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Category:    Home > Reviews > Animation > Comedy > Shorts > Tom and Jerry – Spotlight Collection Volume Three (Warner/DVD-Video)

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


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