Tom and Jerry' adventures
still top charts
By
Radhika Bhirani
New
Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) Nearly 68 years after its inception,
cartoon show "Tom and Jerry" is still a top-rated
kids' entertainment show on Indian television, reveal latest
statistics.
In
the Hindi-speaking markets and among cable and satellite viewers
in the age group of 4-14, "Tom and Jerry", which
airs on the channel Cartoon Network India, bagged three positions
among the top 10 unique programmes in the kids' genre in October,
according to data received from TAM Media Research.
While
"Tom and Jerry: Cat and Mouse Full House" bagged
the first position, "Tom and Jerry Tales" bagged
the eighth rank and "Tom and Jerry Show" accounted
for the last spot.
"Tom
and Jerry", the comic tales of blue house cat Tom and
light brown mouse Jerry, has enthralled audiences across countries,
languages and age groups and kept them in splits for years.
It
has a massive Indian fan following and is broadcast in four
languages - Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu - to reach the
maximum number of viewers.
Seema,
a domestic help here, is so fond of the cartoon that she bought
a collection of the show's CDs and took it to her village
to show it to her folks and entertain the children there.
Even now, she stops working whenever the show is aired on
TV.
With
the onset of new Indian animated cartoons like "Hanuman"
and "Bal Ganesha", there was a perception that "Tom
and Jerry" would slip in kids' entertainment, but it
is still on top of the pack.
Says
child actress Swini Khara of "Cheeni Kum" fame:
"Though I prefer 'Shin Chan', 'Tom and Jerry' is my all-time
favourite cartoon. I love it for the fights and the way the
cat and mouse take revenge. It's all very cute."
The
plots of each "Tom and Jerry" short mostly centres
on Tom's numerous but futile attempts to catch Jerry and the
chaos and destruction that ensues.
The
"Tom and Jerry" series making it to three spots
on the top 10 list of TAM also helped the Cartoon Network
channel bag a total channel percentage of 25, ahead of Nickelodeon's
23 percent in October.
"The
'Tom and Jerry' series is short, simple and yet a proper laugh
riot. No one can ignore them even while surfing the television.
It is the top rated show on the channel," Krishna Desai,
director of programming, Turner International India Pvt. Ltd.,
the parent company for Cartoon Network, told IANS.
"Not
only us but our parents too have enjoyed the chase between
these two characters in their childhood. And till date we
relish a show of these two cute characters with our kids."
"Tom
and Jerry" started in 1940 as an initiative by William
Hanna, a director, and Joseph Barbera, a storyman and character
designer. After that, the cartoon went through several producers
who made shorts, TV series, feature films - all around the
cat and mouse chase.
"Our
Indian children also love the concept of chasing each other
and a tiny little mouse winning over a house cat is an amazing
and invincible plot," Desai averred.
The
most recent "Tom and Jerry" series for television,
"Tom and Jerry Tales" was produced at Warner Bros.
Animation and ended March 22.
Indo-Asian
News Service
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