Tom and Jerry celebrates 80th birthday

The popular cat and mouse cartoon characters Tom and Jerry celebrated 80 years of existence on February 10, 2020.

The story of cat Tom and mouse Jerry living in the same house and constantly outsmarting each other, ended regularly with Tom angry, and Jerry managing to reach his desired destination, with lots of chasing and humorous situations.

The duo was made up in MGM's animation department, where authors Bill Han and Joe Barber worked to strive for the success of other studios that had success with characters like Mickey Mouse and others.

The authors, who were less than 30 years old at the time, began to come up with their own ideas – Barbera said he liked the simple concept of a cartoon about a cat and a mouse, with conflicts and chases even though it had been done countless times before.

The first episode was released in 1940, achieved huge success and even brought the studio an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short.

Still, the authors were told by managers that they did not immediately disclose all their trump cards, and the change came when one influential Texas person wrote to them asking when they would be able to see another wonderful cat and mouse cartoon.

Then Jasper and Jinks, as they were originally called, became Tom and Jerry.

According to Barbera, there was not much discussion about whether the characters would talk, but with the great success of silent films with Charlie Chaplin, the authors knew that the characters could be fun and without dialogue.

The music for the cartoon was composed by Scott Bradley and Tami's famous human-like scream was personified by Bill Han himself.

Over the next 20 years, Hannah and Barbera oversaw the production of more than 100 short cat and mouse cartoons and each took weeks to make and cost $ 50,000 each, making only a few popular cartoons each year.

"There's something about animation. It's an evergreen that doesn't fade. It's like looking at a picture from the 18th or 19th century and still telling you" said cartoon historian Jerry Beck.

Interestingly, Jerry and Tom also appeared in several feature films – Jerry played with Gene Kelly in the 1945 movie "Raise Anchors", and Tom and Jerry appeared in the 1953 film "Esther Williams it's humid. "

After MGM closed the animation studio in 1957, Han and Barbera started their production company, however, a few years later, MGM decided to revive Tom and Jerry, but without the original authors.

The production was moved to Prague due to cost reductions in 1961, with animator Jean Deitch supposed to lead the production, but lacking budget or staff.

After him, the production was taken over by Chuck Jones, whose animators made Tom with stronger eyebrows and a distorted face.

His team made 34 cartoons between 1963 and 1967.

By 1970, many of the first episodes of Tommy and Jerry began to be considered violent, after which episodes were started in which the cat and mouse were friends, but those episodes never achieved success as the original.

Still, Tom and Jerry are still popular around the world today, and China has even invented the eponymous mobile phone game that has more than 100 million users.

Four years ago, an Egyptian official tried to blame a cartoon for the rise in violence in the Middle East, while the Iranian leader compared the country's relations with the US as Tommy and Jerry's.

Bill Hannah passed away in 2001, and Joe Barbera passed away five years later.

Currently, the cartoon rights to Tom and Jerry are owned by Warner Bros. and it plans to release a new movie before Catholic Christmas this year.