Cat and Mouse Games: The History of Tom and Jerry (Part 2)

Many of the early Tom and Jerry cartoons resembled the Harmon and Ising cartoons that preceded them. The pace was slow and the animation was more realistic than what it would become later. Tom looked and moved more like a real cat than a cartoon of a cat. This made his actions and reactions much less funny than what would come later. This along with MGM cartoons as a whole changed when Tex Avery moved to MGM. Even though Tex had never worked on a Tom and Jerry cartoon his importance to the series is unmistakable.

Tex Avery was one of the greatest animation directors to ever live. He had already helped change Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies from the films Harmon and Ising had made at Warner Brothers (While many of those cartoons were entertaining they were very different from what would come later) to the more cartoony, anything for a laugh style that we know and love them for now. Tex's MGM cartoons were even faster paced and more cartoony than what he had done at Warner Brothers. In these cartoons nothing was impossible. If a joke was funny to Tex, he would throw out any sense of reality for the joke's sake.  Tex Avery's MGM cartoons remain some of the funniest cartoons ever made.

Inspired by Tex's cartoons Hanna and Barbera made a few changes to Tom and Jerry cartoons. The pace had been picked up. Animal characters were now anthropomorphic. Most of all though the cartoons were much funnier. Wild and impossible reactions, fast paced slapstick, and cartoony violence now became staples of Tom and Jerry cartoons. Also added was Tom's recognizable and quite funny scream (often times one of the few sounds to come out of his mouth in the cartoons). This scream was done by William Hanna himself.

Tom and Jerry cartoons were at the top of their game during these years. They quickly became favorites for both fans and film critics. The series even won 7 Oscars a feat only matched by (for series of animated short films) Disney's Silly Symphony cartoons. These great cartoons deserved all of the praise they received.

After 1955's "Good Will to Men" (a non-Tom and Jerry MGM cartoon directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera) producer Fred Quimby left MGM. To take over as the producers for all of the MGM animated short films were William Hanna and Joseph Babera. They not only produced the cartoons they directed, but also the cartoons of Tex Avery, Michael Lah, and others.

The budgets were now much smaller. This may have helped prepare the team for their future in television animation, where they would have to work on an even smaller budget. Even though most of the Tom and Jerry cartoons of this era were still very good (Muscle Beach Tom, Timid Tabby, Down Beat Bear, etc.), there were a few cartoons that showed that maybe it was getting harder to come up with new stories for the characters (Happy Go Ducky, Tot Watchers, Busy Buddies). After 1958's Tom and Jerry cartoon "Tot Watchers" MGM's animation studio had closed and Hanna and Barbera would go on to make some of the best animated TV shows of their era. It seemed as if this would be the end for Tom and Jerry, but it was far from it.

To Be Continued...

-Michael J. Ruhland