Page 6 - CinemaRecord #11R.pdf

Tom and Jerry by Graham Smythe

Most of our readers are aware that I frequently include a cartoon of
these famous two in one of my programmes, and always get some
feed back expressing the enjoyment which comes from the antics
of these two stars. Born in Hollywood, Tom and Jerry have captured
the delight and the laughter of audiences around the world - yet
gathered enough Academy Awards to make many movie stars
envious.

Their creators, often known as Hanna- Barbera were William Hanna with a musical background, and Joseph
Barbera talented in sketch and drawing. The concept goes back to the Spring of 1939 with the idea of a cat and
mouse - natural conflict - cat chases the mouse - big guy picks on the little guy - sympathy for the little mouse
- laughter and applause when the big guy gets his just desserts. Initially, the MGM men were not impressed.
There had already been Felix the Cat, Mickey Mouse and a Terrytoon Mouse - their approval was very
reluctant.

The first cartoon "Puss Gets the Boot" made its' debut 1Oth February, 1940 and
received rave reviews. Although the cat was known as Jasper the pair were un-
named until, after a contest between the studio staff involving 1 OO's suggestions,
" they were christened Tom and Jerry.

In the first cartoons Tom and Jerry were rubbery, elastic and round in
appearance - quite different from the more sharply defined, almost
streamlined features of later years. Jerry did put on some weight to gain
a chubbier tummy and a cuddlier look, but always the lovable scamp.
Toms' fur smoothed out, eyebrows changed, ears and face coloured a
little. Incredibly, neither have ever spoken one articulate word!

They were in MGM's Stable of Stars- they danced divinely, 'sang' on occasions, spat, made-up, kissed, fought,
and generally bashed, crashed, smashed and walloped each other across the movie screens of the world.
Each cartoon started with gags dreamed up by Hanna - Barbera during brain storming in their office. Seated
opposite each other they would bounce story ideas back and forth like a mad tennis match until one would
really hit the funny bone.

And so the story graph would evolve - each line a frame of film and columns to
denote actions, effects, sounds. A masterful example of editing when you think of
the action crammed into a 6 to 7 minute cartoon, each of which averages some
12,000 different cells.

Sometimes Tom and Jerry stepped out of their cartoon world to appear with famous stars like Gene Kelly or
Esther Williams. Now choreography comes into play as the actors do the dance and the Cartoon Department
rotoscope the film to produce Tom and Jerry's imitative dance routines frame by frame. For 20 years Hanna-
Barbera gave to MGM the adorable personalities of Tom and Jerry, 114 cartoons which included 7 Academy
Awards, namely:

Yankee Doodle Mouse 1943
Mouse Trouble 1944
Quiet Please 1945
The Cat Concerto 1946
The Little Orphan 1948
The Two Mouseketeers 1951
Johann Mouse 1952