In the golden age of animation, a cat and a mouse created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera redefined slapstick. Between 1940 and 1958, the original 114 short films—most directed by Hanna and Barbera and scored by Scott Bradley—won seven Academy Awards, tying with Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies .

The tale’s moral? The classic chase never ends—just where you find it has changed.

Volumes 1–3 cover the wartime era (1940–1945), where the duo first perfected their chase. Volumes 4–6 capture the post-war peak (1946–1950)—widely considered the finest run, with classics like The Cat Concerto (1947). Volumes 7–9 (1951–1954) show the team experimenting with new settings, while Volumes 10–12 (1955–1958) feature the last Hanna-Barbera shorts before Gene Deitch and Chuck Jones took over the series.