Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse (1947)
Filed under: Animation, 1940s, Color, Hanna-Barbera Studios, Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, Tom and Jerry, Tom and Jerry, U.S.A.,
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse
Directed by: Producers:William Hanna
Fred Quimby
Animated by:Ed Barge
Kenneth Muse
Al Grandmain
Music by:Fred MacAlpin
Studio: Release date:14/06/1947
Running time:7 min
Color process:Technicolor
Synopsis
A Tom and Jerry cartoon, riffing off of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, in which Tom concocts a deadly potion but finds that it only makes Jerry stronger.
Reception:
Academy Award Nominee, Best Short Subject (Cartoon), 1948.
Music
In a 1947 article called “Personality in the Soundtrack” composer Scott Bradley writes that in this cartoon as Jerry stalks Tom, “the full orchestra plays an ostinato march, the harmonic structure being based on parallel fourths in altered form, while the timpani and four horns blast out the Superman theme. Fun? Loads of it! I’d rather score a cartoon like this than a half-dozen ordinary live-action pictures. No noisy actors shouting at the top of their voices, drowning perfectly good music!”
References:
Cooke, Mervyn. The Hollywood Film Music Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.