Cat and Mouse: Enemies - Friends

Author: (USA) Hanna-Barbera
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: The classic "Tom and Jerry" has a glorious history and has now reached the peak of its reputation. Its TV animation ratings are extremely high, and almost every hour on television screens worldwide, stories of "Tom and Jerry" appear. TV audiences see their favorite Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoons every day. People around the world have been captivated by this character. Countries like Italy and Russia create a large number of children's picture books featuring Tom and Jerry every year, and Italy and other countries still publish magazines about "Tom and Jerry." "Tom and Jerry" (also translated as "Tom and Jerry") is a world-famous animated series. Its creators, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, are "legendary figures" in the American Hollywood animation industry. William Hanna was born in Melrose, New Mexico. At the age of seven, he moved with his parents to California. As he grew up, he studied engineering, journalism, and music. During the Great Depression of the 1930s in the United States, he worked part-time at an animation studio as a story editor. His employer quickly discovered his talent and promoted him continuously until he became an independent animated film director. Cartoonist Joseph Barbera was born in New York and had a natural talent for drawing from a young age. Initially, he worked at a bank and created animations in his spare time. His extraordinary talent and hard work helped him quickly find a job he loved at an animation studio. In 1937, Hanna and Barbera first met at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation studio. In 1938, Hanna worked on the animated series "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies," while Barbera worked on the animation series "Terrytoons." Hanna had a comedic talent and the organizational skills of a famous director, while Barbera had exceptional drawing talent. They both realized that they should form a partnership, which began a successful collaboration that lasted several decades. In 1939, they jointly directed the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animated film "Puss Gets the Boot," where the cat was named Jasper and the mouse was named Jinx. Hanna wrote a vivid story, and Barbera created outstanding characters, especially the expressions of the cat and mouse were full of charming humor. After the first episode of the film was released in 1940, it was a huge success and was loved by countless audiences. Since Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer did not like the names of the two main characters in the animation, they held a reader's poll and eventually changed them to the names we know today, Tom and Jerry. "Tom and Jerry" is entirely characterized by slapstick comedy, with very lively plots. Tom is a common gray and white house cat with a strong desire to catch Jerry, the mouse that lives with him but is hard to catch. He constantly tries to drive away these annoying roommates but always fails. In reality, the fun he has during the chase far exceeds the joy of catching the mouse. Even when he occasionally catches Jerry, he doesn't know what to do with the mouse! "Tom and Jerry" uses the prototypes of a cat and a mouse, and their pranks are very amusing. No matter how intense or tense the game is, Jerry knows he won't be seriously hurt, while Tom is always subjected to some physical harm. Jerry lives with Tuffy, the urinating little gray mouse, in the same mouse hole in this house. It seems as if Tom is watching them, but Jerry is very clever and always turns Tom's cunning schemes back on him, making sure he gets what he deserves. This story of a clever mouse and a foolish cat is comparable to the stories of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. There is no cruelty of the strong oppressing the weak in the animal world; only the daily trivialities and conflicts between two neighbors, such as Jerry stealing Tom's cheese or Tom setting a mousetrap at the entrance to Jerry's hole. The numerous pranks and humorous segments interspersed throughout the story bring back a sense of innocent joy. Their relationship often changes in an instant—from enemies to friends or from friends to enemies: when enemies, they try their best and refuse to yield; when friends, they are as close as brothers, never holding grudges. "Tom and Jerry" has 116 comic characters, with each episode pairing 2 to 3 characters with different personalities to tell a "gag" story. Its story content is simple but always surprising yet reasonable, reflecting the creators' extraordinary wisdom. It uses a silent format, relying entirely on humorous actions without dialogue. Compared to "Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck," the latter's story is sometimes difficult to understand, while the silent comedy of "Tom and Jerry" is clear and direct, leaving a very vivid and deep impression on the audience. "Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck" has been popular worldwide for decades, with its characters, voiceovers, and strong promotion playing important roles. In contrast, "Tom and Jerry" has almost no dialogue, relying entirely on vivid characters and plots that are full of twists and rich imagination. "Tom and Jerry" has produced over 200 animated films, including "The Foolish Mouse Yankee" (1943), "Be Quiet" (1945), "Cat Concerto" (1947), "Clean Mouse" (1948), "Two Catnaps" (1952), and "John Mouse" (1953), which have won Academy Awards. "Christmas Eve" (1941) and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse" (1947) were also nominated. In the history of Hollywood animation, "Tom and Jerry" is the animated series with the most Academy Awards. In the 1945 animated film "Sailor," Jerry and Gene Kelly's performance, as well as the water play and antics of Tom, Jerry, and Esther Williams in the 1956 animated film "Swept Away," remarkably blended animation with real photography, becoming a milestone in film history. "Two Catnaps" also gave rise to another series of animated films set in a medieval French royal castle, such as "Good to Go, Cat!" (1954) and "The Noble Cat Nap" (1958). Other "Tom and Jerry" stories also gave rise to different series of animated films. "Two Catnaps" also had a comic book series. In 1956, when Disney used "Catnaps" for the "Mickey Mouse Club" television series, the comic book's name was changed to "Mascots." When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer established its animation department in 1945, Hanna and Barbera became its presidents. In 1955, due to rising animation production costs and other factors, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer decided to withdraw from the animation industry, so the two decided to start their own company. After their tenure at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ended in 1957, they formed their own studio, Hanna-Barbera Studios. During their at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Hanna and Barbera focused on producing the "Tom and Jerry" series, with only three animated films not starring Tom and Jerry. After founding their own studio, the creation of "Tom and Jerry" was interrupted for several years. In 1961, "Tom and Jerry" returned in a short commemorative series, produced by Gene Deitch in Czechoslovakia. In 1963, Chuck Jones, a veteran of Warner Bros., took over the animation production department at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, causing a huge change in the direction of "Tom and Jerry." Jones's 1967 "How to Get along with Tom and Jerry" was the last animated film series of "Tom and Jerry." In 1975, the thriving Hanna-Barbera Studios bought the animation characters they had created from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and produced a television animation series, which ran for 48 episodes by 1977. After bringing "Tom and Jerry" to the television screen, Hanna and Barbera opened up a new realm, achieving even greater success and impact, and more audiences around the world became familiar with "Tom and Jerry" through television. "Tom and Jerry" comic books are a derivative of the animated series and have also had a full 60-year history. In 1942, like all of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's works, "Tom and Jerry" was included in the comic book magazine "Our Gang," published by Dell/Western, becoming a highly successful series of comic books. "Our Gang" was originally a comic book magazine drawn by Walt Kelly based on the children's comedy of the same name by Hal Roach. The success of "Tom and Jerry" exceeded that of the magazine's leading album, and from the 40th issue, Tom and Jerry became the cover characters of the magazine. In 1948, "Tom and Jerry" reached its peak of popularity in the 193rd issue and completely replaced "Our Gang" starting from the 194th issue. Additionally, Tom and Jerry appeared in many special issues published by Western Publishing, including "Tom and Jerry's Summer Fun," "Tom and Jerry's Winter Carnival," "Golden Comics," and "Comics Go Marching In," among others. Most of these special issues also included other Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer characters such as Barney Bear, Droopy, Woolf, Prairie Dog, Spike and Tyke. In 1961, the "Tom and Jerry" comic book magazine was suspended for a year and resumed in 1962, ending in the 291st issue in 1974. Like Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Hanna-Barbera Studios began publishing their works with Dell Comics in 1958, then with Gold Key in 1962, and continued until 1970. They were then published by Charlton Comics, and from 1977 to 1979, one of the most famous comic book companies in the United States, Marvel, was authorized to publish their works. After a few interruptions, they were published by Harvey Comics from 1992 to 1994, and from 1955 to 1997, they were published by Archie Comics. Today, "Tom and Jerry" comic books are published and distributed in over 30 countries worldwide. The classic "Tom and Jerry" has had a glorious history, and now its reputation has reached its peak. Its TV animation ratings are extremely high, and almost every hour on television screens worldwide, stories of "Tom and Jerry" appear. TV audiences see their favorite Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoons every day. Through rental and sales of video tapes, more audiences can see various stories of "Tom and Jerry." Today, although the United States no longer publishes the "Tom and Jerry" comic book magazine, people around the world have been captivated by this character, and they continue to create stories of Tom and Jerry. Countries like Italy and Russia create a large number of children's picture books featuring Tom and Jerry every year, and Italy and other countries still publish magazines about "Tom and Jerry." The United States is a country that pioneered the new form of comic books, with a history of popular comic books spanning over a hundred years. Not only do newspapers have fixed comic strips, but countless comic book magazines have also appeared, producing world-famous comic books such as "The Yellow Kid," "The Bozo," "Superman," "Batman," "Spider-Man," "Wonder Woman," "Peanuts," and "Tom and Jerry." Our company has been interested in compiling these American comic book masterpieces into the "Translators' World Comic Classics Series" for many years. This time, we have finally been authorized by Warner Bros. to publish the comic books of "Tom and Jerry." We hope this is a good start, and we hope that the classic American comic books can be introduced to Chinese readers as soon as possible.