Yabba Dabba Downsizing

One April, Bill and Joe got a shocking call from the upstairs office. On advice from renowned consultants Booz, Allen & Hamilton, the company was closing their division. After nearly twenty years of service, they were being given two weeks’ notice. Booz et. al had estimated that the annual savings would amount to $700,000. This was a lot of money in 1957.

The company was MGM. William “Bill” Hanna and Joseph “Joe” Barbara headed the animation department. In the last 20 years, they had won seven Academy Awards for a show about a cat and a mouse.

When they started out in the 1930’s, animation was highly labour intensive. While the backgrounds were static and only painted once, each frame in the foreground had to be hand painted on a transparent sheet made of celluloid. The sheets were called “cels”.

The 40’s and 50’s had been a golden run for the duo, and a Renaissance period for animation in general. As this new medium emerged, it attracted the brightest young minds of the generation. Tom & Jerry (MGM) and Bugs Bunny (WB) debuted the same year!

There were other similarities. Both franchises made effective use of classical music and had a full symphony orchestra providing the soundtrack. The writing was similar too- the characters had strong personalities and motivations. Probably what makes them so beloved almost a century later.

Something spectacular happened in 1946. MGM’s Oscar submission was “The Cat Concerto”, featuring Tom in coattails, playing a grand piano on stage, disturbing Jerry who lives in the piano.

The Looney Tunes’ submission was Bugs Bunny in coattails, playing a grand piano on stage, disturbing a mouse in the piano.

There was a furore at the awards ceremony, with WB’s team vehemently denying plagiarism. MGM won, of course. But it was entirely plausible that two sets of brilliant minds thought up the exact same thing. Happens all the time across disciplines.

So why did Booz recommend stopping production on such a successful show? Simple- they argued MGM had enough of a back catalogue of Tom & Jerry to continue making money forever. Pure profits, no expense. Why keep an army of animators on staff? The same argument had been made for the music industry.

Does it hold? Well, Bill & Joe took the entire MGM team and founded Hannah-Barbera (H-B) studios (the naming was decided by a coin flip). The move perfectly coincided with the emergence of television, and since H-B had an experienced team, they could hit the ground running. Over the next few years the studio created The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Flintstones, The Yogi Bear Show, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, Wacky Races, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and The Smurfs. That’s billions of dollars in syndication, merchandising and franchising opportunities.

MGM could’ve had the best of both worlds, but they turned down an offer to invest in H-B. Just the way it goes sometimes.

MGM currently calls Amazon home. Warner Bros Animation went on to acquire Tom & Jerry in the late 90’s, and launched Cartoon Network as a dedicated home for all its IP. But that’s a story for another day.