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Shyam G. Menon

In a world where sentiment is disposable baggage, Tom and Jerry's six-decade-old formula of laugh-a-minute scheming and action really hits the spot.

When Duncan Morris, Vice-President (Research), Turner International Asia Pacific, disclosed the findings of Cartoon Network's 2004 survey of Indian children at a mid-September press briefing in Mumbai, the predictable result was the channel's status as most preferred by the respondents.

But a delightful wake-up call amidst these times of computer games and hi-tech graphics, was their most watched cartoon programme — Tom and Jerry. "In India, the classics perform very well," Morris said. Hanna-Barbera's opportunist cat, Tom, and his perennial target, a scheming mouse, Jerry, had a fan following that constituted 77 per cent of those surveyed in India.

The 3,206 children who participated in the survey were from the 7-14 age group and hailed from families in the SEC (socio-economic classification) `A' and `B' categories.

In comparison, Morris said, a Johny Bravo may do well in Australia, while in Taiwan, Japanese cartoons rule the roost. While that may be the case, less than 10 days later, the cat and mouse threw up further reason to ponder their eternal appeal. A survey in the UK of 1,000 adults, aged between 25 and 54, saw Tom and Jerry top again as their favourite cartoon programme.

The proffered explanation was that animal characters with human tendencies are irresistible to audiences. Agree or disagree, the verdict across the Indian and British surveys indicated a weakness for the duelling duo in children and adults alike.

Born in 1939 at Hollywood's MGM studio, Tom and Jerry have had a roller-coaster ride, retired and revived more than once by their parent studio. They were also passed on from one animator to another, each leaving an imprint on how the cat and mouse looked, behaved and connected to audiences.

But arguably it was the original version by Hanna-Barbera (Chuck Jones, the veteran animator who created Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, also worked on Tom and Jerry briefly from 1963-67) that laid the foundation for how Tom and Jerry was popularly perceived.

Sample this from www.tomandjerryonline.com, which describes itself as an unofficial Tom and Jerry fan site. "A cat, large, gray and devilish, a Machiavellian glint in his yellow-irised eyes, and a mouse, small, brown, cherubic yet cheeky, chase each other around a kitchen, demolishing the ice box, ironing board, plate rail, a whole sink full of dishes and littering the floor with egg shells, dripping yolk and oozing jam."

Elsewhere it observed, "Tom and Jerry have very definite personalities. Tom is a fiendish opportunist, always anxious to ingratiate himself with the powers that be, whether housekeeper, dog or even, on occasion, mouse; while Jerry, the impish schemer, is happy minding his own business until cornered, piqued or generally provoked."

There is an element of inevitable tension when a cat and a mouse are involved. The tension of a sure chase in the making told through centuries of story telling, timeless when compared to the cool cat attitude of a Garfield. And yet, the 60-something Tom and Jerry feel contemporary, the energy of a chase being their common bond, not any sugary sweet neighbourly sentiments doled out as role-model fare.

One wonders if the engaging appeal of this duo rests on the universality of the cat and mouse game, their human-like personalities and the mindless demolition in chase after chase. An amusing metaphor for real-life situations with a crash-through escapade as solution? It may not be for nothing that there is an adult following for the cat and mouse, who have over half-a-dozen Oscars to their credit.

In fact, the old sentimental cartoon characters don't feature in top listings either in the UK survey done by children's channel Boomerang or the one here by Cartoon Network. In a changing world where sentiment is disposable baggage, Tom and Jerry's six-decade-old formula of laugh-a-minute scheming and action seemed blended in.

Further in the Indian survey, a higher percentage of girls turned out to be fans of the fiendish cat and the scheming mouse and the barrage of action they dish out. Nearly 79 per cent of girls watched Tom and Jerry compared to a marginally lower 75 per cent from the boys polled.

The other favourite cartoon programmes were: Pokemon, 36 per cent of all respondents watched it, Popeye, 30 per cent, Scooby Doo, 28 per cent, The Mask, 8 per cent, Noddy, 8 per cent, Pingu, 8 per cent, Batman, 8 per cent, The Powerpuff Girls, 7 per cent and Spiderman, 6 per cent.

Back to Duncan Morris, he couldn't contain his surprise at the `sport' ranked third among the surveyed kids' favourite sports. It was hide and seek, propelled to that spot by votes from 13 per cent of the girls surveyed. "I don't know when that became a sport," he quipped in passing during the media presentation.

Well, perhaps that game might sound childish, but doesn't it have shades of Tom and Jerry?

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