Tom and Jerry Tales

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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 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 is currently being re-run on Cartoon Network.

Tropes used in Tom and Jerry Tales include:

• Amusing Injuries: It wouldn't be Tom & Jerry otherwise.
• 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.
  • One later short, "Game of Mouse & Cat", features the duo as they looked in their early 1940s shorts.
• Badly-Battered Babysitter: In "Babysitting Blues" both Tom and Jerry babysit their respective nephews.
• Beach Episode: Beach Bully Bingo.
• 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".
• 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?"
• Deus Ex Machina: At the end of "Hi Robot!" when the FemBot suddenly becomes a sentient living being at the last minute despite being completely emotionless and mechanical up until then.
• 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").
• The Faceless: Mrs. Two-Shoes and most other human characters in the series.
• Humanoid Female Animal: Tom's taste in cat-women hasn't changed.
• 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.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: "Beefcake Tom" has Jerry successfully making Tom strong. What does he get next? Tom uses him for a dumbbell.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Tex Avery's cameo in "A Life Less Guarded".
• Pun-Based Title: These got a little painful sometimes.
• Race Lift: Mammy Two-Shoes 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 Mammy Two Shoes, only her grammar isn't broken). Mammy 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.
• 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 builds a mouse FemBot in order to trick Jerry into falling in love with it (which he does), but in the end the robot develops emotions and falls in love with Jerry, giving Tom a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown for wanting to hurt Jerry.
• Screwed by the Network: It was lucky to even last as long as it did after 4Kids took over Kids WB.
• 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.
• Tagalong Kid: Nibbles in a few shorts.
• 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.