Tom and Jerry – Spotlight Collection Volume Three (Warner/DVD-Video)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: B Shorts: B
Finally,
on DVD, are the last 35 Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts, released as Tom and Jerry: Spotlight Collection Volume
3 on DVD. A duo that has won a
plethora of Oscars and has competed with major animation studios like Disney
for years, Tom & Jerry have always been top rate thanks to the money MGM
had to put in them, being the #1 major of the time. The shorts on this set are no exception. The classic shorts on this 2 disc set are
amazingly funny and refreshing; it is hard to believe these old animations held
up so well artistically and otherwise.
There are several shorts that do not apparently show up on this set due
to their controversial nature (somewhat ‘racist’), which this reviewer finds to
be a sin and diminishes the history of the cartoons. The studio should take a page from Disney on
this one who even releases the most controversial old animations on their
Treasure collections (some reviewed elsewhere on this site) with a small
monologue about preserving the past; a classy thing to do.
This set
is nicely presented and holds a plethora of classics every age group can
enjoy. All of the classic characters are
there and it is purely amazing that viewing these shorts again years later how
much sub-context I had missed. I won’t
spoil it for you, but let’s just say a great deal of un-PC stuff is still
there.
The
technical features on this set of Tom & Jerry shorts are especially
good. The picture is presented in a
crisp, clear, and colorful format with about half the animated shorts presented
in 1.33 X 1 Full Screen as they originally appeared when first created and
about 15 shorts (all such shorts made his way) anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1
Widescreen format to highlight the original ‘cinemascope’ aspect ratio that was
used in theaters. Some shorts have been
freshly remastered, while others obviously need more work. In the best cases, you can see how beautiful
the three-strip dye-transfer Technicolor must have been and as a result, some
of these shorts are demo quality. The
sound has a clear and punchy quality to it that presents the shorts very well
in its Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono format, though some of the scope shorts were in
Perspecta Sound, which could imitate stereo to some extent.
Warner
has seen no need to offer any track that recreates this effect.
The
extras on this third and final volume are nice and were definitely created with
the fans in mind, including a featurette entitled ‘Cat and Mouse: The Tale of Tom and Jerry’ that goes into great
detail on the history of the mischievous duo from the early days all the way to
opinions of the team today. Also
included on the set is a 2005 short written by, directed by, and storyboarded
by Joseph Barbara entitled The Karate Guard; in the end being
his last short ever.
This
reviewer found the whole set to be just hilarious, well written, and well
animated overall. It was also touching
to see Joe Barbara’s last touch of greatness.
- Michael P Dougherty II
