Tom and Jerry

Thomas "Tom" Cat and Jerome "Jerry" Mouse are fictional characters and the main protagonists in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's series of Tom and Jerry theatrical cartoon short films, created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Tom is a blue/grey anthropomorphic domestic short-haired cat and Jerry is a brown anthropomorphic house mouse. They first appeared in the 1940 animated short Puss Gets the Boot. Tom and Jerry were originally known as "Jasper" and "Jinx" during their debut in that short (Barbera claimed the mouse went unnamed in his first appearance), however, beginning from their next appearance in The Midnight Snack and onwards, Tom and Jerry were refer to by their names.

Overall

 * 1) Their popularity became the birthplace of the world's most groundbreaking future cartoon stars.
 * 2) They got their own shows ever since the 70s because of their memorability in the 20th century.
 * 3) They provided countless memes because of moments of their buffoonery, charm, and expressions by several animation frames in the original shorts.
 * 4) Their friendship/rivalry became one of the most iconic relationships in cartoon history.
 * 5) On the near-same level of character such as Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, Super Mario, Bob the Builder, Pikachu from Pokémon, Hello Kitty, Winnie the Pooh, Homer Simpson from The Simpsons, Thomas the Tank Engine, Sonic the Hedgehog, and SpongeBob SquarePants, They are two of the most iconic cartoon characters of all time.
 * 6) Even if the show started to decline during the Cinemascope Era they were still likable.

Tom Cat

 * 1) His incident-prone, clownish, goofy antics because of how inefficient he is with chasing Jerry are always a blast to watch and his comedy timing with the slapstick being inflicted on him was always done hilariously.
 * 2) * Even in later adaptions, when his comedy timing in his rivalry was done right, it is still always fun to watch.
 * 3) He has a very good and mostly diverse design.
 * 4) Because of his trademark buffoonery, he was responsible for one of the many influences for feline buffoons of Western Animation next to Sylvester.
 * 5) Whenever Tom was shown to be clumsy in the original shorts to the Chuck Jones' shorts, he always does this hilariously and/or humorously.
 * 6) All of his yells are incredibly timeless, iconic, and absolutely hilarious to listen to. This one is a prime example.
 * 7) He has provided tons of memorable scenes in the original shorts whenever he was suddenly voiced for comical effect or for an orchestrated scene like where he was flirting with Toodles Galore with an instrument for example.
 * 8) * When Tom was given any lines of dialogue in the theatrical shorts, they were always done comedically.
 * 9) While he is a very sympathetic schlemiel whose levels of goofiness, incompetence, and clumsiness are always played for comedic purposes. He is mostly very intelligent, clever, and determined, whether his ideas and plans work or not. In fact, numerous of them even lead to him getting the best over Jerry.
 * 10) When Tom was given responsibilities to help his friends (e.g Spike telling Tom to look after his son), and he tries his best to help others if clumsily done most of the time.
 * 11) Just like Donald Duck, whenever Tom does make mistakes, he serves as a constant reminder for all of us to be brave, keep searching, hold family close, and never give up no matter how great the odds are against you; in which shows when trying to do his best in old shorts where he is quite unlucky.
 * 12) His mean-spirited behavior can be hilarious.
 * 13) Tom was also shown to be likable towards others like his relatives such as Cousin George, and, does have a very likable sibling rivalry-esque relationship with Jerry.
 * 14) Tom himself has brought lots of charm in the original shorts whenever it isn't based only focused on only slapstick, brought rather on comedy itself and the show wouldn't be as memorable if it wasn't for him.

Jerry Mouse

 * 1) He is Tom's (friendly and bitter) rival, and his plans to get the best of him are either sneaky and/or clever.
 * 2) Because of this, this makes him quite intelligent for a small mouse like him when he is against a big cat.
 * 3) He may seem incredibly lucky and flawless with his rivalry with Tom, but he has moments of showing how comically flawed he can be to find him likable as well.
 * 4) Cute and nice character design that got better over the years.
 * 5) He usually selfless when it comes to other, such as helping out his friends such as Quacker.
 * 6) He is also a good uncle to his nephew Nibbles/Tuffy.

Overall

 * 1) They have been shoe-horned in Warner Bros' subpar to worst films. (although, there are some exceptions)
 * 2) They were featured in bad Tom & Jerry shorts where they don't focus on the universally loved skits, especially the infamous "Blue Cat Blues"; which was a episode about Tom's depression.

Tom Cat

 * 1) He has been flanderized into a complete and utter Punching Bag in the worst episodes and/or seasons of Tom and Jerry such as the Gene Deitch era for example.
 * 2) * In the 2014 Tom & Jerry series, he usually suffers for no good reason whenever he's around someone like Spike for example.

Jerry Mouse

 * 1) He sometimes comes off as a Karma Houdini, especially in the Gene Deitch shorts. Speaking of which, he was badly flanderized in the Gene Deitch era, becoming very unlikable. Thankfully, he redeemed himself after the Gene Deitch era ended.
 * 2) He can sometimes have too much fun surviving to the point of being somewhat sadistic, especially in later adaptations such as the the 2014 series or even the 2021 movie.

Videos
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Trivia

 * 1) This cat-and-mouse duo made a guest appearance in the film Anchors Aweigh where Jerry is portrayed as the lonesome king in a story created by Joseph Brady just to entertain the children, he even speaks in this movie as well. Tom also appears as the "king's" servant offering him cheese to cheer him up, though he never spoke.