Tom and Jerry

Tom and Jerry is a classic American animated franchise built around the endlessly inventive rivalry between a scheming house cat named Tom and a quick-witted mouse named Jerry. Created in 1940 by the celebrated animation team of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the series began as a string of theatrical short films produced by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio and quickly became one of the most beloved cartoon properties of the golden age of animation. Its premise is famously simple and almost entirely wordless: Tom relentlessly pursues Jerry, who repeatedly outsmarts him through slapstick chases, elaborate traps and comic mayhem, with the cat almost always coming out the worse for it. This timeless formula of physical comedy, expressive character animation and perfectly timed gags gave the shorts a universal appeal that crossed languages and generations. During their original run the cartoons earned numerous prestigious awards, ranking among the most honored animated shorts ever made. After the theatrical era ended, Tom and Jerry endured through television broadcasts, new series, feature films, comics and a vast array of merchandise, keeping the duo in the public eye for decades.

The first short, Puss Gets the Boot, hit theaters on February 10, 1940, and earned an Academy Award nomination, which convinced MGM to greenlight a full series. Hanna and Barbera directed and wrote 114 shorts between 1940 and 1958, winning seven Oscars for Best Animated Short Film. When MGM closed its animation studio in 1958, production moved to Czechoslovakia for 13 more shorts, and from 1963 to 1967, Chuck Jones directed 34 additional entries, giving the characters more expressive faces. After that, the franchise entered television, with Hanna and Barbera's own studio producing The Tom and Jerry Show in 1975 and Tom and Jerry Kids in 1990. Warner Bros. took over after acquiring the Hanna-Barbera library, and has continued producing new content, including the 2021 live-action/animated hybrid film. The brand celebrated its 85th anniversary on February 10, 2025. [edit]