Tom & Jerry Uncensored DVD release, Jacket art posted at animated-news.com Options

[CaptGeorge]

So I guess the LT Golden Collection format is the official standard for the rest of the WB collections?

That's the way it looks from all the recent DVD releases (Scooby-Doo, Flintstones) and the preview art for the Tom & Jerry Collection that SOMEBODY'S (gee, who could that be, Jerry?) been leaking news about for over a year.

Glad to see the collection is finally happening, just hope that I don't have to dig up the old laserdisc collections in case somebody goes snip-snip with the cartoons again.

[Jon Lyrik]

Uncensored?

FINALLY.

Is it avaliable for pre-order yet?

[LooneyThad]

Don't get your hopes up... Every other release of Tom & Jerry are the same edited versions we've been seeing for years... I severely doubt this collection is going to be worthwhile....


-Thad

[LooneyThad]

By every other release, I mean all DVD releases of Tom & Jerry thus far...


-Thad

[Gordan]

The box set cover looks great. It seems to have been inspired by the classic Hanna-Barbera MGM short "The Million Dollar Cat" (1944).

My only concern is that it supposedly contains only 2 discs. I was expecting this to be the first part of the complete, uncut collection of T&J cartoons placed in their chronological order (Two 4-disc sets). Now, I am worried that this will be a mixed bag of cartoons (early H-B MGM stuff + later, more stylized stuff + Chuck Jones' version of T&J), just like the Looney Tunes DVD set from last year (although that one did have 4 discs).

Anyone has any more info on this?
Or is it still too early to know?

[Igor]

You may want to look at this UK review:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=10823

If this is the same set, it has been horribly butchered.

[CaptGeorge]

You can't compare Region 2 DVD releases to Region 1... Too different territories, too different mentalities.

In many European countries, they routinely censor movies for violence and remove politically incorrect material all the time at a rate that the PC-police in the US envy.

If you notice the differences in running times between DVD releases in Europe and the US, chances are that the violence (and in many cases ethnic jokes) was cut out. It's especially a big deal in France which has a large Arab population.

It's a known fact that several Tex Avery cartoons were censored on the Tex Avery set released last year in France. What was also not widely reported was the fact that the set used unrestored masters. The American set is expected to have restored materials (video/audio) and be as close as possible (depending on existing films) to the uncensored original releases. That's pretty much what the guy working on the liner notes (Jerry Beck) for the set has said and I think he's a pretty straight shooter so I have no reason to disbelieve his word on this.

The Tom & Jerry DVD collection is NOT the same as the current individual DVD releases. The current themed DVD releases are meant to be mainstream, sanitized for families. It's already been said (by Jerry Beck) that the films are undergoing restoration now and should look better than the laserdisc sets released years ago.

I still have reservations about possible cuts to the cartoons but the situation in the US is different than Europe.

[Ray Pointer]

Much of the review makes points about the soundtracks and redubbing, which seems to refer to the television versions that have the original Lillian Randolph voice replaced with a latter day. There are other sorts of judgemental comments about the recording equipment not being very good, which is misinformed from an historical standpoint. MGM had the top of the line recording facilities as provided by Western Electric in the 1940s. If anything has happened to the soundtracks, it may have happened in the replication of the DVDs themselves, as these cartoons seemed to have soundtracks that were every bit as good, or evern better sounding than they were years ago.

There are other technical details that seem a bit inaccurate in this review such as the theatrical aspect ratio being 1:37 to 1 when it was actually 1:33 to 1 before the switch to Cinemascope's 2 to 1 proportion. Again, this is something that the public does not re about, and has nothing to do with the public's buying interest.

The audience is not the least bit interested in these details, no matter how wrong or right they may be. I continue to be both amused and befuddled by these self-appointed reviewers who are equipped with a little bit of techincal knowledge, but don't really know little of what they are writing about. Viewing films on a DVD can be misleading, as I've had reviewers of my own discs tell me what film gage and generation the prints I used were, second guessing what I did, or what my source materials were. Ironically, they seem to know all about what I worked with without asking what I did. The same sort of armchair expertise applies to this review.

In spite of all this, I've had the understanding that there have been better TOM AND JERRY releases that avoided the flaws that are mentioned in this review. But if this is what is being released, then this is what you get.

[CaptGeorge]

I looked at that UK review, Ray, and it seemed to be, as the British would put it, a very "snarky" review.

I also had the feeling the guy DIDN'T know what he was talking about in places.

Yeah, I thought it was funny he thought the aspect ratio was 1.37:1... Widescreen didn't become standard until much later after the series started and there were not any Tom & Jerry cartoons done in widescreen anyway until about the mid-1950s. Never much cared for most of the theatrical shorts done in widescreen, anyway. This was about the time the UPA-craze and shrinking budgets affected the character design and color schemes in many studios' film series. I really don't like the redesigned Tom & Jerry and the flatter color schemes of the 1950s shorts. Give me the lusher-colored, more detailed 1940s shorts any day of the week. The stories were also better in those shorts.

(On a historical note, I've heard of experimental widescreen films done BEFORE the 1950s widescreen craze. I think I've read about a rollercoaster movie done in widescreen in the late 1920s or 1930s.)

It's very funny the British reviewer said the sound was bad because I've seen plenty of good prints of Looney Tunes, MGM cartoons, and Disney shorts from the late 1930s-onward that had excellent mono sound. (Of course, Mono will sound worse than Stereo sound any day of the week unless the Stereo mix is really bad. But that's beside the point. These cartoons were made with Mono soundtracks.) I don't think the equipment used today would be that much better at mixing Mono if they would even do it in the 5.1 era at any rate. Maybe WB got cheap and released the European Tom & Jerry set without doing a full restoration job?

I really don't think this is what we're getting in the US. I'm positive Jerry Beck said in the past that the US release is going to be a RESTORED set like the Looney Tunes Golden Collection was.

People shouldn't automatically assume that what the US market is getting is EXACTLY the same set as the European and Japanese releases or any of the individual DVD releases. I thought Jerry Beck was very clear that wasn't the case at all.

[mbaker]

If Jerry's reports about the cartoons being restored is any indication, this DVD set might turn out great. (Still, i'm keeping my ear to the ground on this one.) While the "Looney Tunes Gold Collection" had a mixed bag of cartoons, it was still a fantastic set with beautiful restoration, and great extras.

[JERRY BECK]

Thanks Mbaker, for your confidence. I'm not allowed to discuss the contents of the TOM & JERRY set (Please, NO questions) but I can tell you it will different (in a good way) from any Euro or Japanese DVDs released so far.

[Gordan]

I didn't know that Jerry was directly involved in making of these DVDs. Now, it is so much easier to breathe...

CaptGeorge,
your comments probably apply to some Western European countries. I grew up in the former Yugoslavia, where Hollywood cartoons were NEVER censored (maybe you will find this hard to believe, since Yugoslavia was a communist country, but it's true). I grew up watching uncut "Tom and Jerry," "Looney Tunes," Disney, "Woody Woodpecker," and even the 1940s Famous Studios "Popeye" shorts (films that are hardly ever shown in North America these days). When I immigrated to Canada, I thought I would be able to see even more of these fantastic cartoons. But, oddly enough, the concept of not only hiding, but also butchering of classical animated films in order to suit various politically correct sensibilities was introduced to me here in North America.

[Jorge Finkielman]

Cartoons have never been censored in Latin America either.

But things began to change when the American cable channels took them over from local broadcasters and began to show the altered versions.

The most violent classic cartoons used to be played without generating any problem due to their content, including those from WWII.

For video and now DVD releases, the compnaies used masters from the USA. So, if they are edited that's how they are published.

[corey3rd]

I'm happy that Tom and Jerry is only a 2 DVD set. Seeing how CN is giving 2 hours of Tom and Jerry to the kids, the $64.95 SRP of H-B boxsets might be a bit of a reach of grown ups to get their kids these sets - especially since there are single T&J discs going dirt cheap.

I only hope that the disc contains those extremely violent Hungarian cartoons with a commentary from Matt Groening.

[Jon Lyrik]

You may want to look at this UK review:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=10823

If this is the same set, it has been horribly butchered.

Appearantly, this will be far from that UK DVD. With Beck involved, I'm almost damn sure.