Western Animation / Tom and Jerry Tales

Tom and Jerry Tales was a modern Revival of the Tom and Jerry franchise which began production in 2005 and ran in the United States from September 23, 2006 to March 22, 2008 on Kids' WB! It is the fourth television show in the Tom & Jerry franchise and probably the most well-received.

Episodes used a Three Shorts format, mirroring the length and format of the original theatrical shorts. Secondary characters from the original series returned, many for the first time since the 1950s. Droopy even starred in a few shorts alongside Tom and Jerry. It may have lacked some of the madcap slapstick violence of the original shorts, and towards the end relied too heavily on Recycled In Space-styled plots, but it tends to be viewed as better in comparison to past (and later) Tom & Jerry adaptations, as well as other cartoons on at the time.

The Direct to Video Tom and Jerry movies made since the series ended are somewhat of a Spiritual Successor, having the same animation and writing style. It used to air reruns on Cartoon Network from 2011-2017 and is currently airing reruns on Boomerang.

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Tropes in this series:

• 555: In "A Life Less Guarded", Tom's phone number is 555-0178.
• Accordion Man: Or "Accordion Cat"; after Tom gets Squashed Flat in "Feeding Time", he ends up like an accordion.
• Adaptational Villainy: Most of the time, Jerry is shown to be an absolute sadist who provokes Tom or gets him into trouble just for laughs. All while wearing an open-mouth smile. This is in contrast to the classic shorts, in which Jerry was either just out for food, Tom went after him on his own, or one of Tom's often-abusive owners forced him to.
• All Just a Dream: "Game of Mouse & Cat".
• Amicable Ants: In "Little Big Mouse", Tom gives a cube of ice to a little ant who is nearly dying with the heat. Minutes later, Jerry takes advantage of the nap Tom and his owner are taking in front of the open fridge to snatch all the food for a picnic outside, causing Tom to be unfairly kicked out of the house. The little ant reappears to ask some of the food Jerry has stolen, but he refuses to share. She proceeds to steal the food from under Jerry's nose until the humiliated mouse is forced to toss the towel. Then she shares it with Tom.

• Antagonist in Mourning: Tom in "Bats What I Like About the South" creates a tombstone of Jerry and crying for him, not aware that Jerry is alive and scaring him with a bat who looks like him.
• Animation Bump: In the opening sequence and the first few episodes. Sadly, this didn't really last.
• Art Shift: One later short, "Game of Mouse & Cat", features the duo as they looked in their early 1940s shorts.
• Badass Biker: Tom rides on his motorcycle in "Xtreme Trouble".
• Badly Battered Babysitter: In "Babysitting Blues", both Tom and Jerry babysit their respective nephews.
• Beach Episode: "Beach Bully Bingo".
• Because You Were Nice to Me: An implied one with the ant in "Little Big Mouse". She doesn't seem to have any motivation to help Tom defeat Jerry other than the former being kind to her. Granted, food might've had at least some part in it, but even then, she's fine with sharing it with Tom.
• The Cameo: Wolfie, from Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood and numerous Droopy shorts, appears as a ghost in "Spook House Mouse". Joe Bear, an extremely loud bear who hates noise from Tex Avery's Rock-a-bye Bear, makes a cameo in the episode "Sasquashed".
• Cool Board: Jerry rides on his Skateboard in "Xtreme Trouble".
• Chekhov's Gunman: At the end of "Northern Light Fish Fight," the fish is ultimately eaten by the polar bear sighted briefly in the short's opening pan.
• Construction Zone Calamity: "Deconstruction Junction" and "Jackhammered Cat".
• Continuity Nod: At the end of "Babysitting Blues", Tom and Jerry both leave (after not wanting to watch their sisters' kids any longer) to go fishing. Guess what they're doing in "Catfish Follies?"
• CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: In "A Life Less Guarded", Tom and Droopy are training to become lifeguards at a city pool. While Tom is sabotaging Droopy to get the job, Jerry is retaliating by sabotaging Tom to help Droopy. Tom then ends up needing to be saved when he gets stomach cramps after eating a whole pizza in the pool. Droopy rescues him and starts bouncing on his chest to squeeze the water out of his mouth, and even goes as far as to give him mouth-to-mouth. The look on Jerry's face is priceless.
  Lifeguard trainer: You know, I almost hope he doesn't wake up.
• Cruel Twist Ending: In the ending of "Which Witch", Tom & Jerry put the two witches' brooms together to break their curse, revealing to be two bulldogs who been turned into witches by their master and chased Tom & Jerry because a cat and mouse was the cause of them becoming witches.
• Depending on the Artist: In season 2, the show was animated by three overseas studios: Rough Draft Studios, Yearim Productions, and Toon City. Rough Draft episodes tended to be on-model but with less in-betweens, while Yearim and Toon City opted for fuller animation.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Tom defends Tyke from the out-of-control tennisball shooter, but he misses one, and it slowly shoots up and barely hits Tyke, but Spike takes this as "playing rough" anyway. It also counts as Misplaced Retribution because it was Jerry who got the shooter out of control.
• Eating the Eye Candy: In "Hi, Robot", Jerry briefly checks out a Robot Girl that he's in love with.
• Enemy Mine: In a few shorts. For example, in "Cry Uncle", the duo teams up to get rid of Jerry's annoying Uncle Pecos (who first appeared in 1953's "Pecos Pest").
• Et Tu, Brute?: Type III. When Jerry learns the female "mouse" he's in love with was actually working for Tom, thus implying she never liked him in the first place, he's clearly hurt.
• The Faceless: Mrs. Two-Shoes and most other human characters in the series don't show their faces (though part of the former's face is very briefly shown in "A Game of Mouse and Cat").
• Foreshadowing: In "Hi Robot!", after rebuilding a toy mouse into a Robot Girl to capture Jerry, Tom sometimes looks visually annoyed and strained while trying to control her. This was apparently hinting that she ultimately becomes a sentient living.
• Fiery Sensuality: In "Freaky Tiki", Tom and Jerry anger a shapely Hawaiian volcano goddess who wears nothing but a bikini top and skirt made of flames.
• Finger-Snapping Street Gang: In "League of Cats", when Tom is recruited into the "cat mafia" to scare mice, Jerry and other mice create the League of Mice. Jerry summons them with a Badass Fingersnap, and then all the mice started singing and finger-snapping, scaring cats into submission and beating the crap out of them. In fact, their song is a Shout-Out to aforementioned Tom and Jerry: The Movie.
• Gratuitous Spanish: A justified case in "Flamenco Fiasco". El Presidente, who's Hispanic, uses some Spanish words.
• Hand-or-Object Underwear: Tom pulls one in Cat Show Catastrophe.
• Hand Rubbing: At least once Tom did the paw-equivalent via rubbing them together.
• Hollywood Prehistory: Oddly Zig-Zagged in "Pre-hysterics". The beginning of the episode seemingly has the non-avian dinosaurs and pterosaurs going extinct (via an ice age rather than a giant asteroid) allowing the mammals to take over just as in real life, but later on, Tom and Jerry deal with a Tyrannosaurus and a few Pteranodon show up, including one that snatches Tom away at the end of the episode. Are the Tyrannosaurus and Pteranodon survivors or something?
• Humanoid Female Animal:
  • Tom's taste in cat-women hasn't changed.
  • There's also the lionesses in "You're Lion".
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: The premise of "A Game of Mouse and Cat", where Jerry is inexplicably the intimidating house pet trying to catch Tom. It turns out to be a virtual simulation Jerry is in, while Tom has a go chasing a terrified Spike around.
• Knotty Tentacles: The titular Jerry once tricked Tom, who was trying to step on him, into getting his legs twisted together.
• Lampshade Hanging: During "Game of Mouse & Cat":
  Butch: Does anything about this "Mouse chases cat" thing seem off to you?
  Tom: (Shakes head no)
  Butch: Yeah, me neither.
• Last Note Nightmare: For some strange reason, the last note is a dissonant chord after a fairly upbeat theme song.
• Lava Surfing: Also the trope image. Tom does this with a shield to escape from Pele, the Goddess of Flame in "Freaky Tiki."
• Limited Animation: Some of the episodes suffer from looping animation. This is otherwise averted as the show actualy has rather fluid animation.
• Man-Eating Plant: In "Monkey Chow", Tom was eaten by a Man Eating Plant.
• Mime and Music-Only Cartoon: Most episodes.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: When a tennis ball harmlessly bounces off of Tyke's nose in "Game, Set, Match", Spike proceeds to beat on Tom for being "too rough" with him.
• Never My Fault: "24-Karat Cat" ends with Tom and Butch being arrested for trying to steal Jerry's gold. Butch, who spent most of the episode goading Tom into stealing Jerry's gold, says he knew they shouldn't do it. Tom, glaring at him as he says so, pounces and assaults him for the comment.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: "Beefcake Tom" has Jerry (who serves as the episode's Villain Antagonist) successfully making Tom, who was trying to get fit, buff. What happens next? Tom uses him for a dumbbell.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Tex Avery's cameo in "A Life Less Guarded".
• Our Werewolves Are Different: In "Monster Con", Tom has transformed in to a werewolf cat, after being bitten by a werewolf.
• Piranha Problem: One episode, "Piranha Be Loved By Me", has Tom (and in some instances Jerry) repeatedly pursued by a piranha.
• Pun-Based Title: Numerous episode titles.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: In "Feeding Time", Spike does this as he bashes Tom against the sign that says:
  Spike: DO! NOT! FEED! THE! ANIMALS!
• Race Lift: The maid was brought back for the series, only she was recolored white and had a voice that sounded like a Southern accent (much like the actual maid, only her grammar isn't broken). The maid was a controversial character because she portrayed several black stereotypes that were widespread in the 1940s, so the decision to make her white was to make the modern-day shorts politically correct.
• Rapid Aging: The T. rex and the Triceratops in "Din-O-Sores" quickly grow into adults moments after hatching from their eggs.
• Recycled IN SPACE!: The duo is in the Middle Ages, prehistoric times, the US Revolutionary War... and even, indeed, IN SPACE!!
• Robosexual: In "Hi Robot!", Tom rebuilds a toy mouse into a Robot Girl to trick Jerry into falling in love with her (which he does). But in the end, she develops emotions and falls in love with Jerry, giving Tom a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown for wanting to hurt Jerry.
• Sentai: The Amazing Acquaintances are a variation of this. Notable in that they get their powers from the "Power Rings".
• Sewer Gator: After Tom and Jerry drive through the New York sewers in "Joy Riding Jokers", they are more than a little surprised to see that a white alligator somehow managed to get in the car's back seat.
• Shout-Out: To a lot of Tex Avery shorts; in "A Life Less Guarded", the man auditioning Tom and Droopy for a lifeguard job is a caricature of Avery, and one of the few human characters whose face is fully visible in the series. His assistant Miss Shapely is a comely blonde, referring to Avery's penchant for gorgeous women in his pictures.
• Slasher Smile: The alien in "Invasion of the Body Slammers" when impersonating Tom and Jerry.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: Tom once entered a cat show and Jerry and Nibbles decided to sabotage him. One of their plans included adding lemon juice at his voice spray for his Pagliacci act. With the sounds he made once the juice took effect, the narrator assumed (and announced) that Tom gave up opera and decided to imitate bird songs. Tom decided to play along.
• Swapped Roles: Jerry pursues Tom in "Game of Mouse & Cat", despite being much smaller than a cat. However, this also means he gets dealt a bit of slapstick punishment normally reserved for Tom. It turns out it was a simulation run by Jerry.
• Tag Along Kid: Nibbles in a few shorts.
• Team Rocket Wins/Throw the Dog a Bone: Similar to the original shorts, Tom gets a rare victory every now and then.
• Three Shorts
• Through a Face Full of Fur: In "Spook House Mouse", the duo goes through a carnival funhouse and come out so scared that their fur is permanently bleached white. They then end up getting jobs at the carnival as an albino cat and mouse.
• Walk Through the Camera: In the short "You're Lion", where Tom and Jerry saw many lions in a dark hut. Tom runs away towards the camera, and runs back out.
• Werewolves Are Dogs: The werewolf in "Monster Con" acts like a big, playful dog.
• What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Tom actually manipulates this in "Little Big Mouse". Seeming to get wise to the "smaller cuter underdog creature always wins" formula, he retaliates to Jerry stealing food by getting an even smaller and cuter-looking ant to steal it all back for him, and takes pleasure in watching Jerry convert into a bumbling pursuer for once.

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