The first episode of the animated film “Tom and Jerry” was broadcast on this day in 1940.
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The story of Tommy the cat and Jerry the mouse, who live in the same house and constantly outwit each other, regularly ended with Tom remaining furious and Jerry managing to reach the desired goal, with lots of chasing and humorous situations.
The duo was invented in MGM’s animation department, where authors Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera worked, trying to match the success of other studios that had success with characters like Mickey Mouse and others, reports the BBC. The writers, who were under 30 at the time, began brainstorming their ideas, Barbera said he liked the simple concept of a cat-and-mouse cartoon with fights and chases even though it had been done countless times before.
The first episode was released in 1940, was a huge success and even earned the studio an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short. At over nine minutes long, this is the longest Tom and Jerry cartoon ever made.
According to Barbera, there wasn’t much discussion about whether the characters would talk, but with the huge success of Charlie Chaplin’s silent films, the writers knew that the characters could be entertaining without dialogue. Over the next 20 years, Hanna and Barbera oversaw the production of more than 100 short cartoons about the famous cat and mouse, each taking weeks to make and costing $50,000 each, resulting in only a handful of popular cartoons being made each year. .
“There’s something about animation. It’s evergreen that doesn’t fade. It’s like looking at a painting from the 18th or 19th century and it still speaks to you,” said cartoon historian Jerry Beck.
TOM AND JERRY CELEBRATES 84TH BIRTHDAY: The first episode is the longest you’ve ever seen
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(WORLD)