The history of the cartoon. Tom and Jerry

1.

CARTOO
N
HISTORY

2.

Tom and Jerry is an
American classic
that has been
entertaining
audiences for
decades. The
groundbreaking
animated series won
seven Academy
Awards over the
years and created a
new standard in
animation style.

3.

In 1937, Italian American
artist Joseph Barbera
joined the film company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
(MGM) to work in their
cartoon studio in
California. Sat beside
fellow animator, William
Hanna, the two realised
they had a lot in common
artistically and started to
work together in 1939.
William Hanna
Joseph Barbera

4.

In 1939, while still at MGM the duo
started work on their first film. It was
called ‘Puss Gets the Boot’ and was
released on this day in 1940.

5.

Under 10 minutes in length, the animated cartoon told the story of a cat
named Jasper who gets off on playing pranks and terrorising a mouse called
Jinx. It’s not long till the tables are turned though and Jinx plays his own
prank on Jasper, making the cat responsible for breaking many of his
owner’s possessions.

6.

Fred Quimby
Scott Bradley
The producer of the cartoon at MGM studios in Hollywood was Fred Quimby,
and the composer was Scott Bradley, who created a small musical masterpiece
for each episode.

7.

The film was a hit
with audiences. But
MGM weren’t
impressed. They
immediately told the
pair to focus their
efforts on other
projects, and Jasper
and Jinx would never
grace the silver
screen again.

8.

That is, until a fan letter
from a Texan
businesswoman
demanding when the cat
and mouse would return
got the studio interested
again. A studio
competition renamed the
pair, and the next
adventures of the cat and
mouse was sealed, only
this time they’d be called
Tom and Jerry.

9.

The first ‘Tom and Jerry’ cartoon was produced in 1941 called ‘The Midnight
Snack’.

10.

Tom's artist was Irwin Spence, who copied gestures and facial expressions for
his cartoon character from himself, standing in front of a mirror. And Jerry the
mouse was drawn by Kenneth Muse.

11.

Over the years, Tom's
appearance has
changed somewhat.
In the first episodes,
he often walked on
four legs, his legs
were thick, and
characteristic
wrinkles were visible.
Then he began to
walk on two legs, and
his fur became
smooth. He initially
looked like an angry
street cat, but soon
turned into a
beautiful pet.

12.

Hanna and Barbera produced 114 Tom
and Jerry shorts between 1940 and
1958 before MGM closed the cartoon
studio and Hanna and Barbera would
leave to form Hanna-Barbera
Productions.

13.

It was a fruitful
partnership, with their
own studio producing a
selection of the world’s
most iconic animated
films including ‘The
Flintstones’, ‘ScoobyDoo’, ‘The Smurfs’ and
‘The Jetsons’.

14.

Gene Deitch
In 1961, MGM gave Czechoslovakian Rembrandt Films the rights to animate
13 new shorts for theaters, directed by Gene Deitch.

15.

In 1963 the cartoon returned back
to Hollywood, but to another studio,
which began to engage in further
production of the series: Sib-Tower
12 Productions by Chuck Jones.

16.

As of today, there are 166 ‘Tom and Jerry’ shorts, two feature films, 15 directto-video films, musical adaptations, print versions and any number of other
spin-offs you can think of. Tom and Jerry are so iconic, it’s hard to imagine a
cat and mouse pairing without them popping to mind.

17.

William Hanna died on March 22, 2001, and Joseph Barbera passed away in
December 2006. But their Tom and Jerry series will forever remain a
masterpiece of American animation.