The quality of the animation has its peaks and valleys as different production companies, directors and animators get their hands on the property. Tom the cat wants to kill and/or eat Jerry the mouse, and Jerry generally wants to embarrass and harass Tom. Throughout its various different runs in theaters-the first stretch of more than 100 episodes from 1940-1958, plus a 1961 revival by Dietch that was infamously animated in Czechoslovakia and a run by Chuck Jones from 1963 to 1967-the central conceit basically remained the same. Tom and Jerry, throughout the years, was one of the only series ever able to occasionally dethrone Disney or Warner Bros. The objects chase around and torment this misanthropic cat until he punts himself back to Earth, glad to once again be under the boot heels of uncaring humanity. There he finds an assortment of animated (as in, autonomous) objects that often form the arsenal of cartoon violence: shovels, pencil sharpeners, diapers and pins. In Tex Avery’s “The Cat That Hated People,” one of the shorts packaged with old Tom and Jerry cartoons, one much-put-upon alley cat gets kicked around, tormented, and literally stepped on by the humans of New York City before availing himself of a rocket to the moon in order to escape the people he vocally despises.

I really believe we’re bigoted against cats, as a nation.

“Anyone can now enter the lucrative field of animated cartoons with the new Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit! This kit contains everything needed for quiet, sophisticated humor: One mean, stupid cat one sweet, lovable mouse and assorted deadly weapons.” -“The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit,” 1962, directed by Gene Deitch

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