The Cat Concerto was the fourth Tom and Jerry film to win the Oscar for best animated short film. It was also the fourth consecutive win for the series as Tom and Jerry cartoons had won the Oscar the previous three years as well. Its competition was Chopin's Musical Moments (1946, Walter Lantz, starring Woody Woodpecker and Andy Panda), John Henry and the Inky Poo (1946, a George Pal Puppetoon), Squatters Rights (1946, Disney, starring Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Chip and Dale) and Walky Talky Hawky (1946, Warner Brothers, the first Foghorn Leghorn). One thing you may notice about all these films is that they were released in 1946, while this Tom and Jerry cartoon was released in 1947. However, while it was released to movie theaters in 1947, it was finished submitted to the Acadamy and screened for the Acadamy in 1946.
In this film, Jerry is taking a nap inside of a piano. Unfortunately for him Tom is giving a major concert on the same piano. When Tom's playing interrupts Jerry's sleep, Jerry does everything he can to ruin Tom's concert.
This is one of the most popular Tom and Jerry films and it is easy to see why. It is a pure delight.
One element that really makes this cartoon stand out is the music. Many people have had classic cartoons as their introduction to classic music and a film like this is a wonderful introduction. This cartoon uses Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2 (as well as an excerpt from On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe (from the MGM feature film, The Harvey Girls (1946)). The performance is simply fantastic. This piece was used in many cartoons; however, this (to my untrained ears) is the best sounding version of it in any cartoon. Joe Barbera would later remember, "The idea of having the cat play the piano was fascinating to me. So, we decided to go ahead with The Cat Concerto and do the Second Hungarian Rhapsody. We happened to have under contract one of the best pianists in the United States at the time, a famous concert pianist. His name eludes me at the moment, but he loved doing it." The pianist was Calvin Jackson, who had also worked on some live action MGM feature films such as Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) and Anchors Aweigh (1945, which featured a live action Gene Kelly dancing with an animated Jerry) as an assistant director of music.
For an example of some of the times this piece appeared in cartoons, watch the video below.
While the humor may not be as rapid fire here as it is in other Tom and Jerry films of this time period, there are some truly great gags here. While many of these are rather typical Tom and Jerry gags, each one is delivered near perfectly. This is one of the best examples of setting cartoon violence to classical music, for the simple reason of how perfectly timed to the music every single gag is. This not only makes it easy to appreciate the artistry of the cartoon, but it also makes the gags much funnier. Jerry trying to catch Tom's fingers with scissors or replacing piano keys with a mouse trap are honestly not that funny in and of themselves. However, with how perfectly timed to the music these gags are, the result is truly funny. There are also some truly wonderful simple throwaway gags here. One of the best includes one of Tom's fingers stretching very far out to hit a key on the other side of the piano. That gag simply makes me laugh every single time.
This cartoon is also a perfect example of great character animation. This is one of the very few times that Tom can seem more like a human character than a cat. Not only is his role as a concert pianist, decidedly a human role but the way he moves is also very much like a real pianist. For the film's beginning with Tom walking out with an air of nonchalance and self-confidence, to the graceful way he plays the piano before his fight with Jerry, Tom perfectly embodies the role of great concert pianist. Yet there is still much of the Tom we know in the animation of when he battles Jerry. These two sides to Tom's personality here are (through the animation) combined masterfully in a way that seems truly effortless. The result is not only impressive but makes the humor much funnier.
This film also sparked a major controversy that lasts to this day in the cartoon fandom. This is that it is incredibly similar to the Bugs Bunny cartoon, Rhapsody Rabbit (1946), directed by Friz Freleng. In the film Bugs is giving a piano concert (playing the same piece used in this cartoon) and gets into a fight with a mouse. It is still if one of these cartoons borrowed from the other or whether it was a coincidence. There are parts of both cartoons that seem almost out of place in each respective series. Bugs Bunny seems like a more natural fit as a concert pianist as he feels like a more natural fit in a DeFacto human role. However, it feels more natural for Tom to face off against a mouse than it does for Bugs Bunny. Joseph Barbera would later state in an interview, “It was at a screening for the Oscar nominees. We [the Tom and Jerry short] played first. When it came on, people were laughing like hell, and when the lights came on, Freleng was mad as hell. Then it [the Bugs short] played, and the action was similar: Bugs walked up in the tailcoat, flipped it up, sat down, warmed up the hands, looking arrogant, all exactly the same. In ours, Tom, the cat, disturbs the mouse, and in his, Bugs, the rabbit, disturbs the mouse. Ours ended up as one of the five [Oscar] finalists, and people had the feeling that he [Freleng] was ripping off our cartoon, but he said, ‘No, no, no, I never saw your goddamned lousy cartoon!’ I really believe that [it was a coincidence]. Freleng had a sense of humor, we just thought the same, and our gags were the same. 'What’s a rabbit doing with a mouse?” Friz Freleng would later state, “When they drew the rotation out of a hat, my cartoon was run after theirs, unfortunately for me. And the audience thought I stole from them. They got a nomination for it, and I didn’t. But I felt that was one of the outstanding things I had done. I enjoyed doing it.” It is worth noting that the chances of either cartoon directly copying the other seems unlikely, due to their productions overlapping (though Rhapsody Rabbit began production first). Perhaps though it is this similarity, that caused Rhapsody Rabbit not to make it to the 5 Oscar finalists. Still, both of them are truly excellent cartoons. There is also that despite similar stories and the same music, the gags are completely different. If one studio was stealing from the other, it would only make sense for them to have stolen gags as well. Also, it is worth noting that the mouse's role is quite different too. Jerry simply wants some sleep, while the unnamed mouse in the Bugs cartoon wants to play piano himself. It is also worth noting that they were not the only cartoons released around this time that involved cartoon characters as classical music pianists. Most famously was the Walter Lantz cartoon, Musical Moments from Chopin, which featured Woody Woodpecker and Andy Panda as dueling pianists.
The Cat Concerto was the only Tom and Jerry film to make it into Jerry Beck's book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons, where it landed at #42. The list in this book was compiled from a survey asking over 1,000 animation experts. However, Mouse Cleaning (1948) was listed among the "Other Great Cartoons" at the end of the book. Rhapsody Rabbit was not included in the list of 50 but does also appear in the "Other Great Cartoons."
-Michael J. Ruhland
Resources Used
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
The 50 Greatest Cartoons edited by Jerry Beck
https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/pianist-envy/
https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/a-note-of-comedy-the-75th-anniversary-of-the-cat-concerto/
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