Characters: Tom

Thomas "Tom" Cat is a fictional character and half of the academy-award winning Tom & Jerry cartoon cat-and-mouse duo. He is a blue/grey anthropomorphic cat who first appeared in the 1940 animated 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 onwards, he is known as "Tom". Unlike popular belief, "Jasper" is not his last name. His full name "Tom Cat" is a pun of "tomcat", which is the phrase which refers to male cats. He is very rarely heard speaking with the exception of a few cartoons (such as Tom & Jerry Tales' League of Cats) and "Tom and Jerry: The Movie" He is continuously after Jerry Mouse, for whom he sets traps, many of which backfire and cause damage to him rather than Jerry. Tom rarely sets out to eat Jerry, only to hurt or compete with him. However, Tom actually gets along with Jerry at times. Tom has changed 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. Dog Trouble was the episode that Tom stopped being quadrupedal. It's also shown that he has a very superhuman stretch-like body, showm by the fact that he is a slapstick cartoon, make him near-equal to The Mask in terms of stretch propriets (atoulgh the fact he aparentely has no longer this elastic body in recent cartoons.).