Quote:Gene Kelly had a novel idea for his seventh film, the 1945 production Anchor's Aweigh. He wanted to dance with an animated character. His immediate impulse was was Mickey Mouse, and so with assistant Stanely Donen, Kelly took the idea to Walt Disney. Disney was keen on the idea, but would not countenance Mickey Mouse in an MGM production. As luck would have it a partnership of animators, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, who had arrived at MGM around the same time as Kelly, had created the cat and mouse duo Tom and Jerry. In 1944, when Kelly was looking for a dancing partner, the Tom and Jerry series was riding high having just received back to back Academy Award wins for Animated Short Film. Jerry therefore was an obvious next choice. Gene Kelly and Jerry Mouse made cinematic history as the first dance partnership between a live person and an animated character. This is also pretty much the only time you will here Jerry Mouse Speak and sing. It's almost nothing now with today's CGI technology, but back then the animation was a painstaking and laborious process. It is to his great credit that Walt Disney intervened when studio executives became nervous of the idea and persuaded MGM to take the risk on the sequence. It was a proper labour of love, with everything, up to and including Jerry's dancing reflection, carefuly and perfectly realised. It proved to be a good career move for all involved. Anchors Aweigh garnered five Oscar nominations. Tom and Jerry went on to win a total of seven. And Kelly and Jerry remain the most remarkable of pioneering dance partners in cinematic history. Also probably the cutest.