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Category:    Home > Reviews > Animation > Shorts > Comedy > Satire > Compilation > Tom & Jerry – Deluxe Anniversary Collection (Warner Bros. DVD Set)

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


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