MGM Animation/Visual Arts

This article doesn't have any images. You can help the Tom and Jerry Wiki by uploading one. Remove this template off the page once the images have been uploaded and applied.

MGM Animation/Visual Arts (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Animation/Visual Arts^[1], M.G.M. Animation/Visual Arts^[2] and previously known as SIB Tower 12 Inc.^[3]) was an American animation studio established in 1962 by animation director/producer Chuck Jones and producer Les Goldman as Sib Tower 12 Productions. It produced the last series of Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts, among other productions. The studio produced for and was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

History[]

When Chuck Jones was fired from Warner Bros. Cartoons, SIB Productions (renamed Sib Tower 12) received a contract from MGM to produce a new series of Tom and Jerry cartoons, with a number of animators who had worked under Jones during his Warner Bros. career following him to Sib Tower 12, notably writer Michael Maltese. These shorts proved successful, and MGM purchased the Sib Tower 12 studio and renamed it MGM Animation/Visual Arts in 1964. This studio continued with Jones' Tom and Jerry shorts until 1967, after a total of 34 cartoons. The studio was also involved with the 1965-72 Tom and Jerry packaged show, handling bumpers and reanimation of sequences from the original Hanna-Barbera shorts.

In addition to the Tom and Jerry cartoons, Jones worked on two one-shot theatrical shorts. The first, The Dot and The Line: A Romance in Lower Mathmatics (1965), was an abstract piece based upon a children's book by Norton Juster. It won the 1965 Academy Award for Animated Short Film. In 1967, Jones collaborated with fellow Warner Bros. alumnus Frank Tashlin on The Bear That Wasn't, an adaptation of Tashlin's 1943 children's book about a bear whom no one believes is actually a bear.

Outside of theatrical shorts, MGM A/VA also produced the Dr. Seuss specials How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) and Horton Hears a Who (1970), the television anthology series Off to See the Wizard (1967-68), The Pogo Special Birthday Special (1969), and the theatrical film The Phantom Tollbooth (1970).

MGM stopped releasing theatrical animated shorts in 1967. MGM closed the animation studio entirely in 1970, and virtually all of the staff followed Jones to his new ventures which were television programs for ABC, under the name Chuck Jones Enterprises.

The MGM Animation/Visual Arts library, along with the rest of the pre-1986 MGM library, was bought by Turner Entertainment in 1986. Turner merged with Time Warner in 1996, and it resulted in Warner Bros. gaining the distribution rights to the MGM Animation/Visual Arts library. All of the Tom and Jerry cartoons produced by MGM A/VA were released in a box set in 2009, and The Dot and the Line and The Bear That Wasn't have been released as bonus features on other DVDs.

Tom and Jerry cartoons produced[]

1963[]

Pent-House Mouse

1964[]

1965[]

1966[]

1967[]

References[]

[1] ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tQksNVUCpU

[2] ttps://comics.ha.com/itm/animation-art/production-drawing/dr-seuss-how-the-grinch-stole-christmas-storyboard-original-art-mgm-1966-/a/7196-96146.s

[3] The Cat Above and The Mouse Below

[1]

[2]

[3]