Editing Harman and Ising (section)

== Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ==
[[File:Seaman Tarfu in the Navy.ogv|thumb|[[Private Snafu]] film 'Seaman Tarfu in the Navy' made by Harman-Ising Studio in 1946]] 
In 1934, Harman and Ising signed a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to start a new series of shorts, ''[[Happy Harmonies]]''. Harman and Ising, having maintained the rights to Bosko, occasionally featured the character in the new series. The two maintained the same division of work they had used at Warner Bros.: Harman worked on Bosko shorts, and Ising directed one-shots. In 1935, Harman redesigned Bosko into an identifiable African-American boy, ultimately leading to the character being discontinued. They also tried unsuccessfully to create new cartoon stars for their new distributors. Their cartoons, though technically superior to those they had made for Schlesinger at Warner's, were still music-driven shorts with little to no plot. When the new ''[[Happy Harmonies]]'' series ran significantly over-budget in 1937, MGM fired Harman and Ising and established [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio|its own in-house studio]], which was founded and headed by [[Fred Quimby]].

Harman and Ising still found work at the time as animation freelancers. Harman and Ising lent their former ink-and-painters to Walt Disney while ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)|Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs]]'' was behind schedule. Disney afterward commissioned Harman and Ising to produce a [[Silly Symphonies|Silly Symphony]] cartoon (''[[Merbabies]]''), in return. Disney later reneged on a deal he had made for two other Harman-Ising cartoons to be produced for the studio, as [[RKO Pictures|RKO Radio Pictures]], Disney's distributor, did not want to release another studio's cartoons. Harman and Ising sold the cartoons to MGM, and Quimby later agreed to hire the animators back to the studio. Ising created the character [[Barney Bear]] for MGM at this time, basing the sleepy-eyed character partially on himself. 

In 1939, Harman created ''[[Peace on Earth (film)|Peace on Earth]]'', a downbeat [[morality tale]] about two squirrels discovering the evils of humanity, which was nominated for an [[Academy Award for Animated Short Film|Oscar]]. The following year, Ising produced [[William Hanna]] and [[Joseph Barbera]]'s first cartoon, ''[[Puss Gets the Boot]]'', a cartoon featuring characters later known as [[Tom and Jerry]], but according to Barbera, Ising never came into the room, but got credited.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aajpnKWRZZc Joseph Barbera on Fred Quimby being nominated for the Academy Award for "Tom and Jerry"]</ref> Despite the popularity of ''Puss Gets the Boot'', Ising's ''[[The Milky Way (1940 film)|The Milky Way]]'' was more successful and became the first non-Disney film to win the Academy Award. Despite the success of these and other cartoons, MGM's production under Harman and Ising remained low.

In 1941, Harman left MGM and formed a new studio with Disney veteran [[Mel Shaw]], while Ising was still at MGM.<ref>[https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/rudolf-isings-the-prospecting-bear-1941/ Rudolf Ising’s “The Prospecting Bear” (1941)]</ref> In 1942, Ising also quit MGM, in his case to join the [[United States Army Air Forces]] animation unit.<ref>[https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mgms-the-bear-and-the-beavers-1942/ MGM’s “The Bear and The Beavers (1942)]</ref>