Vadivel, Vivek, Senthil, Goundamani, Manivannan, Chinni Jayanth, Janakaraj, Karunas, etc: Animated Cartoon

Tom and Jerry

Tom and Jerry, in a scene from the 1944 Academy award-winning short, holding down a page in Mouse Trouble.

Tom, (actually called 'Jasper' in early shorts such as "Puss Gets the Boot" despite the Tom and Jerry marquee at the start of the feature) is a Russian Blue cat, who lives a pampered life, while Jerry is a small brown mouse who always lives in proximity to him. Tom is very quick-tempered and thin-skinned, while Jerry is independent and opportunistic. Despite being very energetic and determined, Tom is no match for Jerry's brains and wits. By the iris-out of each cartoon, Jerry usually emerges triumphant, while Tom is shown as the loser. However, other results may be reached; on rare occasions, Tom triumphs. Sometimes, usually ironically, they both lose or they both end up being friends. Both characters display sadistic tendencies, in that they are equally likely to take pleasure in tormenting each other. However, depending on the cartoon, whenever one character appears to be in mortal danger (in a dangerous situation or by an enemy), the other will develop a conscience and save him. Sometimes they bond over a mutual sentiment towards an unpleasant experience and their attacking each over is more play than serious attacks.

Although many supporting and minor characters speak, Tom and Jerry rarely do so. Tom, most famously, sings while wooing female cats; for example, Tom sings Louis Jordan's Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby in the 1946 short Solid Serenade. In one short, Tom, when romancing a female cat, woos her in a French-accented voice similar to that of screen actor Charles Boyer. Co-director William Hanna provided most of the squeaks, gasps, and other vocal effects for the pair, including the most famous sound effect from the series, Tom's leather-lunged scream (created by recording Hanna's scream and eliminating the beginning and ending of the recording, leaving only the strongest part of the scream on the soundtrack). The only other reasonably common vocalization is made by Tom when some external reference claims a certain scenario or eventuality to be impossible, which inevitably, ironically happens to thwart Tom's plans - at which point, a bedraggled and battered Tom appears and says in a haunting, echoing voice "Don't you believe it!", a reference to some famous World War II propaganda shorts of the 1940's. One short, 1956's Blue Cat Blues, is narrated by Jerry (Saju sasikumar) in voiceover (voiced by Paul Frees). Both Tom and Jerry speak more than once, in the 1943 short The Lonesome Mouse।