Tom & Jerry – Deluxe Anniversary Collection (Warner Bros. DVD Set)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Compilation: B-
In an
attempt to offer animation collections for adults, Warner has issued Tom and Jerry – Deluxe Anniversary Edition
and it is the most wide-ranging set to date, but that does not mean all is well
with this 2 DVD set. The contents
include:
DVD
One
Puss Gets The Boot
The Midnight Snack
Dog Trouble
Fraidy Cat
Puss ‘N Toots
The Lonesome Mouse
Yankee Doodle Mouse
Mouse Trouble
Mouse In Manhattan
Quiet Please!
The Milky Waif
The Cat Concerto
The Little Orphan
Saturday Evening Puss
The Two Mouseketeers
Johann Mouse
Touché, Pussy Cat!
That’s My Mommy
The Egg & Jerry
Tops with Pops
This
includes the earliest shorts, some of the best, a few Academy Award winners and
the last four are CinemaScope shorts, but Touché
and Mommy are pan and scan with
letterboxed openings, while Egg and Tops are letterboxed only, so the
package claim that these are anamorphically enhanced is wrong.
DVD
Two
Gene
Kelly/Jerry clip from Anchors Aweigh
Esther
Williams/Tom/Jerry clip from Dangerous
When Wet
Pent-House Mouse
The Cat Above & The Mouse
Below
The Cat’s Me-ouch
- above
three by Chuck Jones
Cosmic Cat & Meteor Mouse (from New Tom & Jerry Show 1975 Hanna Barbera TV series)
Jerry’s Country Cousin (from the 1980 Filmation TV
series)
Flippin’ Fido (from the Tom & Jerry Kids TV series)
The KarateGuard (2005 theatrical short/Joseph
Barbera’s last time directing the duo)
A Game of Mouse & Cat (from the Tom & Jerry Tales TV series)
The picture
on the 1.33 X 1 classic shorts look the best with often fine color (Technicolor
correct too!), while the Kelly and Williams clips could look better. The three Jones shorts are also NOT
anamorphically enhanced like the case states, though they were on the Tom & Jerry – Chuck Jones Collection
set you can read more about at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8678/Tom+&+Jerry+%E2%80%93+The+Ch
They
looked better on that set. The 1975 and
1980 TV clips are from hit shows fans are not big on but introduced the duo to
new generations of fans successfully.
This is the best I have seen any episodes of those shows ever look. KarateGuard
is done in the original 1.3 X 1 block style the classic shorts are in and it is
the most money spent on the duo since Jones’ shorts. It is a shame Warner did not include at least
one Gene Deitch short, while the four CinemaScope shorts are so butchered and
not as sharp or clear as they are on sets like Greatest Chases, Volume 3, covered here:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9106/Tom+&+Jerry+%E2%80%93+Greatest
Extras
include four previews for other Warner animated DVDs and the short featurette Much
Ado About Tom & Jerry covering their history in under 20 minutes
and is not bad. However, this set still
disappoints because the presentations are not what collector’s will want
throughout and Warner will get complaints.
Too bad, because fans deserve better.
- Nicholas Sheffo
