Tom and Jerry

Review by Giovanni Varazzani

From a book fully dedicated to Hanna and Barbera, a chapter is about Tom and Jerry, one of my favorite cartoons. The makers of the classic mouse against the cat mayhem that has become worldwide success met the first time in 1938. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera, still working at MGM, brought a combination of individual skills to the table. Bill Hanna described Barbera as the best cartoonist he had ever seen. Barbera’s superior drawing skills combined with sense of comedy and magnificent timing of Hanna gave the wings to the simple but effective everlasting story.

Few questions always rise when I view the classic Tom and Jerry cartoons. Which one is the good and which is the bad? I don’t know if it just me but I would really like to see that little smiling cocky mouse to be trapped by the cat and destroyed to the bone. For me it is about the cat, not that I am a fan of Tom (yes I am) but it seems like the hunter usually sets the stakes and gives the energy to story. In the original demonstration film the mouse did not even have a name. Feels like the mouse is there to just ignite the serious of events. This rash causing age old struggle between strong and the weak still makes generations laugh out loud when every episode can offer a new innovative way for the mouse to defeat the hunting cat. Every so of then Tom gets his teeth on the mouse but something happens and with a hair thin marginal the cuddle mouse runs away as a winner. Tom the cat is the punished punisher who merely tries to keep the house up while ‘mammy’ is away.