies, who are Meathead and Topsy. Tom changes his love interest many times. The first love interest is Sheikie and speaks in a haughty tone in The Zoot Cat, and calls him "Tommy" in The Mouse Comes to Dinner. The second and most frequent love interest of Tom's is Toodles Galore, who never has any dialogue in Tom and Jerry cartoons.
Mammy Two Shoes
Mammy Two Shoes, the owner of Tom, who made many appearances in the 1940s and early 1950s Tom and Jerry shorts, as seen in 1947's Old Rockin' Chair Tom. Over the years, Tom and Jerry cartoons featuring Mammy have been censored or removed from broadcast.
From the beginning, Tom also has to deal with Mammy Two Shoes (voiced by Lillian Randolph), a stereotyped[clarification needed] African-American domestic housemaid. In the earliest shorts, Mammy is depicted as the maid taking care of the often opulent home in which Tom and Jerry reside. Later Tom and Jerry shorts are set in what appears to be Mammy's own house. Her face is never seen (with the exception of 1950's Saturday Evening Puss, in which her face is very briefly seen as she runs towards the camera), and she usually wallops the cat with a broom when he misbehaves. When Mammy was not present, other humans would sometimes be seen, usually from the neck down as well. Mammy would appear in many cartoons until 1952's Push-Button Kitty. Later cartoons would instead show Tom and Jerry living with a 1950s Yuppie-style couple. Soon after, virtually all humans in the series had visible faces.
Tuffy
Tuffy (formerly, Nibbles) is a mouse who is close to Jerry. He is sometimes seen as Jerry's nephew, but occasionally referred to as an orphan. In many episodes, Tuffy is seen eating a lot (he's always hungry). In his first appearance, he was left on Jerry's doorstep, being abandoned by his parents because he eats too much. Tuffy appears frequently with Jerry. When he does, Tom enjoys chasing him as he does with Jerry. Strangely, in Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring, Tuffy, once again called Nibbles, is a random mouse in a pet shop that Jerry doesn't even know. He is also turned big by Jerry's ring and chases Freddy(see Muscles Mouse) because Freddy was turned into cheese by Jerry's ring.
In Mouseketeer shorts, he will speak in French and English. He also isn't Jerry's nephew; he is the son of Francais Mouse, who doesn't make an appearance, but his name was in two letters in the short, "Touche, Pussycat!"
Quacker
Quacker at the end of That's My Mommy
Another recurring character in the series was Little Quacker the duckling, who was later adapted into the Hanna-Barbera character Yakky Doodle. He appears in Little Quacker, The Duck Doctor, Just Ducky, Downhearted Duckling, Southbound Duckling, That's My Mommy, Happy Go Ducky and The Vanishing Duck. Quacker talks a lot compared to Tom and Jerry. In many episodes, he is the only one who speaks. He is a friend of Jerry.
Lightning
Lightning is a redone version of Meathead. He is an alley cat bully whose leader is Butch. Lightning's first appearances was Old Rockin' Chair Tom as the main antagonist. He became buddies with Tom as seen in Sleepy-Time Tom. He also appeared in the Tom and Jerry direct-to-video films, Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring and Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale. Nobody knows who voiced Lightning in Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale and Tom and Jerry Tales. Originally, Lightning is seen with a black nose in the Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts, and later was seen with a red nose in Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale. Then he return with his original black nose in Tom and Jerry Tales.
Topsy
Topsy appears in less Tom and Jerry shorts and he can be seen more yellowish in Tom and Jerry Tales instead of gray and brown. He became friends with Jerry mostly instead of Tom when he appeared as a house cat in Professor Tom. His first appearances was in Baby Puss and last appeared in Scat Cats.
Meathead
He was Tom's rival in Sufferin' Cats! (his first appearances), when he and Tom fight over to eat Jerry. On Baby Puss, he, Butch and Topsy teases Tom because a little girl dress him like a baby and also was an alley cat bully. Baby Puss was like his last appearance before his reversion into Lightning, not Scat Cats and other Tom and Jerry cartoons except The Flying Sorceress.
Minor characters
Muscles Mouse
Jerry's very own cousin where cats are afraid of. He appeared in Jerry's Cousin as a strong, vicious mouse. In Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring, he appears as another mouse who Jerry doesn't know, and mistakes Jerry for a king because of the ring on his head. Also, his name is Freddy in The Magic Ring, and he likes bullying Nibbles, but is later turned into cheese by Jerry's ring and chased by big Nibbles.
George Cat
Tom's cousin who appeared in Timid Tabby as a cat who tries to live without Jerry. He is really afraid of him. He gets a plan from Tom to confuse Jerry, he appeared in Tom's back to scare Jerry off. He pretends that he is not afraid of mice, like his cousin, the main villain of the cartoon, Tom.
Uncle Pecos
Jerry's uncle who has a cowboy hat, a mustache, boots and a guitar. He appears in Pecos Pest as a singing mouse who takes Tom's whiskers to make a sound from the guitar and he appears in Cry Uncle in Tom and Jerry Tales.
The Canary
A bird who was Jerry's friend. The Canary looks like Quacker in the wrong time. He appeared in Kitty Foiled, The Flying Cat and in Life with Tom. Tom also wants to eat this bird all the time.
Toots
Tom's love interest who actually appeared in Puss n' Toots and The Mouse Comes To Dinner.
Sheikie
She is Tom's love interest who appears only in The Zoot Cat. She is a jive talking cat who Tom woos.
The Ants
The main villains of all of their appearance. They are really vicious villains of Pup on a Picnic and Barbecue Brawl. They also appeared in Cat Napping as they not take food and they lead. They are not protagonists, they were super evil.
Joan and George
Joan and George is a yuppie couple who first appeared in Pet Peeve. In their first appearance, their face is not seen until the rest of the other cartoons, their face was seen. They replace Mammy Two Shoes before she retires.
Jeannie
A young girl hired to babysit Joan and George's little son; she's usually talking on the phone instead of looking after the baby. She hates both Tom and Jerry, thinking that they always mean to hurt or at least bother the baby. She appeared in Busy Buddies and Tot Watchers.
Joan and George's Baby
He has not been given a name due to he only appeared in two Tom and Jerry shorts just like Jeannie did. He is a supporter who keeps making the duo in trouble. Every time Jeannie is talking on the phone, the baby escapes from the house and fools around in the street with Tom and Jerry chasing after him to bring him home and Jeannie thinks Tom is bothering him when Tom puts the baby back to bed.
Topo
Topo is a Neapolitan mouse who appeared in "Neapolitan Mouse". He is a big fan of the cat and mouse duo. In the cartoon, he befriends them and treats them on local delicacies.
Clint Clobber
Clint Clobber is Tom's owner and he is very mean and quick tempered individual. Prime candidate for Anger Management classes. Usually takes out his aggression on Tom. He appeared in Down and Outing, High Steaks and Sorry Safari.
The Dancing Bear
He appeared in Down Beat Bear. He is an escaped bear from the circus. If he hears music, he starts to dance.
The Eagle
He appeared in Flirty Birdy as Tom's "rival" in order to eat Jerry.
The Green Devil
He has a green skin who is Jerry's master. He tells stories about Tom and Toodles during their last date. He gives Jerry a direction, appearances in "Springtime for Thomas" and "Smitten Kitten".
By - Ritvik Garg
in 5th
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