“Tom and Jerry” – an immortal duo, ie 80 years have passed as one day

Tom’s Sisyphean works are the key to success

Everyone who loved American cartoons or grew up with the good old Cartoon Network knows the cat-and-mouse duo. A simple story, almost always ending in a similar way, filled with the violence, pain and suffering of a kitten, and the happiness of a mouse. Quite a good idea for a story that has won many fans around the world, and yet not all of us remember the anniversary that fell on February 10, 2020 – the 80th anniversary of the first episode with our beloved heroes.

The duo was invented in an act of desperation. MGM’s animation department, where creators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera worked, tried to save their situation on the animation market, as characters such as Porky Pig and Mickey Mouse practically began to take over the American scene. The aforementioned young animators started working on something new. Barbera has stated that he loves the simple concept of a cat and mouse story with conflict and chase, even though it has been done countless times before. Barbera, however, got his way and so in 1940 the crazy duo in the cartoon entitled Puss gets the Boot. The debut was a hit and won the studio an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short. However, the main characters were neither Tom nor Jerry. Okay, it was them, but they had different names – Jasper and Jynx.

Mass production from the dream factory

The adventures of two tricks turned out to be so popular that MGM and the cartoonists decided to continue creating the adventures of the dynamic duo. According to Barbera, it was assumed from the beginning that the characters would not be too talkative, because, like Charlie Chaplin, they can make millions laugh just by acting. An important factor, however, was the music composed by Scott Bradley, emphasizing the action, and Tom’s characteristic human scream was expressed by Hann himself.

For most of the next two decades, Hanna and Barbera oversaw the production of over 100 episodes. Each one lasted weeks and cost about $ 50,000 (today is about $ 500,000), so only a handful could be produced each year. These episodes are widely regarded as the best, with rich, hand-drawn animation and detailed backgrounds that won seven Oscars as well as the title characters received numerous cameos in Hollywood feature films – likeable pets, incl. they danced in 1945 with Gene Kelly and in 1953 with Esther Williams.

Evolution, or maybe a cat-mouse revolution?

When producer Fred Quimby retired in the mid-1950s, Hanna and Barbera took over the MGM cartoon division. It was not an easy moment, however, as budget cuts were looming, resulting from the decline in the popularity of cinema in favor of television. When their branch closed in 1957, Hanna and Barbera started their own production company, never giving up on the next episodes and new projects.

A few years later, MGM decided to revive Tom and Jerry without his original creators. In 1961, they commissioned subsequent episodes of a Prague studio to save on costs. Chicago-born animator Gene Deitch was tasked with creating a remake of Tom and Jerry, but struggled with a tight budget and unfamiliar staff growing up in the Eastern Bloc. Funnily enough, Deitch’s studio staff had Americanized names in the end credits to keep viewers from associating their shows with communism.

We raise the curtain again

Deitch knew that his creations might not be liked by fans, so only 13 cartoons were made. In interviews, the Czech animator spoke very honestly about his bad reputation and revealed that he had even been threatened with death for destroying Tom and Jerry.

Therefore, after him, MGM commissioned the task of creating new cat and mouse adventures to Chuck Jones, best known for his work on Looney Tunes at Warner Brothers. Under his auspices, Tom’s eyebrows grew thicker and his face more twisted resembling Dr. Seuss, or the fictional Grinch, which was also animated by Jones.

In the 1970s, the mouse and cat fathers returned to their forms. During the period when they were separated from their children, Hanna and Barbera took over the audience in front of TV screens thanks to Bear Yogi, Scooby-Doo, Flinstons and Tolek Cack.

Due to the increase in censorship, the original authors could not really spread their wings, because their traditional idea of ​​pranks turned out to be too brutal twenty years later – therefore virtually nothing was broadcast.

Violence is not the only problem

Like other fairy tales from the time, the show’s legacy has been subjected to long-term criticism related to racial depictions. In particular, the figure of “Mammy Two Shoes”, a black maid with an exaggerated southern accent usually seen from the waist down, was according to many a caricature of a typical African American woman. Some episodes also contain jokes using “blackface” and insult images of Asians and Native Americans.

Surprisingly, the show also made headlines. In 2016, an Egyptian official tried to blame the cartoon for rising violence in the Middle East, and Iran’s top leader compared their relationship with the US to Tom and Jerry on at least two occasions.

Heritage

In the 80 years since their inception, the cat and mouse have appeared in everything from the children’s version to the 1992 music film where they sang and talked.

Bill Hanna died in 2001 and Joe Barbera in 2006. A year before his death, Barbera was last credited with the creator of the short episode of Tom and Jerry, which was also his first episode shot without his former partner.

Nevertheless, Tom and Jerry with their violence and black humor remain extremely popular all over the world today. They can be found on children’s television, from Japan to Pakistan, and the new mobile game has over 100 million users in China. It is worth recalling that at the beginning of broadcasting Cartoon Network, we were able to spend January 1 with Tom and Jerry. Warner Brothers, who now owns the rights to Tom and Jerry, will release a new action movie just before Christmas. Not much is known about the project except for actors including Chloë Grace Moretz who was also born on February 10. It’s worth the wait!