 Modeled after the Puss Gets the Boot characters with slight differences , the series followed Jerry , the pesky rodent who continuously outwitted his feline foe , Tom . Hanna said they settled on the cat and mouse theme for this cartoon because " we knew we needed two characters . We thought we needed conflict , and chase and action . And a cat after a mouse seemed like a good , basic thought . " The revamped characters first appeared in 1941 's The Midnight Snack . Over the next 17 years , Barbera and Hanna worked exclusively on Tom and Jerry , directing more than 114 popular cartoon shorts . During World War II , they also made animated training films . Tom and Jerry relied mostly on motion instead of dialog . Despite its popularity , Tom and Jerry has often been criticized as excessively violent . Nonetheless , the series won its first Academy Award for the 11th short , The Yankee Doodle Mouse ( 1943 ) — a war @-@ time adventure . Tom and Jerry was ultimately nominated for 14 Academy Awards , winning 7 . No other character @-@ based theatrical animated series has won more awards , nor has any other series featuring the same characters . Tom and Jerry also made guest appearances in several of MGM 's live @-@ action films , including Anchors Aweigh ( 1945 ) and Invitation to the Dance ( 1956 ) with Gene Kelly , and Dangerous When Wet ( 1953 ) with Esther Williams . 
