The Cat Concerto
Encyclopedia
The Cat Concerto is a 1946 American one-reel animated cartoon
and is the 29th Tom and Jerry
short
, produced in Technicolor
in 1946 and released to theatres on April 26, 1947 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. It was produced by Fred Quimby
and directed by William Hanna
and Joseph Barbera
, with musical supervision by Scott Bradley
, and animation by Kenneth Muse, Ed Barge and Irven Spence. It won the 1946 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons
. In 1994 it was voted #42 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. The short won the duo their fourth consecutive Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
" by Franz Liszt
. Jerry, who is sleeping inside the piano, is rudely awakened by the hammers, then sits on top of the piano to mock the cat by "conducting" him. Tom flicks Jerry off the piano. Tom continues playing without any interruptions.
Jerry arises from under one of the keys. Tom plays tremolo
on this key, knocking Jerry on the head, and then Jerry runs back and forth underneath. Tom smashes the mouse under the keys, plays the main theme of the rhapsody, and when Tom lifts his two fingers from playing a trill
, the piano continues playing. He looks over the edge of the piano and spots Jerry playing the felts from inside. To quiet him, he whacks the mouse with a tuning tool. Jerry retaliates by slamming the piano lid onto Tom's fingers. Tom still plays, and then Jerry pops out on the far right of the piano to attempt to cut Tom's finger with a pair of scissors as he plays a note from the very highest minor third of the piano. After the sixth miss, Jerry pants from this effort, and then substitutes a mousetrap for the white keys just below it. Tom plays the keys on either side for a few seconds but eventually, Tom's finger gets caught in the trap.
Jerry prances up and down on the piano, upon which Tom climbs and proceeds to play with his feet. As Tom gets back down to play with his fingers, Jerry dances around on the felts, changing the tune from the rhapsody to "On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe". Tom then plays a chord where the mouse is standing repeatedly, receiving increasingly rude gestures in return, and eventually catches the mouse and stows him into the piano stool. Jerry then crawls out of an opening and manipulates the seat's controls, cranking it up, and sending it crashing down.
Tom stuffs Jerry into the felts and then goes crazy on the piano. The felts take on a life of their own, bashing Jerry about, spanking him, and squashing him to and fro. Eventually, Jerry gets squashed and comes out, very angry about this, and then breaks off some felts and plays the finale of the musical piece. Jerry constantly increases the speed of his playing, plays two fake endings, and generally taunts the cat, such that Tom is left with raggedy clothes and collapses at the end of the tune. And Jerry takes all the applause and credit for himself.
released a very similar Bugs Bunny
cartoon called Rhapsody Rabbit
, directed by I. Freleng
, with Bugs against an unnamed mouse. Both shorts used near identical gags, and they even used the same piece by Liszt.
Both MGM and Warner Bros. accused each other of plagiarism
, after both films were shown during the 1947 Academy Awards ceremony. Technicolor
was accused of sending a print of either cartoon to the competing studio, who then allegedly plagiarized their rival's work.
It was often suggested by animation historians that this cartoon was rushed to its release - meaning it was released before the shorts produced during the same time to qualify for the Academy Award. Its production number is #165, while the other shorts released during the same year have production numbers around #155.
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
and is the 29th Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry are the cat and mouse cartoon characters that were evolved starting in 1939.Tom and Jerry also may refer to:Cartoon works featuring the cat and mouse so named:* The Tom and Jerry Show...
short
Short subject
A short film is any film not long enough to be considered a feature film. No consensus exists as to where that boundary is drawn: the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all...
, produced in Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
in 1946 and released to theatres on April 26, 1947 by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. It was produced by Fred Quimby
Fred Quimby
Frederick C. "Fred" Quimby was an American cartoon producer, best known as a producer of Tom and Jerry cartoons, for which he won seven Academy Awards...
and directed by William Hanna
William Hanna
William Denby Hanna was an American animator, director, producer, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of people for much of the 20th century. When he was a young child, Hanna's family moved frequently, but they settled in Compton, California, by...
and Joseph Barbera
Joseph Barbera
Joseph Roland Barbera was an influential American animator, director, producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist, whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of fans worldwide for much of the twentieth century....
, with musical supervision by Scott Bradley
Scott Bradley
Scott Bradley was an American composer, pianist and conductor.Bradley is best remembered for scoring the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer theatrical cartoons, including those starring Tom and Jerry , Droopy , Barney Bear , and the many one-shot cartoons.Bradley was a...
, and animation by Kenneth Muse, Ed Barge and Irven Spence. It won the 1946 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons
Academy Award for Animated Short Film
The Academy Award for Animated Short Film is an award which has been given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of the Academy Awards every year since the 5th Academy Awards, covering the year 1931-32, to the present....
. In 1994 it was voted #42 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. The short won the duo their fourth consecutive Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
Plot
In a formal concert, Tom, a piano virtuoso, is giving a piano recital of "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, S.244/2, is the second in a set of 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies by composer Franz Liszt, and is by far the most famous of the set. Few other piano solos have achieved such widespread popularity, offering the pianist the opportunity to reveal exceptional skill as a virtuoso,...
" by Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
. Jerry, who is sleeping inside the piano, is rudely awakened by the hammers, then sits on top of the piano to mock the cat by "conducting" him. Tom flicks Jerry off the piano. Tom continues playing without any interruptions.
Jerry arises from under one of the keys. Tom plays tremolo
Tremolo
Tremolo, or tremolando, is a musical term that describes various trembling effects, falling roughly into two types. The first is a rapid reiteration...
on this key, knocking Jerry on the head, and then Jerry runs back and forth underneath. Tom smashes the mouse under the keys, plays the main theme of the rhapsody, and when Tom lifts his two fingers from playing a trill
Trill
Trill may refer to:* Trill , a type of musical ornament* Trill consonant, a type of sound used in some languages*Trill, a type of bird food-Fiction:* Trill , two symbiotic races of aliens in the fictional Star Trek universe...
, the piano continues playing. He looks over the edge of the piano and spots Jerry playing the felts from inside. To quiet him, he whacks the mouse with a tuning tool. Jerry retaliates by slamming the piano lid onto Tom's fingers. Tom still plays, and then Jerry pops out on the far right of the piano to attempt to cut Tom's finger with a pair of scissors as he plays a note from the very highest minor third of the piano. After the sixth miss, Jerry pants from this effort, and then substitutes a mousetrap for the white keys just below it. Tom plays the keys on either side for a few seconds but eventually, Tom's finger gets caught in the trap.
Jerry prances up and down on the piano, upon which Tom climbs and proceeds to play with his feet. As Tom gets back down to play with his fingers, Jerry dances around on the felts, changing the tune from the rhapsody to "On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe". Tom then plays a chord where the mouse is standing repeatedly, receiving increasingly rude gestures in return, and eventually catches the mouse and stows him into the piano stool. Jerry then crawls out of an opening and manipulates the seat's controls, cranking it up, and sending it crashing down.
Tom stuffs Jerry into the felts and then goes crazy on the piano. The felts take on a life of their own, bashing Jerry about, spanking him, and squashing him to and fro. Eventually, Jerry gets squashed and comes out, very angry about this, and then breaks off some felts and plays the finale of the musical piece. Jerry constantly increases the speed of his playing, plays two fake endings, and generally taunts the cat, such that Tom is left with raggedy clothes and collapses at the end of the tune. And Jerry takes all the applause and credit for himself.
Controversy
The same year MGM produced The Cat Concerto, Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
released a very similar Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
cartoon called Rhapsody Rabbit
Rhapsody Rabbit
Rhapsody Rabbit is a 1946 Merrie Melodies animated short subject, featuring Bugs Bunny and directed by Friz Freleng. The short was originally released to theaters by Warner Bros. Pictures on November 9, 1946. This short is a follow-up of sorts to Freleng's 1941 Academy Award-nominated short...
, directed by I. Freleng
Friz Freleng
Isadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros....
, with Bugs against an unnamed mouse. Both shorts used near identical gags, and they even used the same piece by Liszt.
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
Both MGM and Warner Bros. accused each other of plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
, after both films were shown during the 1947 Academy Awards ceremony. Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
was accused of sending a print of either cartoon to the competing studio, who then allegedly plagiarized their rival's work.
It was often suggested by animation historians that this cartoon was rushed to its release - meaning it was released before the shorts produced during the same time to qualify for the Academy Award. Its production number is #165, while the other shorts released during the same year have production numbers around #155.