"Tom and Jerry" is a work that is bound to have as long as the childhood memories of the 80s and 90s are mentioned. Whether it is the translation on TV or the DVD left at home, it is a testament to the laughter that these two small animals brought them laughter.
The story consists of unrelated short units that revolve around Tom the Blue and White Cat and Jerry the Brown Mouse. Tom always has a strong obsession to catch Jerry Mouse, and Jerry Mouse is always able to come up with a way to resolve the crisis. Written by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and produced by Fred Quemby, the film premiered in the United States on February 10, 1940, for the first episode, Sweet Home.
First short film "Sweet Home"
One of the important reasons why tom and jerry can be impressive is the characters. The creator's grasp of the characteristics of the character and personality is quite unique and in place. While retaining the characters' original animal attributes, add the characteristics of just the right person to them. For example, most of the animals in it can walk upright like humans, but Tom the cat will lick and drink milk, Jerry likes to eat cheese, and Spike will bury the bones he gets.
Musically, Tom and Jerry quotes a large number of world classics. One of the more famous is that in the short story "The Cat's Concerto", Tom played Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody". This episode also became the piano enlightenment of the famous Chinese pianist Lang Lang, which had an indelible impact on his love for playing the piano. Similarly, the bat overture by Johann Strauss Jr. is quoted in the later The Mighty Conductor.
In the short film "The Cat's Concerto", pay attention to the key position of the piano and the fingering of Tom playing the piano
In addition, since some episodes were broadcast during World War II, many American military songs were also introduced. For example, the famous American second national anthem "Yankee Dudel" and the U.S. naval military song "Anchor March".
Short film "Yankee Dooder Mouse", the main theme of this episode is adapted from "Yankee Dudel"
Short film "Rats Come to Dinner", this scene is adapted from "Anchor March"
In addition to the world's famous songs, references to folk songs and children's songs in Tom and Jerry are also very common, and there are also some opera and musical repertoire.
Not to mention the famous nursery rhymes such as "Lullaby" and "Little Star", the song "Aloha-Oe" written by the Queen of Hawaii (Hawaii was originally a sovereign state, and later annexed by the United States). The queen who wrote the song was also placed under house arrest in Hawaii. ), the Italian folk song "Santa Rukia", Pavarotti's "My Sun", the opera "Carmen" in "Carmen", and the baritone singing section "Make Way for the Busy Man" all contributed indelible contributions to the atmosphere shaping of the series.
The source of the soundtrack of "Tom and Jerry" compiled by netizens
The creative team finds the right soundtrack based on the picture and script of each episode, and then re-plays it according to the actual situation. General animation is to have a picture and then make music with the picture, while "Tom and Jerry" is one of the few animations that has music and then a picture. This allows the animated picture to synchronize with the rhythm of the music, and does not cause the audience to feel contradictory.
In terms of animation production, the creative team has also worked hard. In the early days of Tom and Jerry, the original painting was drawn on paper and then transferred to film, and the price of film at that time was very high, so it could only produce one episode per year, and the longest episode of the film was produced for 18 months.
And because home television was not yet widespread in the 1940s, an episode of a short animation of about 8 minutes could only be shown in cinemas. When you watch the DVD version of Tom and Jerry now, you will find that in some early animated episodes, there are some black markings that appear in some fixed frames, which is left because the film is not full of color.
In the short film "The Universal Conductor", Tom's commanding action is consistent with the real conductor
But even with such immature technology, the creative team never cut corners. Both the character's expression and movement and the background are depicted in detail. The characters speak and even sing with their lips. In addition, the rigor of painting can be reflected in the scene of playing music.
Still taking "The Cat's Concerto" as an example, in this short film Tom plays the piano fingering and the keys of the piano are all correct, and the creative team does not scribble because some viewers understand the piano. In other scenes involving performance, both string and wind instruments are drawn with no difference, and even the details of the score are carefully drawn.
The score details of the short film "Almighty Conductor", but according to the B station bullet screen, there was a mistake here
It is hard for viewers watching this animation today to imagine that "Tom and Jerry" was first broadcast in 1940, and in the 40s, such a simple equipment and not advanced technology could be used to achieve such an amazing animation effect, and the only thing that could match it was probably "Mickey Mouse".
Such meticulous craftsmanship also caused warner's new version of "Tom and Jerry" in 2014 to use a one-sided bad review. Obviously, the technology is more advanced, but the frame rate looks lower than before, and even the light and shadow effects of the scenes and characters are much worse. The excellent texture of the scenes in previous episodes was also lost in the 2014 version. Fortunately, the 2014 version of the story is not badly told, and some points have been recovered slightly.
2014 Tom and Jerry
In terms of plot, although "Tom and Jerry" seems to be a simple story of cat and mouse, the humor in it is arranged just right. Since the early Tom and Jerry was a silent animation with only a few simple lines (such as Tom's scream), the performance of the action was somewhat similar to silent films and stage plays, with a strong sense of comedy and exaggeration. Because in the silent film, only enough enough action and expression can make the audience feel the emotions of the actors.
Of all the performances, comedy, especially silent films, is the most difficult to perform. Because even in a sound environment, it is not easy to make the audience laugh. And Tom and Jerry amused audiences all over the world, both children and adults. From this point, it is enough to see the excellence of "Tom and Jerry" in the plot.
It is also because "Tom and Jerry" is exceptionally outstanding in all aspects, so it has also become the series that has won the most Academy Awards.
Award-winning episodes
Now, 79 years after the first animated short story of Tom and Jerry was broadcast, MGM went out of business, the rights to the work were transferred to Warner's name, and the two core creators, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, also died.
Nearly a century after the birth of Tom and Jerry, 163 short animated episodes and 11 animated films have been produced and broadcast, bringing together the efforts of several generations of producers at MGM and Warner. The image of Tom the Cat and Jerry Mouse has remained in the hearts of generations of viewers, and although there is no news of new episodes after the latest 2014 edition, classic works can always bring people a smile.