Tom & 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 rivalry 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 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* then became the highest-grossing animated short film series of that time, overtaking *Looney Tunes*. Chuck Jones then produced another 34 shorts with Sib Tower 12 Productions between 1963 and 1967. Three more shorts were produced, *The Mansion Cat* in 2001, *The Karate Guard* in 2005, and *A Fundraising Adventure* in 2014, making a total of 164 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). The first feature-length film based on the series, *Tom and Jerry: The Movie*, was released in 1992, and 13 direct-to-video films have been produced since 2002, with a live-action/animated hybrid film released in 2021. A musical adaptation of the series, titled *Tom and Jerry: Purr-Chance to Dream*, debuted in Japan in 2019 in advance of *Tom and Jerry*'s 80th anniversary.

Tom and Jerry has been on Boomerang ever since the channel's launch on April 1, 2000.

## Plot

The series features comic fights between two lifelong enemies, a house cat (Tom) and a mouse (Jerry). The plots of each short usually center on Tom and Jerry's numerous attempts to have the best of each other and the mayhem and destruction that follows. Despite Tom's clever strategies (whether they work or not), determined and energetic mindset, large size, and exceptional overall intelligence, he rarely succeeds in getting the best of Jerry, mainly because of Jerry's cunning abilities, luck, and his lack of tendencies in being a bit too reckless. 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 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.

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. On the other hand, 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 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 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 reprised contemporary pop songs, as well as songs from MGM films, including *The Wizard of Oz* and *Meet Me in St. Louis*, which both starred Judy Garland in a leading role.

Generally, there is little dialogue as Tom and Jerry almost never speak; however, minor characters are not similarly limited, and the two lead characters do 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.