Tom and Jerry Tales is an American animated television series which began production in 2005, currently airing on Cartoon Network in re-runs (and previously airing as apart of the Cartoon Network block Cartoon Planet). As the title suggests, this series stars the well-known title characters from the classic Tom and Jerry shorts, and also is the first made for TV iteration of the cartoons to emulate the theatrical shorts. It grew from the direct-to-video movies, The Magic Ring (2001), Blast Off to Mars (2004) and The Fast and the Furry (2005) as well as the theatrical short The Karate Guard (2005), the first Tom and Jerry short co-directed by the characters' co-creator, Joseph Barbera since the original shorts.
Barbera also served as an Executive Producer before his death, as well as receiving story credit on some short cartoons, of the "Tom and Jerry Tales" show's first season, produced by Warner Brothers in 2006. The series had its premiere on Kids' WB on The CW on September 23, 2006. Each episode consists of three short cartoons with approximately the same runtime as the original theatrical shorts. Also, each of the three shows that air in a 30 minute episode have some type of theme. For example, episode 1 (Tiger Cat/Feeding Time/Polar Peril) have a theme of animals.
Characters
Gallery
Trivia
- This is the longest waiting for the new Tom and Jerry TV show. 12 years passed - from 1994 until 2006, which means that this was the series finale of Tom and Jerry Kids until the series premiere of Tom and Jerry Tales.
- This cartoon is produced in 16:9 aspect ratio. It was formatted in 4:3 in its original time slot. When it was syndicated on Cartoon Network in 2011, it is rebroadcast in its original widescreen format due to the elimination of the 4:3 televisions by the global sales of 16:9 Plasma Televisions.
- It was rated TV-Y during its original time slot. It was later rerated TV-Y7 for syndication.
- This is the first Tom and Jerry show to be aired and owned on Warner Brothers Animation.
- This is the first Tom and Jerry show to be a revival on the original Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts.
- This is the first Tom and Jerry show first aired in the 21st century.
- In the intro of Tom and Jerry Tales, the duo appear as a stick figure cat (Tom) and a stick figure mouse (Jerry) like in Designs on Jerry before going inside a mouse hole and later appearing in their normal appearances.
- Spike and Tyke has light grey fur in this series much like in the 1940s cartoons for the first time since Tom and Jerry Kids.
- One of the characters, Mrs. Two Shoes, bears personality traits and a name that are similar to Mammy Two Shoes.
- Musical instruments were given out in the background for the characters in season 1, like clarinet is played in the background for Tom and xylophone is played in the background for Jerry. Musical background status have change for season 2, as instruments don't play separate for different characters.
Episodes
- Main article: List of Tom and Jerry Tales episodes
Reception
Tom and Jerry Tales received mainly positive attention according to the audience score of 7.3/10 on IMDb since it seems to have drawn closer to the Golden MGM-era. It was even praised for the writing and the higher-quality animation.
