Second that.

Thank you, Jerry Beck, in advance.

Are there any news regarding this "Tom & Jerry" collector's set?

Any approximate date when it will be released?

Any news about its contents, extra features,....?

Articles ?

Rumours?

Anything ?

All I have heard is, that it's supposedly due out before the end of 2004 (only Jerry would know for certain and if he can talk about it). It's "supposed" to be uncensored, but it's being released by the same company that gave us "The Flintstones" (NO Winston cigarette ads as part of the extras) and Looney Tunes (I hope I'm wrong, but don't plan on seeing "Coal Black", etc.).
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that I bought both the Flintstones AND Looney Tunes DVD sets, BUT, I'm also glad that I have both the entire "Golden Age of Looney Tunes" and "The Flintstones" laserdisc boxsets.

I have Volumes 1 & 2 (Hanna Barbera) of "The Art of Tom and Jerry" on laserdisc and I just bought a copy of Vol. 3 (Chuck Jones)on EBay. My gut tells me that any blatant ethnic jokes will either be edited or (gasp) the cartoon may not be included.

The other nice thing about the LD versions of these releases are, that they are in chronological order. Jerry tells us that this will be the case with Tom and Jerry.

I hope that I'm completely wrong about all of this, as it would be great to eventually get some of the WB classics, like "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs" on DVD in a nice crisp copy, instead of the 5th generation version that some of us have on "bootleg" copies. Jerry...can you tell us if some of the more "questionable" Looney Tunes titles (like Coal Black) will ever make it to future editions of the DVD sets?

Tex Avery is supposedly due out in the USA sometime next year. I can only hope that it will be completely uncut.

It is my hope and desire (as it is certain others involved with these dvds) to include such material on these sets someday in the future.

There are no plans for any "censored 11" cartoons (particularly COAL BLACK) to be included on Vol. 2.

That's all I can say on this matter.

All I would like to know is will the TOM AND JERRY dvd collection be either two disc or a four disc set?

I'm pleased to read that.

By the looks of things, the set bring released in the U.K. is the same one being planned for release in Australia on 14/7/2004

I will be looking forward to see what you have put together for us, Jerry.

hey guys this is my first post here...I just wanted to tell you what i heard from some Warner Bros. Home Video executives in an online chat session over a year ago...someone asked about a possible Tom & Jerry box set and what format it would be in...

they said they were thinking of doing a four disc set with all the H-B directed episodes or maybe splitting it up and two separate box sets of the H-B directed cartoons...they said that all of the cartoons would be uncensored, restored and definitely in chronological order...they also said any Gene Deitch or Chuck Jones cartoons would depend on the sales of the H-B cartoons...

being that early promotional material is showing the first collection as a 2-disc set (watch the Flintstones trailer on the Scooby Doo box set), I think this is likely what will happen (and a better solution)...here's why:

I work at Suncoast Motion Picture Company and can tell you a major seller this past year and a half has been television box sets and other similar box sets (Humphrey Bogart, Lucille Ball, Charlie Chaplin, Marx Brothers, etc.)...one thing customers hate is when box sets are of a different size...first of all a lot of TV shows start mid-season so they don't have a lot of episodes, the first season...if a customer buys it for 30 bucks, they more-than-likely expect season 2 to be the same size/price...imagine their shock when they are forced to spend 50-60 bucks on something they've already committed to? this is why many studios release seasons 1-2 together...even though they risk people being put off by the high price of such a large box set (and any future boxsets in the series)...

I think the most reasonable way to release the Tom & Jerry Box Sets would be as following (and I've discussed this with my buddy FuriousFreddy):

Vol. One: 1940-1950 (55 Tom & Jerry shorts)

1940: "Puss Gets The Boot"
1941: 2 cartoons
1942: 5 cartoons
1943: 4 cartoons
1944: 5 cartoons
1945: 5 cartoons
1946: 4 cartoons
1947: 8 cartoons
1948: 5 cartoons
1949: 8 cartoons
1950: 8 cartoons

bonus features:
animated segment with Gene Kelly from "Anchors Aweigh" (1945)

Vol. Two: 1951-1958 (60 Tom & Jerry shorts)

1951: 8 cartoons
1952: 10 cartoons
1953: 7 cartoons
1954: 10 cartoons
1955: 8 cartoons
1956: 7 cartoons
1957: 5 cartoons
1958: 5 cartoons

bonus features:
animated segment with Esther Williams from "Dangerous When Wet" (1953)
Spike & Tyke animated shorts (1957: 2 cartoons)


Vol. Three: 1961-1967 (48 cartoons)

Gene Deitch shorts:
1961: 3 cartoons
1962: 10 cartoons

Chuck Jones shorts:
1963: 1 cartoon
1964: 5 cartoons
1965: 10 cartoons
1966: 11 cartoons
1967: 7 cartoons

bonus features:
2001: "The Mansion Cat" theatrical short

what do you think??? post your comments...

Nicolas Orizaga
nik0las@earthlink.net

I think that Jerry mentioned somewhere that the DVD set would contain some cinemascope shorts + that it would not mimic the LD collection. That probably means that the cartoons will be presented chronologically, but some will be saved for later editions. So, I suppose that this time we will have a sort of incomplete collection of cartoons from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s presented in order of their release.

That might all be true for France, but it certainly is not true for Europe in it's entity. I know for a fact that a lot of cartoons I see over here are less censored then the ones you get to see in the US. But that of course is not what I wanted to reply too. Censoring is a no-no, no matter how much was done or not.

What I wanted to clear out is that the fact that there is a difference between playing length of an R1 and an R2 release mostly has nothing to do with censoring of movies / cartoons / video in general ...
As you might (or might not know) R1 uses the NTSC video standard, Europe uses the PAL standard. NTSC goes at 30 fps (29,97 to be exact) and PAL at 25 fps, since ordinary film is at 24 fps additional frames need to be filled. With NTSC they just double a couple of frames to fill up the extra 6 frames each second, thus preserving the original length of a movie. In PAL however to fill up the 1 missing frame they don't copy one of the 25 frames, they just add a frame of the next second, so basically what you'll get then is a movie that'll run faster. Most of the times that's about 4 %. So this has nothing to do with censoring, it's just a limitation of the technology used. On the other hand PAL does have the opportunity to offer better video quality then NTSC (however that is not so per definition).

Just wanted to point that out.

So yes, the situation is different in the US then over here. But sometimes for the better, most things are a lot less likely to be cut from the DVD or movie in general over here. Looking at France and the UK however, I think they are about THE worst offenders in the world.

That being said i'm really hoping the R1 version will be uncut and remastered in the same spectacular way as the LT Golden Collection was. But with Jerry on the team, what am I worrying about ? ;-)

That's interesting (as long as we get Mammy Two-Shoes and her original voice it's fine by me).



I do find the prices rather steep myself (I usually tend to buy them if they do suit me well enough, or if the extras fill my bill).



This would be a perfect paring for the first two volumes. Hopefully the ones from the '50s that are in Cinemascope can be shown in their original form (which would be compatible with today's HDTV sets as long as they are anamorphic). Also, should "Good Will To Men" be placed on as an extra too? (don't really count it as a T&J toon, but I think it was included in the LD box set edition I heard of. a rather nice update of Hugh Harmon's "Peace on Earth")



I think it would be fun if an extra feature for these cartoons could include some background over why they were strange to begin with, and the fact that they were produced in the former Czechoslovakia. Just itchin' to get Deitch into a recording studio in Prague and do audio commentaries to what he considers to be his best of the 13 produced!



I assume this would also include the two Tom Ray-directed shorts that were compiled from the previous Hanna-Barbera material.



Somehow I'm not quite familiar with this one.



I think it's a perfect idea. Too bad not every studio can bring such ideas to light.

There are more than just a few places cheaper than Suncoast to go if you really want this stuff! Of course, store availability and drive distance depends on where you live. Chances are that if you live in an American city with over 250,000 population, you WILL have most if not all these stories in your area.

Best Buy usually has very good prices. It's not unusual for boxed sets to be on-sale there for $15 to $20 below MSRP for at least a week after street date. If the store sells out of the box set, you CAN do a raincheck in-store (I'm assume that's a deposit/pre-pay) and still pay that week's price for the boxed set. Generally, that's not a problem because the stores usually overstock on what they KNOW will sell out.

Target's very good in general.

Even Wal-Mart, which is the worst offender at getting specialty titles, is generally better.

Media Play, part of the Musicland family (which also includes Suncoast and Sam Goody), is generally better for at least a week than Suncoast prices.

Moral of the story: you'll almost always pay more at a mall store than you will a bigger outlet or online. Much as some might refer to Amazon.com as the last line of hope, I generally DON'T like to order from Amazon because a lot of the discounts they give get killed by shipping prices...

Depending on the area of the country that you're in...

BJs typically has prices to compete with or beat Best Buy (that is of course, if you are a member). The other options are Sam's Club and Cosco.

I'm a BJs member and have noticed that they are particular on which titles and companies they will have releases for. They seem to carry all the Walt Disney (including the "Treasures" collections...this wave was featured for $22.99). They have been carrying ALL of the Hanna Barbera collections so far and they have been the cheapest I've seen. They didn't carry the first Looney Tunes collection, but my gut tells me that they will carry the next one. They carry ALL of the Fox releases, including Simpsons and Futurama and they are the cheapest in addition.

Otherwise, if you're in no rush to get any release, Deep Discount DVD.com has "free" Media Mail shipping and their prices are very competitive.

Then I guess I'm lucky to live in a place line mine that has somewhere between 300,000 and 350,000 inside the city limits.



I enjoy going here a few times outside the usually places I go to.



Hardly go here much, but they got some good prices as well.



This is where I got my digital home theatre system at as a birthday party (a "Durabrand" brand).



We used to have Suncoast in Toledo, but the remaining stores closed down a year or two ago. We still have two Media Play locations, though we used to have Musicland once at an indoor mall between 1981-98. Back then, we used to have a lot of smaller music stores like Coconuts, Cameot Records, National Record Mart and such, sadly many of these places have closed down around here, seems they've been taken over by places like Best Buy and MediaPlay.

I personally miss the days of the Ma & Pa record shops, the last of them closed up a few months back at an outdoor shopping mall.



Still, I don't mind spending more at Record Town (seems to be the only music store left at the Westfield Shoppingtown @ Franklin Park). ^_^

I wasn't suggesting that Suncoast was the only place to go for these titles...in fact that's just a second job I have...my main job is a manager for the Music & Movies department at Target/Greatland...its just the average shopper buys new releases at Target (a lot cheaper, but honestly a lot less copies are available here, we usually sell out on Tuesday and don't get re-stocked until Friday)...

the average shopper at Suncoast is buying something that either a) they don't think they'll find anywhere else, or b) its expensive but the gift certificates they get back from their Replay Card make it more worthwhile to buy it here, rather than somewhere else...

a box set that might be 5-10 dollars more at Suncoast is more appealling to a Replay member because they will probably get that 5-10 bucks back, especially if they come on a triple point weekend...

at Suncoast we have people coming in to buy all four Walt Disney Treasures sets, all four H-B sets, picking up the new Buffy Season Set and reserving the upcoming Angel season set...besides many TV show/movie buffs are more confidant in a Suncoast employees' product knowledge than they are a Target team members'...

but basically I was just saying, Suncoast is the best place to find box-sets, or hard-to-find products, and the raincheck thing works here too (with a $5.00 deposit, of course)...

Nic Orizaga