Ten of the Best Cartoons of All Time Number Seven Cue Ball Cat

Tom and Jerry has always been a tennis match of gags and practical jokes with Tom usually being on the losing end of the exchange. One feature of these cartoons which made them so popular is how repetition is completely avoided in every exchange. For example, Tom hurls pool ball after pool ball at Jerry, who uses a cue like a bat to launch them right back. It would have been quite easy to animate each of these exchanges in the same way, but in one instance, Jerry's pool cue breaks like a baseball bat. It's a small detail, but had it been a simple re-use of the previous animation, it would have taken some of the charm from the scene.

It's this kind of attention to detail that has always set cartoons of the Golden Age of Animation apart, and it is one of the many reasons why Tom and Jerry figure prominently in any discussion of great animation.