Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection: Volume 3 announced!

[Maerj]

Ok LOL ... You are seriously making a big deal over the "remakes" LOL

Here are the descriptions for the shorts you listed above ... maybe that will clear up any confusion you may have ... so that you don't ... jump up and scream anymore ...

Feedin' the Kiddie is a 1956 Tom and Jerry cartoon, released in 1957. The short was produced and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. It is a CinemaScope remake of 1948's Academy Award winning cartoon, The Little Orphan. In other words, it is essentially the same cartoon, but shot in Widescreen, with stylized backgrounds and thicker inklines around the characters. Additionally, a few elements of the original cartoon are missing, notably a few seconds trimmed from the beginning of the cartoon where Jerry raids his cupboards for food, and also, Mammy Two Shoes' brief cameo is missing.



The Egg and Jerry is a 1956 Tom and Jerry cartoon produced and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. It is a CinemaScope remake of 1949's Hatch Up Your Troubles. The only aspects of the cartoon that differ from the original are that it is in a Widescreen format, the ink lines around the characters are thicker, and the backgrounds are more stylized. The cartoon's title is a play-on-words of the novel and film The Egg and I.



"Tops with Pops" is a 1956 Tom and Jerry cartoon, released in 1957, produced and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (by this time, Fred Quimby had retired and left the studio.) It is a shot-for-shot CinemaScope remake of 1949's Love That Pup. The only major differences are that the cartoon is in a Widescreen format as opposed to fullscreen, and the ink lines around the characters are thicker and more defined, due to the fact that any imperfection would be noticeable on the screen. Also, the backgrounds are more stylized than detailed, as was the style in the late 1950s. It was also the final appearance of Tyke.

Those descriptions were taken from wikipedia ...

Those SERIOUSLY don't sound that bad. I thought Bii, Junkie of DVDs meant that the remakes were recently done and in Flash or something like that! Also, the original versions of these cartoons ARE available on the other discs, right?

Also, why don't they just make the other 2 cartoons available for dowload? You could just d/l them and burn them to a DVD. Completists could then be happy.

Are they available anywhere for dowload so one could possibly make a DVD of them?

[TM2-Megatron]

Also, why don't they just make the other 2 cartoons available for dowload? You could just d/l them and burn them to a DVD. Completists could then be happy.

Obviously you're not a completist yourself, or else you'd probably know that many of these people wouldn't be happy with an unofficial disc like that. Besides, it's pointless having an entire DVD wasted with so little content.

[Escapay]

Haven't yet found a downloadable "Casanova Cat", but I acquired a nice copy of "Mouse Cleaning" on veoh.com

Scaps

[dvdjunkie]

Ichabod wrote:

Half the time I don't know why you bother buying DVDs. If things like bad restoration, DVNR, compression issues, pixellation, missing scenes, cut music, missing content and grainy prints don't bother you why don't you just get some blank VHS tapes and tape them off the TV!?

If I ever saw any of those things you talk about (I don't really think you know what they are, that's just my humble opinion) I wouldn't bother wasting my money on them. So far, I have yet to see any of the defects that people talk about in the WDT releases, the True Life Adventure films, and most of the other complaints that I read about. I think that some people just have to much time on their hands and start nitpicking and looking for things to complain about.

I buy a lot of used DVD's and have no problems with them, because I deal with reputable people, not the crooks on eBay, and other than that if it isn't available on legal DVD's, then I do record them to DVD+RW until they are released.

I have a 2-Disc "Song of the South" DVD that was advertised here on the edges of the UD forums, and I was impressed so much with it, that I doubt that I will buy a legal issue, if there ever is one. This edition of SotS is prestine in every way, and the second disc has the first complete version in full brilliant color that I have ever seen of "Coal Black and the Sebben Dwarfs". Along with some other classic 'toons and extras this was my best purchase in the last five years.

As far as the Tom and Jerry collections go, I am totally satisfied with what has been released, and if they don't ever give us those two missing shorts, I won't think of my collection as incomplete.

[TM2-Megatron]

I think that some people just have to much time on their hands and start nitpicking and looking for things to complain about.

Or they just have better eyes than you, or higher standards as far as video quality goes. Implying that they're just layabouts who over-analyze DVDs just so they can complain is insulting.

I buy a lot of used DVD's and have no problems with them, because I deal with reputable people, not the crooks on eBay, and other than that if it isn't available on legal DVD's, then I do record them to DVD+RW until they are released.

eBay can be a decent place to pick up used DVDs as well, not everyone on there is a crook. I've only ever had 1 bad experience on eBay in my years of using it, and I got a refund prompty enough through Paypal's complaint process.

As far as the Tom and Jerry collections go, I am totally satisfied with what has been released, and if they don't ever give us those two missing shorts, I won't think of my collection as incomplete.

As others have said, though, just because you're satisfied doesn't mean everyone else should be too. The simple fact is, it would've been incredibly easy for WB to include a paltry 2 additional shorts... yet for some riduculous reason they slacked off at the end and gave us a product which wasn't as good as it could've been.

[Maerj]

Also, why don't they just make the other 2 cartoons available for dowload? You could just d/l them and burn them to a DVD. Completists could then be happy.

Obviously you're not a completist yourself, or else you'd probably know that many of these people wouldn't be happy with an unofficial disc like that. Besides, it's pointless having an entire DVD wasted with so little content.

It would better than not getting the shorts at all and it was just an idea of a way to make this content available to those who want. Of course it be nice to get it on the official DVD but that didn't happen and looks like its not going to happen.

[ichabod]

Well in a further twist to this, I'm just informing you that Mouse Cleaning and Casanova Cat are both present on the UK releases uncut. Both on the "kiddy" releases and the repackages collector's editions.

This does seem incredibly perplexing that these shorts are in tact (particularly the ending of Mouse Cleaning) when other shorts on the UK sets have been subjected to the same edits as the R1 releases were and also contain the original voice for Mammy Twoshoes.

Furthermore the UK editions go beyond the Region 1 releases and include the later non Hanna-Barbera Tom and Jerry shorts.

[2099net]

Have you just checked these 'Bod?

Can you see anything on Cassanova Cat that may be offensive. I can't remember anything, but with over 100 shorts on 6 discs, its a little hard to remember them all.

[ichabod]

Have you just checked these 'Bod?

Can you see anything on Cassanova Cat that may be offensive. I can't remember anything, but with over 100 shorts on 6 discs, its a little hard to remember them all.

Yes I've just checked (in fact I had to open (Only vol 1-2 was opened, the others were still sealed)

Here is Casanova Cat and the potentially offensive scenes:

Well there's maidy


Tom smoking


Blowing smoke to give Jerry a black face which he retains for a few minutes


Tom then twists Jerry's bow around a makes him do a dance in blackface for about half a minute



And for the heck of it, I've also done Mouse Cleaning. Most of the offensive appears in the close of the cartoon.

After having a load of coal dumped on him Tom emerges with blackface


Then Tom begins to climb out of the coal and Mammy twoshoes begins to ask him question. Tom walks down the road in a sort of stereotype shuffle and answers her (Yes Tom speaks!) in a stereotype slow voice for about 20 seconds.




A post on the animation history forums suggested that the short Mouse Cleaning may actually have been left off because of the destruction of the house and bad behaivour as being imitatable. Which may not actually be as unlikely as it sounds. Don't forget even recently Lilo and Stitch had a fully animated/fully colored/fully scored chunk removed because of the dangerous behaivour and destruction of the house.

[2099net]

Oh yes. I remember Mouse Cleaning's ending. I always thought it was many degrees more offensive than a "normal" black face gag because of Tom's "Uncle Tom" style speech.

I guess its the smoking on Cassanova Cat rather then the black face.

Oh, while I'm here, can anyone confirm that they left off Cassanova Cat but included a totally unedited His Mouse Friday? If so, can anybody please explain that non-logic to me?

[MK Sharp]

Interesting stuff, Ichabod.

I've been having a look at some on-line listings - my, those UK sets are cheap at the moment! - and note that the itemisations for Volume 2 omit Mouse Cleaning (and also Solid Serenade and Professor Tom). Can you confirm that Vol 2 is the right one to go for for Mouse Cleaning?

[2099net]

Both Solid Serenade and Professor Tom are on my Vol 2 (part of the Vol 1 & 2 twin-pack exclusive to HMV - but this is only the two individual volumes in a digipack together). Personally, I'm quite happy with the UK releases.

Over the whole set you get the following:

2 shorts are missing. One is Millionaire Cat (which has been left off due to a mistake I would suggest rather than content worries). I forget which is the other missing short. I only found out sometime after viewing the set.

Most of the shorts are still "unedited" - or if they are edited, they are from the UK Cartoon Network edits, which aren't as harsh as the US ones. I use "unedited" in quotes, because on most, although the cartoon is intact, the voice of the maid has been altered.

The 'Scope movies are not in widescreen. Ichabod thinks some of them are. In all honestly, its been so long since I viewed the cartoons, I can't remember if any widescreen ones slipped through. I can remember widescreen titles changing to pan and scan for the main cartoon body.

We also get the Deitich and Jones cartoons. All in all, despite the problems its worth owning the full set of 6 volumes just to get all (but two) of the Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts presented in chronological order.

I would suggest a true collector goes for the US and UK releases. I hear the US toons are edited too, so while being superior in the presentation department (I assume they have more restoration and they have the widescreen cartoons released in the proper aspect ratio) they're still not perfect. And I did enjoy watching the shorts in proper order on my UK set, which lets you see how the series developed (and then went down the tubes in the later years).

[MK Sharp]

Thanks for the info.

The other short missing from the R2 sets is 1956's Busy Buddies.

I've got the US sets, but I've decided to dive in and grab the UK sets as well. At the moment the two-volume boxes are £7.89 at Sendit.com, which is around AU$22.
The T&J DVDs were released out here as 12 single sided discs, each retailing at AU$18(!), ultimately covering all the material that's in the 6 UK volumes. Since I'd need to buy two of them to get the two films not in the US sets, I figured I may as well pay the extra $8 and get the whole box and mice from the UK. Plus there's all those Gene Deitch / Chuck Jones T&J films to get as well - because, heck, I'm not fussy...

Now all I've got to do is find time to watch some of this stuff!