User reviews

Tom, complete with a tuxedo, is a pianist performing a concerto (Hungarian Rhapsody #2) for the audience. Things are going well until Jerry, peacefully asleep inside the piano, is rudely woken up.

The rest of the cartoon slows various ways these two guys torment each other. The amazing thing was that no matter what happened, the concerto kept on going and sounded great. In fact, you could probably turn your head away from the television and just enjoy the concert!

Unlike most of the stories, this one revolved just around one object (a piano) but the sight gags were all good and the more I think about it, extremely clever and I can see how it won an Oscar.

Tom flawlessly performs a Liszt piano concerto despite simultaneously engaging in the usual Tom and Jerry antics.

Lifted above the usual high standard of the Fred Quimby produced series by the flawless melding of action and music

In a departure from the usual household mayhem, Tom stars as a classical concert pianist. Dressed in a tailcoat and hammering out Hungarian Rhapsody Number 2 (which you might recognize as the tune played by Daffy and Donald in Who Framed Roger Rabbit) he is bothered by Jerry, who just happens to live inside the piano.

Cue loads of tricks played on poor Tom, who is desperately managing to stay in tune as Jerry runs amok. This cartoon actually won an Academy Award back in the day and it's easy to see why. The editing and timing are dead on, as is the imagination. A lot of laughs to be had here and one of the best Tom and Jerry shorts.

Tom is playing Hungarian Rhapsody #2 for an audience, but when he wakes up Jerry, he must maintain his perfect piano playing abilities while contending with the mouse. I know there was a controversy between this short and the WB's Looney Tune short "Rhapsody Rabbit" (which is a funny short as well and the similarities are a lot), but I feel that this Tom and Jerry short is the clear winner. It is damn near pitch perfect and one of the best Tom and jerry cartoon shorts of all time. And rightfully so. The classic tune meets classic animation. This award winning cartoon can be found on disc one of the Spotlight collection DVD of "Tom & Jerry"

My Grade: A+

Cartoon studios have been blending animation with music probably since the start of animation. Particularly classical and also jazz. Every major studio has done at least a few cartoons where the animation is done to the beat of the music. This is one of the best of the MGM efforts. One of the few times when my sympathies have been with Tom more than with Jerry. While Rhapsody With Rivets is the best short to blend classical with animation (Sliphorn King of Polaroo was tops for jazz!), this cartoon, with several other Tom and Jerry shorts, does very well indeed and won an Oscar. Highly recommended.

This has to be one of my all time favourite Tom and Jerry cartoons. First of all the music is absolutely outstanding and is incorporated really well into the story, which is simple but very effective. The animation is also of true beauty, this is probably one of the better looking Tom and Jerry cartoons or so in my opinion. The sight gags are wonderful, extremely clever and put to perfect use. And Tom and Jerry are both great here, Tom flawlessly performs Lizst's Hungarian Rhapsody Number 2, something I hear a lot in cartoons, while tormenting Jerry(and vice versa) in the process, while Jerry serves as a perfect and somewhat cute foil for him. Overall, if you love Tom and Jerry and classical music this is a must see! 10/10 Bethany Cox

A dazzling film, mostly due to the significant talents of Scott Bradley, MGM's woefully under-appreciated musical director for their animation unit. He's the one playing the piano in this marvelous epic, which unifies music and animation flawlessly. The one example that may prove Bradley superior to Warner's musical genius, Carl Stalling.

Having studied piano for years, I can really appreciate the effort to make it look like Tom is really playing this piece, and the wonderful effort to make the action fit the music only adds to the enjoyment. Perfect 10.

I have a confession to make. Although the "sophisticated" cartoons with Tom and Jerry as well as Bugs Bunny are among the highest rated on IMDb, I don't particularly like them. By sophisticated, I mean these are high-brow cartoons where the characters step out of character and perform to classical music or opera. Films like WHAT'S OPERA, DOC? and THE CAT CONCERTO are prime examples of this. Sure, I like the music well enough (especially the non-opera) but I prefer to see them doing what they do best--shoving sticks of dynamite in each others' ears and dropping anvils on each others' heads! But, apparently I am a Neanderthal, as this particular short has a huge rating of 8.5 and won the Oscar for Best Animated Short.

However, on my behalf I should point out two particular reasons why I am not a fan of this film. First, kids usually hate them. I did when I was little and so did all my friends, so they do not have universal appeal. Second, read the IMDb trivia section about this particular cartoon. CAT CONCERTO may have been plagiarized or at least "inspired" by a nearly identical film by Warner Brothers just a year earlier--yet this later film is given an Oscar. This hardly seems fair.

Overall, this cartoon has very nice animation but that is about all. Just my two cents worth from an animation Neanderthal.

I'm 20 years old and I'm still crazy for "Tom And Jerry".This is not just a "Tom And Jerry"cartoon,this is the greatest cartton ever made.All cartoonist should see this classic to learn how to create a great cartoon.Everithing is at his best:the music,the settings and of course there is Tom.Is impossible you don't fall in love with Tom.If I had to rate this cartoon 1-10,I certanly would give 10000.

This is a wonderful wedding of music and cartoon action, brought off flawlessly with panache and great slapstick humor. The scissors gag alone is enough to put this one in the hall of fame. This short very much deserved the Oscar it won; it ranks among the best cartoons ever made, bar none.

Ever since "Steamboat Willie" revolutionary use of pre-recorded soundtrack, cartoons became a genre to be taken seriously. It's even more interesting that it coincided with the rise of the talkies for cartoons' reliance on music kept them loyal to the values of silent cinema where soundtracks, borrowed from jazz, folk or classical music, less to accompany than to complement the images. Many classical themes became popular standards thanks to Golden Age cartoons, Peer Gynt's 'Morning' theme, the 'William Tell Overture' finale for cavalry etc. And it's no coincidence that some of the best were directly related to music, think of "The Band Concert", first Mickey Mouse in color, Bugs Bunny's "What's Opera, Doc?" or the hilarious Tex Avery's "Magical Maestro".

And in "Tom and Jerry" canon we have "The Cat Concerto", certainly their most accomplished short and deserving winner of the 1946 Academy Award. The cartoon's exploitation of the iconic "Hungarian Rhapsody" by Franz Listz is an inspired choice: the piece that lasts for more than ten minutes -and condensed here in a six-minute format- starts with a rather dark and melancholic introduction: the lassan, then energy rises and the tune gets more playful through the friska, that middle section that makes us anticipate the climactic and jubilant 'fugue' part. The rhapsody was used in several cartoons from Merry Melodies "Rhapsody in Rivets" and Bugs Bunny's "Rhapsody Rabbit" to "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" with the unforgettable duet between Donald and Daffy but William Hanna and Joseph Barbera paid the greatest tribute.

And I can go on and on praising the animation quality, how Tom's fingers play the correct notes, how magnificently drawn is the piano and its inside mechanisms, but I'm afraid I wouldn't say anything special. Indeed, the iconic duo had reached its artistic peak and already won three Oscars. What I admire the most in the cartoon is the timing. It's not about the keys matching the music but the gags. Oddly enough, it's one of the things I even enjoyed as a child, I knew I wanted to get to the fugue but I had to go through the serious intro, then let the gags come at their own rhythm during the playful friska, to conclude on my favorite part: the fugue. Here's how the timing works:

• The intro lasts 24 seconds and I just love the dramatic transition between the roaring MGM lion and the operatic music when the title card shows. Quite a way to set the tone.

• From 00:24 to 01:39, we have the longest Tom and Jerry moment without a single gag -and I mean that in a good way- although Tom's overly dignified posture might bring a few chuckles but it's played rather straight. Tom salutes the audience, sits down, cleans his hand while players are tuning their instruments and then silence: he starts playing the first recognizable notes of the lassan. The absence of laughs has a point: we're invited to enjoy the music, to admire the animations from which gags would be a distraction. So the first gag only comes when Tom stops playing to dry his hands. His shirt moves off his tuxedo and he quickly readjusts it. Simple, brilliant and effective.

• After that, it's almost another minute without a gag but I do love Tom's smirk at 1:52 addressing the audience, like saying "I'm good, aint'I"? After that we don't get full view on the keys. It might be a trick from the animators but it also prepares us for the next situation where we see the piano from behind and all the perfectly aligned hammers hitting the strings.

• Finally at 2:05, we see Jerry whose sleep is musically interrupted. He's literally swept by the musical current and we get the second visual gag when he's literally rodeoing over an insisting hammer at 2:20. Jerry's time to shine.

• At 2:40, he mockingly "conducts" the music with his finger then 10 seconds later, he runs under the keys making a musical wave that ironically matches the partition. Then, back to the music and notice that Tom's facial expression changes: he smiles more as if tormenting Jerry had boosted his confidence. But Jerry hasn't said his last word and so he'll start crashing Tom's party, one of the most brilliant gags is when he keeps hitting on one string until Tom knocks him out, for a priceless . Delayed fall at 3:20. Now, obviously there will come a time where we lose track of the gags but it's precisely because the tempo rises than so does the comedy, at the friska, playtime can start.

• The first bit of true violence comes when Jerry slams the cover on Tom's fingers at 3:45, we get the infamous mousetrap at 4:20, then at 4:26, the first hint of the fugue is played as Tom tries to catch Jerry, preparing us to the finale.

• At 4:50, like Donald in "The Band Concert", Jerry changes the piece to a pop song and mayhem ensues until the climactic moment where Tom has the upper hand, takes Jerry and puts him between the piano hammers that whack, hit, spank him from 5:30 to 6:00. Now, if that moment didn't seal the Oscar win, I don't know what it did. What a genius and magnificently animated way to use the piece's momentum... and then it's time to end on apotheosis.

• From 6:26 to almost 7:00, Jerry plays over and over the iconic fugue, forcing Tom to follow the keys not once or twice but three times and loses for lack of endurance and the film couldn't have a better ending, we feel sorry for the exhausted Tom who messed his beautiful tuxedo, but when Jerry comes saluting the crowd with his own tuxedo, surely he shares some of the prestige with Tom, and surely many people in the theaters applauded what might be one of the greatest animated pieces of history.

I remember how disappointed my friends and I were when the cartoon before the feature film was "Tom and Jerry." I still don't find them funny. Every plot was pretty much the same with Jerry eventually coming out on top (cat prejudice). This one is good because it relies on wonderful animation, especially where Tom is playing Liszt's Second "Hungarian Rhapsody." He has every right to be left alone but for that damned mouse. The closeup of Tom's playing are right on. It makes one wonder how it was done. The point/counterpoint of shenanigans is very clever, syncing with the music beautifully. I think that most kids of my generation know what classical music they do from these cartoon efforts. Nice work.

You'll never listen to Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 again without thinking of this classic MGM cartoon with Tom in concert mode performing at the Hollywood Bowl in formal attire while Jerry is asleep inside the piano. That is, until the performance begins. Then, as the music becomes more and more vigorous, Jerry adds his own special touch to the performance, much to the exasperation of Tom.

Although the two of them are sparring throughout, they never miss a note of music--which is the real bonus for music lovers who may wish to just sit back and listen to the music without visuals.

Enormously clever and deserving of the Oscar it won in 1947. It's the sort of cartoon that reminds us all of how beautifully the Disney people used music in all of their full-length features, probably an encouragement for the Hanna Barbera people to use it for so many of their cartoon classics.

I love this one to bits, I really don't see how anybody with even the slightest appreciation of the characters ever could not t, as it's undeniably the gosh-darned Citizen Kane of all Tom and Jerry adventures! Even though there are others I enjoy just as much, I still really can't in all honesty deny that this is probably the very greatest example of this legendary duo's particular brand of magic, and maybe even what they're best remembered for. You might think that it'd be somewhat limited by the confines of the setting simply, being a piano and its two players, but it actually has a feel to it that's rather immense! I love its pitch-perfect pacing, how it begins small and gradually builds as the choreography of the action flows along with the music till by the end it becomes something so epically artful in its madcap grandeur and a real animated tour-de-force that is such greatness to watch! I love all the gags that they managed to come up with out of just the piano keys - or the things on the underside of the keys, they did a spanking key, golf club key, even a bucking bronco key! I think what could have made the ending of it even better for me would have been if instead of the crowd only cheering for Jerry, they were cheering for them both and then the still furious Tom would have heard the applause and been happy that Jerry inadvertently ended up giving him a helping hand and then they'd both take a well-earned bow. The musical score gives things a real extra passion as well as a touch of class. And the way everything that occurs goes together so incredibly well with that music is so charming and funny and it makes me think that there's just no possible way they could've ever found another tune that would have matched the hi-jinx of those two so perfectly. So bravisimo indeed, they gave their best performance ever!!! 🌟

It doesn't matter how many times you see it, it will still bring tears of laughter to the eyes!

A perfect blend of classical music and the chaos that only Jerry Mouse could ever wreak on Tom's efforts as a classical pianist...

The only other cartoon that comes close is Bugs Bunny's "What's Opera, Doc?"

Cat Concerto is simply, the funiest, greatest, best cartoon ever made.

Enjoy!! Over, and over and over again!

'The Cat Concerto,' a 1947 MGM "Tom and Jerry" cartoon, is one hundred percent class. In this episode, Tom is a professional piano player, and he emerges before a respectful audience to perform "Hungarian Rhapsody Number 2" by Franz Liszt. However, Tom's piano-playing rudely disrupts Jerry, who was sleeping peacefully inside the musical instrument. In return for this inconvenience, the small mouse decides to inflict revenge upon the cat, who, playing feverishly at the piano, is currently at his most vulnerable. 'The Cat Concerto' is, interestingly, the first and only "Tom and Jerry" cartoon that I can remember seeing, and it certainly stacks up very well against some of the "Silly Symphonies" and "Merry Melodies" that I've also been watching recently. The cartoon goes for just eight minutes, and, despite the complete absence of any dialogue, it carries a tremendous amount of energy. The action never becomes monotonous, and we can only watch with excitement to see if the frantic pianist, despite Jerry's interruptions, can maintain his composure until the end of the song.

Following its release on April 26 1947, 'The Cat Concerto' met with a spate of controversy, when Warner Brothers accused MGM of plagiarism, citing incredible similarities between it and 'Rhapsody Rabbit (1946).' In the latter film, Bug Bunny sits at a piano, plays Liszt's "2nd Hungarian Rhapsody" and is bothered by an unnamed mouse. Nevertheless, 'The Cat Concerto' remains one of the most beloved of all "Tom and Jerry" cartoons, also scooping up the 1947 Oscar for Best Animated Short. The film's main asset is its incredible simplicity; directors Joseph Barbera and William Hanna have taken a basic idea (wherever that idea might have come from), and have turned it into something both classy and fun. I didn't find that there were really any huge laugh-out-loud moments, but the entire eight minutes was extremely entertaining, and certainly not a bad way to spend my time.

After each character receives their own share of bruising and batterings – with the performance never missing a beat – Jerry eventually gains control over the piano, while an exhausted Tom tries admirably to give the appearance that he is still playing. As the rhapsody comes to a close, and is met with rousing applause, a beaten Tom slumps onto the piano keys, and Jerry climbs onto the top of the instrument to accept all the credit. This is a satisfying ending to the film: we certainly respect Tom for the commendable effort he put into the heartfelt performance, but we always wanted the little mouse to win.

An academy award winning adventure for Tom and Jerry, The Cat Concerto is an excellent example of a simple idea, perfectly executed.

Tom is giving a piano recital, which wakes Jerry the mouse, who happens to be sleeping on top of the piano's hammers. Miffed at having his sleep disturbed by the maestro moggy's tinkling, Jerry attempts to sabotage the performance.

An almost perfect blend of classical music, excellent animation, and visual comedy, The Cat Concerto is one of the finest Tom and Jerry cartoons of all time—and considering that the guys have been scrapping for more than sixty years in over 170 animated adventures, that's saying something!