Tom Cat

"Don't...you...believe it!?"

- Tom when he gets a sarcastic result in "Mouse Trouble"

Thomas Jasper "Tom" Cat is a fictional character and the main protagonist/anti-hero of the Academy-Award-winning Tom and Jerry cartoon cat-and-mouse duo. He is a blue/grey anthropomorphic cat who first appeared in the 1940 Oscar nominated short Puss Gets the Boot.

Tom was originally known as "Jasper" during his debut in that short, however, beginning from his next appearance in The Midnight Snack and onward, he is known as "Tom" or "Thomas". He is occasionally the antagonist in most of the shorts.

His vocals were provided by the late Clarence Nash (1940-1941) and by the late William Hanna (1942–1958) in the Hanna-Barbera era. In Tom and Jerry: The Movie, he was voiced by Richard Kind, and serves as the main protagonist.

Appearance
Tom is a mute, Russian Grayish-Blue cat with green eyes and yellow in the whites of the eyes. Tom has a white torso and white hands and feet. The tip of his tail is also white. The rest of his body is gray.

Background
His full name "Tom Cat" is based on the phrase "tomcat" which refers to male felines. He is very rarely heard speaking with the exception of a few cartoons. Although occasionally, he would make yawning noises and "Ouch!" noises if he is hurt. As well as saying "Don't you believe it?" in a low, monotonous voice.

Personality
Tom is portrayed as a normal cat that continuously chases after Jerry, for whom he sets traps, many of which backfire and cause damage to himself rather than Jerry. Tom rarely sets out to eat Jerry, only to hurt or compete with him, going to great lengths in order to torment Jerry. However, Tom is shown to get along with Jerry sometimes. Multiple times the story will start with him having nothing against Jerry, and is merely chasing him out of fear of receiving abuse at the hands of his owner if he doesn't do his job as a cat.

Tom changed his personality remarkably over the years, especially after the first episodes. For example, in his debut, he was quadrupedal and had normal cat intelligence. However, over the years, he has become almost completely bipedal and has human intelligence. As a slapstick cartoon character, Tom has a superhuman level of elasticity. When acting as the antagonist of Jerry. Tom is usually beaten at the end, although there are some stories where he outwits and beats Jerry.

Tom and Jerry: The Movie
Tom was one of the main protagonists in the film Tom and Jerry: The Movie alongside his usual enemy Jerry. Tom and Jerry started out as enemies, but upon meeting new friends Puggsy and Frankie a dog and flea respectively, the two try and start a form of friendship, but it's a rocky start. Tom imprisons Jerry in a flower pot to get food and is confronted by a gang of alley cats, upon fleeing he and Jerry, still not the best of friends yet, meet a little orphan girl named Robyn Starling who ran away. They accompany her back to her home, escorted by an officer and quickly after getting into a scuffle with the dog Ferdinand over food and finding out about Auntie Figg's evil plans, they are sent to a pound.

They escape along with the other animals and reunite with Robyn, all of whom eventually end up at a carnival on an island. After the carnival owner, Captain Kiddie, sees the reward for Robyn, he attempts to hold her hostage, but they escape to Robyn's hideout where her father would be. Her father finds and rescues them as the house begins to burn. At the end of the movie they revert back to chasing and antagonizing each other heavily.

In a series of direct to video or DVD releases following the original movie, Tom often served as a protagonist along with Jerry, though there were antagonistic tendencies between the two throughout most every one of the movies.

Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring
Tom and Jerry start the film chasing each other in the home of a young wizard named Chip. Tom is assigned to guard the magic ring in his master's absence and he is warned that if anything happens to the ring, the cat will face eviction from the house.

Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes
Tom and Jerry are allies on the case to help solve the crime in London when a beautiful singer named Miss Red is framed for the thefts of the diamonds, and prove her innocence while finding the real culprit.

Tom and Jerry and The Wizard of Oz
Tom and Jerry live on the farm in Kansas with Dorothy Gale, her dog Toto, her Aunty Em and her Uncle Henry. Tom attempts to eat a baby chick, but he is stopped by Jerry each time. After the duo, Dorothy, and Toto are magically transported to Oz, the two help Dorothy face her fears and defeat the Wicked Witch of the West to get back home.

Tom and Jerry: Robin Hood and his Merry Mouse
The story begins with Tom Cat as a spy for Prince John and a Squire for Maid Marian. He is hired by the Sheriff of Nottingham to capture Jerry to fish out the spy in the castle. Later in the film, after Robin Hood's arrest, Tom realizes in horror that the Sheriff of Nottingham plans to have Maid Marian executed when she refuses to marry him, he immediately discards Prince John's symbol from his shirt and turns to Jerry Mouse for help.

When the cat and mouse duo set out to free Robin Hood and his Merry Men from the dungeon but in order to do so, they must obtain the key from the Wolf guards. Their task goes rather awry when the mace lands on Tom's tail, causing him to Yelp in pain and accidentally swallow the key, so Jerry travels all the way down into Tom's stomach and takes a path to the tail in order to retrieve the key.

Tom and Jerry's Giant Adventure
Tom and Jerry live in Storybook Town, a theme park owned by a boy named Jack and his mother who are at the risk of losing their theme park.

Tom and Jerry: The Lost Dragon
The story begins with Tom as a kitten and Jerry as a newborn baby mouse who are raised by a girl named Athena. The cat and mouse recover a dragon egg stolen by a Siamese cat trio Tin, Pan and Alley; not knowing what to do, they decide to take it home and raise it as their own.

Tom and Jerry: Spy Quest
He and Jerry team up with Johnny Quest and his pal Hadji on a mission to rescue his dad Dr. Quest from Dr. Zin, who threatens to take over the world.

Tom and Jerry: Back to Oz
In the sequel to Tom and Jerry and The Wizard of Oz, Tom, Jerry, Dorothy, and Toto are brought back to Oz by the Scarecrow, Tin-Man, and the Cowardly Lion to help them defeat the villainous Nome King.

Heroic Acts/Good Deeds

 * Teams up with Jerry to take on very naughty and devilish triplet kittens; Fluff, Muff and Puff.
 * Rescues Dorothy's dog, Toto from the clutches of Miss Gulch, with Jerry's help.
 * Protects the family baby from dangerous situations while Jeannie, the baby's negligent and irresponsible babysitter, was too busy talking on the phone with her friends to bother keeping an eye on the baby.
 * Rescues Miss Red from Professor Moriarty.
 * Joins Johnny Quest on a mission to rescue his father from Dr. Zin.
 * Protects baby dragon Puffy (who mistakes him for his mother) from Drizelda's evil henchcats Tin, Pan and Alley and manages to return him to his real mother.
 * Helps Dorothy Gale and her friends defeat the Wicked Witch of the West and find the Wizard of Oz.
 * Helps Jack save Storybook Town from a greedy billionaire named Mr. Bigley.
 * Saves Jerry Mouse on certain occasions.
 * Helps save a girl named Robyn Starling from her wicked Aunt Figg.
 * Saves Quacker from suicide in "That's My Mommy."

Trivia.

 * He is also evil and battles Jerry.
 * He sometimes has a happy ending in some episodes but when Spike has a happy ending, Jerry will have a happy ending as well.
 * In the debut cartoon, Puss Gets the Boot, he was called Jasper instead of Tom.
 * Richard Kind provides the voice for Tom in Tom and Jerry: The Movie.
 * It is revealed that he has a younger sister (and a nephew) in one Tom and Jerry Tales episode, Babysitting Blues.
 * In the Chuck Jones shorts, it is shown that Tom has a baritone voice and sings Italian Opera, including "The Cat Above and the Mouse Below," and "Cat and Dupli-Cat,"
 * Judging from how Jerry easily outsmart him and destruction that both he and Jerry caused over the course of their appearance, Tom's main weakness while competing with Jerry was his tendency for being reckless. This was shown where every time he chases Jerry, he often hit/step on objects around him and damaged them by process albeit in accident, and also often, if not always, accidentally insults Spike, which made the bulldog often beat him into pulp for this and as well messing with his son Tyke.