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Tom and Jerry
Tom the cat and
Jerry the mouse are two of the most popular cartoon characters in the world. In
the short cartoons, Tom is always trying to catch Jerry, but he never has any success.
Almost every cartoon ends with Tom in trouble and Jerry laughing at him. The stories
are full of fun and have a long history.
William Hanna and Joseph Barbera both worked
for MGM in the late 1930s. Their boss told them to make funny cartoons. Together
they thought of the idea of a cat and a mouse. They thought it would be funny if
the mouse was clever and always got the cat into trouble.
The first Tom and
Jerry cartoon was shown in cinemas in 1940. It was a great success. Over the next
17 years, they made many Tom and Jerry cartoons. Most of them are around seven minutes
long.
In total, Hanna
and Barbera made 114 Tom and Jerry cartoons. The cartoons were so good that they
won a number of awards. The famous cat and mouse remain popular today, as the cartoons
are still shown on television around the world.
