The Cat Concerto

Plot synopsis:
A stage is set in an auditorium. In a formal concert, Tom in a tuxedo, a piano virtuoso, is giving a piano recital of "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" by Franz Liszt. Jerry, who is sleeping inside the piano, is rudely awakened by the hammers, then sits on top of the piano to mock the cat by "conducting" him. Tom flicks Jerry off the piano. Tom continues playing without any interruptions.
Jerry arises from under one of the keys. Tom plays tremolo on this key, knocking Jerry on the head, and then Jerry runs back and forth underneath. Tom smashes the mouse under the keys, plays the main theme of the rhapsody, and when Tom lifts his two fingers from playing a trill, the piano continues playing. He looks over the edge of the piano and spots Jerry playing the felts from inside. To quiet him, he whacks Jerry with a tuning tool. Jerry slams the piano lid onto Tom's fingers. Tom still plays, and then Jerry pops out on the far right of the piano to attempt to cut Tom's finger with a pair of scissors as he plays a note from the very highest minor third of the piano. After the sixth miss, Jerry pants from this effort, and then substitutes a mousetrap for the white keys just below it. Tom plays the keys on either side for a few seconds but eventually, Tom's finger gets caught in the trap.
Jerry prances up and down on the piano, upon which Tom climbs and proceeds to play with his feet. As Tom gets back down to play with his fingers, Jerry dances around on the felts, momentarily changing the tune from the rhapsody to "On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe". Tom then plays a chord where the mouse is bounced repeatedly, receiving rude gestures in return, and eventually catches the mouse and stows him into the piano stool. Jerry then crawls out of an opening and manipulates the seat's controls, cranking it up, and sending it crashing down, causing Tom to get his head covered in his clothes and then land on the keys.
Tom stuffs Jerry into the felts and then goes crazy on the piano, going back to the rhapsody. The felts take on a life of their own, bashing Jerry about, spanking him, and squashing him to and throw. Eventually, Jerry gets squashed and comes out, very angry about this, and then breaks off some felts as his sticks and plays the finale of the rhapsody in one last retaliation. Jerry constantly increases the speed of his playing, plays two false endings, and generally taunts him, such that Tom is left with raggedy clothes and collapses at the end of the tune. The audience then applauds for the performance, and Jerry takes the praise for himself by bowing to the audience as a spotlight shines on him.

Tags: comic

Review:
Tom, complete with a tuxedo, is a pianist performing a concerto (Hungarian Rhapsody #2) for the audience.
Things are going well until Jerry, peacefully asleep inside the piano, is rudely woken up.The rest of the cartoon slows various ways these two guys torment each other.
In fact, you could probably turn your head away from the television and just enjoy the concert!Unlike most of the stories, this one revolved just around one object (a piano) but the sight gags were all good and the more I think about it, extremely clever and I can see how it won an Oscar..
Tom is playing Hungarian Rhapsody #2 for an audience, but when he wakes up Jerry, he must maintain his perfect piano playing abilities while contending with the mouse.
I know there was a controversy between this short and the WB's Looney Tune short "Rhapsody Rabbit" (which is a funny short as well and the similarities are a lot), but I feel that this Tom and Jerry short is the clear winner.
It is damn near pitch perfect and one of the best Tom and jerry cartoon shorts of all time.
This award winning cartoon can be found on disc one of the Spotlight collection DVD of "Tom & Jerry" My Grade: A+.
An excellent mix of classical music and animation-and a good Tom and Jerry cartoon as well!.
Cartoon studios have been blending animation with music probably since the start of animation.
Every major studio has done at least a few cartoons where the animation is done to the beat of the music.
While Rhapsody With Rivets is the best short to blend classical with animation (Sliphorn King of Polaroo was tops for jazz!), this cartoon, with several other Tom and Jerry shorts, does very well indeed and won an Oscar.
Tom flawlessly performs a Liszt piano concerto despite simultaneously engaging in the usual Tom and Jerry antics.Lifted above the usual high standard of the Fred Quimby produced series by the flawless melding of action and music.
In a departure from the usual household mayhem, Tom stars as a classical concert pianist.
Dressed in a tailcoat and hammering out Hungarian Rhapsody Number 2 (which you might recognize as the tune played by Daffy and Donald in Who Framed Roger Rabbit) he is bothered by Jerry, who just happens to live inside the piano.Cue loads of tricks played on poor Tom, who is desperately managing to stay in tune as Jerry runs amok.
This cartoon actually won an Academy Award back in the day and it's easy to see why.
A lot of laughs to be had here and one of the best Tom and Jerry shorts..
Having studied piano for years, I can really appreciate the effort to make it look like Tom is really playing this piece, and the wonderful effort to make the action fit the music only adds to the enjoyment.
This has to be one of my all time favourite Tom and Jerry cartoons.
The animation is also of true beauty, this is probably one of the better looking Tom and Jerry cartoons or so in my opinion.
And Tom and Jerry are both great here, Tom flawlessly performs Lizst's Hungarian Rhapsody Number 2, something I hear a lot in cartoons, while tormenting Jerry(and vice versa) in the process, while Jerry serves as a perfect and somewhat cute foil for him.
Overall, if you love Tom and Jerry and classical music this is a must see!
I'm 20 years old and I'm still crazy for "Tom And Jerry".This is not just a "Tom And Jerry"cartoon,this is the greatest cartton ever made.All cartoonist should see this classic to learn how to create a great cartoon.Everithing is at his best:the music,the settings and of course there is Tom.Is impossible you don't fall in love with Tom.If I had to rate this cartoon 1-10,I certanly would give 10000..
This is a wonderful wedding of music and cartoon action, brought off flawlessly with panache and great slapstick humor.
This short very much deserved the Oscar it won; it ranks among the best cartoons ever made, bar none..
A dazzling film, mostly due to the significant talents of Scott Bradley, MGM's woefully under-appreciated musical director for their animation unit.
He's the one playing the piano in this marvelous epic, which unifies music and animation flawlessly.
It doesn't matter how many times you see it, it will still bring tears of laughter to the eyes!A perfect blend of classical music and the chaos that only Jerry Mouse could ever wreak on Tom's efforts as a classical pianist...The only other cartoon that comes close is Bugs Bunny's "What's Opera, Doc?"Cat Concerto is simply, the funiest, greatest, best cartoon ever made.Enjoy!!
I remember how disappointed my friends and I were when the cartoon before the feature film was "Tom and Jerry." I still don't find them funny.
This one is good because it relies on wonderful animation, especially where Tom is playing Liszt's Second "Hungarian Rhapsody." He has every right to be left alone but for that damned mouse.
I think that most kids of my generation know what classical music they do from these cartoon efforts.
'The Cat Concerto,' a 1947 MGM "Tom and Jerry" cartoon, is one hundred percent class.
In this episode, Tom is a professional piano player, and he emerges before a respectful audience to perform "Hungarian Rhapsody Number 2" by Franz Liszt.
However, Tom's piano-playing rudely disrupts Jerry, who was sleeping peacefully inside the musical instrument.
In return for this inconvenience, the small mouse decides to inflict revenge upon the cat, who, playing feverishly at the piano, is currently at his most vulnerable.
'The Cat Concerto' is, interestingly, the first and only "Tom and Jerry" cartoon that I can remember seeing, and it certainly stacks up very well against some of the "Silly Symphonies" and "Merry Melodies" that I've also been watching recently.
The action never becomes monotonous, and we can only watch with excitement to see if the frantic pianist, despite Jerry's interruptions, can maintain his composure until the end of the song.Following its release on April 26 1947, 'The Cat Concerto' met with a spate of controversy, when Warner Brothers accused MGM of plagiarism, citing incredible similarities between it and 'Rhapsody Rabbit (1946).' In the latter film, Bug Bunny sits at a piano, plays Liszt's "2nd Hungarian Rhapsody" and is bothered by an unnamed mouse.
Nevertheless, 'The Cat Concerto' remains one of the most beloved of all "Tom and Jerry" cartoons, also scooping up the 1947 Oscar for Best Animated Short.
I didn't find that there were really any huge laugh-out-loud moments, but the entire eight minutes was extremely entertaining, and certainly not a bad way to spend my time.After each character receives their own share of bruising and batterings  with the performance never missing a beat  Jerry eventually gains control over the piano, while an exhausted Tom tries admirably to give the appearance that he is still playing.
As the rhapsody comes to a close, and is met with rousing applause, a beaten Tom slumps onto the piano keys, and Jerry climbs onto the top of the instrument to accept all the credit.
This is a satisfying ending to the film: we certainly respect Tom for the commendable effort he put into the heartfelt performance, but we always wanted the little mouse to win..
One flustered cat, one persistent and highly inventive mouse and of course one grand piano equals one truly great classic landmark in cartoon history!.
I love this one to bits, I really don't see how anybody with even the slightest appreciation of the characters ever could not t, as it's undeniably the gosh-darned Citizen Kane of all Tom and Jerry adventures!
Even though there are others I enjoy just as much, I still really can't in all honesty deny that this is probably the very greatest example of this legendary duo's particular brand of magic, and maybe even what they're best remembered for.
I love its pitch-perfect pacing, how it begins small and gradually builds as the choreography of the action flows along with the music till by the end it becomes something so epically artful in its madcap grandeur and a real animated tour-de-force that is such greatness to watch!
And the way everything that occurs goes together so incredibly well with that music is so charming and funny and it makes me think that there's just no possible way they could've ever found another tune that would have matched the hi-jinx of those two so perfectly.
An academy award winning adventure for Tom and Jerry, The Cat Concerto is an excellent example of a simple idea, perfectly executed.Tom is giving a piano recital, which wakes Jerry the mouse, who happens to be sleeping on top of the piano's hammers.
Miffed at having his sleep disturbed by the maestro moggy's tinkling, Jerry attempts to sabotage the performance.An almost perfect blend of classical music, excellent animation, and visual comedy, The Cat Concerto is one of the finest Tom and Jerry cartoons of all timeand considering that the guys have been scrapping for more than sixty years in over 170 animated adventures, that's saying something!.
Although the "sophisticated" cartoons with Tom and Jerry as well as Bugs Bunny are among the highest rated on IMDb, I don't particularly like them.
By sophisticated, I mean these are high-brow cartoons where the characters step out of character and perform to classical music or opera.
Sure, I like the music well enough (especially the non-opera) but I prefer to see them doing what they do best--shoving sticks of dynamite in each others' ears and dropping anvils on each others' heads!
But, apparently I am a Neanderthal, as this particular short has a huge rating of 8.5 and won the Oscar for Best Animated Short.However, on my behalf I should point out two particular reasons why I am not a fan of this film.
CAT CONCERTO may have been plagiarized or at least "inspired" by a nearly identical film by Warner Brothers just a year earlier--yet this later film is given an Oscar.
This hardly seems fair.Overall, this cartoon has very nice animation but that is about all.
A cat concerto like no other....
You'll never listen to Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 again without thinking of this classic MGM cartoon with Tom in concert mode performing at the Hollywood Bowl in formal attire while Jerry is asleep inside the piano.
Then, as the music becomes more and more vigorous, Jerry adds his own special touch to the performance, much to the exasperation of Tom.Although the two of them are sparring throughout, they never miss a note of music--which is the real bonus for music lovers who may wish to just sit back and listen to the music without visuals.Enormously clever and deserving of the Oscar it won in 1947.
It's the sort of cartoon that reminds us all of how beautifully the Disney people used music in all of their full-length features, probably an encouragement for the Hanna Barbera people to use it for so many of their cartoon classics..
* Spoiler warning - you may do yourself harm watching this cartoon *I have been doing a complete analysis of The Cat Concerto as part of my PhD work and I have spent 100 hours on it.
Scott Bradley's arrangement of Liszt's 2nd Hungarian Rhapsody (piano duet, played by Bradley and John Crown, head of Piano at University of Southern California) makes an excellent canvas for Muse, Barge & Spence to animate.
There are more comic gems in this 7 minute cartoon than all the latter-day comedy features put together.Truly wonderful.
One of the most iconic Tom & Jerry shorts ever made..
In 1847, famous composer Franz Liszt wrote Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (henceforth called Number 2), which is considered today as one of the most iconic pieces of classical music ever written.
Though made to be a dramatic piece, it has had a place in the world of comedy, mainly in animated shorts and feature productions.
The first use of the tune in film came from the 1929 Disney short "The Opry House", and this started a trend with other studios on making comedic interpretations of the tune performed by cartoon characters.
One of the most iconic, and most memorable uses of this concept is found here.Tom & Jerry, at this point, have become household names in the motion picture industry as one of the greatest duos ever conceived.
For MGM, the Tom & Jerry shorts have become just as memorable for their craftsmanship, writing, and execution as their now classic movie musicals like "Singin' in the Rain" or "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers".
Instead, it takes place in a concert hall, most likely the famous Hollywood Bowl.Tom is a concert pianist who arrives on stage to perform Liszt's Number 2 on the grand piano in front of a massive audience.
When he begins to play, everything is going fine, until we look inside the piano and we find that Jerry has made himself a small abode.
So he decides to have a bit of fun by making Tom's big night something he wishes never happened.
At first, Jerry does things to the piano that just irritates and distracts Tom, but when the tempo begins to rise, Jerry decides to make Tom's night a living hell by pushing him towards exhaustion, as if the last straw was finally drawn.
In the end, as usual, Jerry gets the last laugh, as the spotlight shines on him and he takes a bow for the performance instead of Tom. Now THAT is a sign of satisfaction.This is one of the Tom & Jerry shorts that has gotten such high praise from critics and audiences as a comedy classic, it became one of seven Tom & Jerry shorts to win an Academy Award for Best Short Subject in the Cartoon category, which was accepted by the film's producer, Fred Quimby.
Right after the film was released, Warner Brothers released the Bugs Bunny cartoon "Rhapsody Rabbit", in which Bugs also plays Number Two on the grand piano in front of an audience, with the only difference being that he does not have an adversary to quarrel with.
This led to the filmmakers at MGM and Warner Brothers arguing with each other saying that their film was original, and that they plagiarized each other, when really, it was all coincidental.As for the film itself, it's one of the greats from the Hanna-Barbera catalog of Tom & Jerry shorts.
The animation and timing is well done, and the comedy is as smart as usual.
The music, obviously, flows with the on-going havoc, and it fits perfectly, making it one of the best uses of Liszt's classic piece.
In fact, I have a feeling that the scene from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" where Donald Duck and Daffy Duck do dueling pianos in the Ink and Paint Club pretty much pays tribute to this particular short.In conclusion, this is a gem in the Tom & Jerry franchise, and a step forward for the characters to interact in different environments.
As a kid, I looked forward to seeing this film appear on a Tom & Jerry block on Cartoon Network.
Though if you're looking to own this film so you can watch it at anytime, it can be found on the first Tom & Jerry Spotlight Collection or Volume 1 of the Tom & Jerry Golden Collection..
A classic Tom and Jerry short.
This short sees Tom taking to the stage as a concert pianist to play Hungarian Rhapsody #2 by Franz Liszt; it starts well but Jerry has made his bed on the hammers and as soon as Tom hits the low notes Jerry it sent along the length hammers and woken.
From then on Jerry tries to disrupt his playing as Tom struggles valiantly to play on and when the piece finally comes to the end Jerry decides to keep going.This is one of the best Tom and Jerry shorts; it is not surprising that it picked up the Academy Award.
The usual violence is toned down but by no means eliminated; we still see Tom put his finger on a mouse trap and Jerry battered by the piano's hammers.
What made it so funny was how Tom managed to continue playing and sounding pretty good, despite Jerry's efforts; of course by the end it is Jerry who is getting the applause!
The animation looks great; I'm no pianist but it does look as though Tom is striking the right notes rather than just moving his hands to the music clearly animators took things more seriously back then!
If you like classic animation this one is a must see..
You can go right now into Wikipedia's annual listing for Looney Tunes and quickly pick out a dozen that stood head and shoulders above this lame Tom & Jerry outing the year it stole the gelded statuette.
Stalling, and such musical delights as RHAPSODY IN RIVETS and WHAT'S OPERA, DOC?
THE CAT CONCERTO features some listless Liszt, along with a mediocre smattering of this and that.
Cartoons with music have always been a big hit back in the day, be it in terms of Warner Bros', Disney or Hanna Barbera in this one here.
These 7 minutes are possibly the most famous Tom&Jerry cartoon.
Tom sure looked handsome, the piano was nicely animated and the music was pretty good, but in terms of the story and comedic scenes I hoped for more.
Jerry just wants to sleep early on, then swing to Tom's play, but Tom quickly gets annoyed by the presence of the little mouse and gives it his all to chase him away.
He has more moments when it looks like he may succeed than in many other T&J cartoons, but in the end, there can, of course, only be one winner.
I have seen many superior short films including the world's most famous cat-and-mouse duo.