Tom & Jerry – The Chuck Jones Collection + Greatest
Chases, Vol. 2 (Warner DVDs)
Picture:
B-/C+ Sound: C+ Extras: B-/C- Animated Shorts: B/B-
In the
1960s, MGM had tried a new strategy that they would move away from the
musicals, but not from either big productions or putting the money out for top
rate product to keep the studio’s legendary reputation for producing the best
releases in Hollywood. This extended to
animation and though they never had features as good as Disney or shorts as good
as Disney and Warner, they had Tom &
Jerry, but original creators Hanna-Barbera had moved to TV and formed their
own company. That left the studio
searching for new producers of the shorts, which they decided to continue and
two new DVD releases from Warner Bros. shows the results.
Greatest Chases, Vol. 2 is not a bad single DVD of 14
well-produced shorts into the 1950s of the cat & mouse team in action,
complete with the budgets, flowing animation and exceptional color to match,
but I would have to look at all the older shorts again to see if I agreed with
the title of the release. Still, these
hold up very well, can be very politically incorrect and include the following:
1)
Sufferin’ Cats
2)
Baby Puss
3)
The Million Dollar Cat
4)
The Bodyguard
5)
Mouse Trouble
6)
Flirty Birdy
7)
Quiet Please!
8)
Cat Fishin’
9)
The Invisible Mouse
10) Heavenly Puss
11) Jerry & The Goldfish
12) Cue Ball Cat
13) Slicked-up Pup
14) Jerry’s Cousin
The last
one refers to his tough street cousin.
They are all high-quality, but can seem random and many would ask, why
not a mega set or two of all the shorts in chronological order? Either way, it is a nice set for fans and justifies
its release.
After
Gene Deitch did a dozen shorts with limited but interesting, surreal art and
animation, MGM decided they wanted something fuller and more expensive, so they
managed to hire Chuck Jones as Warner Bros. decided to fold their Looney
Tunes/Merrie Melodies production in house (though another studio took over)
leaving Jones suddenly available. The
result was a new contract at MGM, more creative control than ever and the
following shorts:
1)
Pent-House Mouse
2)
The Cat Above, The Mouse Below
3)
Is There A Doctor in The Mouse?
4)
Much Ado About Mousing
5)
Somebody Loves Me
6)
The Unsinkable Jerry Mouse
7)
Ah, Sweet Mouse-Story Of Life
8)
Tom-ic Energy
9)
Bad Day At Cat Rock
10) The Brothers-Carry-Mouse Off
11) Haunted Mouse
12) I’m Just Wild About Jerry
13) Of Feline Bondage
14) The Year Of The Mouse
15) The Cat’s Me-Ouch
16) Duel Personality
17) Jerry, Jerry, Quite Contrary
18) Jerry-Go-Round
19) Love Me, Love My Mouse
20) Puss ‘N’ Boats
21) Filet Meow
22) Matinee Mouse
23) The A-Tom-inable Snowman
24) Catty-Cornered
25) Cat & Dupli-Cat
26) O-Solar-Meow
27) Guided Mouse-ille
28) Rock ‘N’ Rodent
29) Cannery Rodent
30) The Mouse From H.U.N.G.E.R.
31) Surf-Bored Car
32) Shutter Bugged Cat
33) Advance & Be Mechanized
34) Purr-Chance To Dream
Though
derided at the time for not being as edgy and antagonistic as the classic
shorts before, I think that always sold the characters short. This is why I think the Deitch shorts
(limited as they are) are interesting.
Like Deitch, Jones brought the characters into the 1960s by dealing with
new ideas and three in particular, consumer culture, pop culture and space-aged
technology. Jones started this with his
Warner work in the 1950s and really runs with it here, all the way to a great Man From U.N.C.L.E. spoof. Their work should not be the 1950s work because that is an era that ended. If anything, it shows how enjoyable and
likable the duo is and after these shorts, MGM (and later Turner Entertainment)
never could relaunch them well in a fully realized new version, no matter what
the efforts were.
That is
why they hold up so incredibly well and on these DVDs, people will see what
they are missing. Also, they are the end
of the era of high quality, fully animated shorts before limited TV animation
took over for decades to come. As good
as computer generated animation can get, it is not and never will be like
hand-drawn at its best. The idea that
Jerry and Tom are always friends here is untrue, that happened on the later TV
series. Instead, they are antagonists,
but it is gentler and more thoughtful.
It is also charming like Jones’ best work and that is the #1 reason to
see this set and for those who have seen them before, give them a serious second
chance. Tom & Jerry – The Chuck Jones Collection deserves rediscovery
and revisionist thinking to its advantage as among (along with many Fleischer
Studio one-shot shorts) some of the most underrated theatrical shorts ever
made.
The
anamorphically enhanced shorts on Jones
start at 1.66 X 1, then they go 1.78 X 1, meaning you loose some top &
bottom versus analog TV copies, where you lose the sides. This might upset purists, but I can say that
the picture quality is really impressive and will shock even the biggest of
fans; especially for this format. The
color is great, prints clean and clear, detail fine enough and are like never
having seen them before. The 1.33 X 1 image
on the Chases disc also looks good
color-wise, but detail is not always as good.
The Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono on both is decent sounding, but Jones sounds a bit better. Still, the tracks are clean and combined with
the picture quality, is a treat. Can’t
wait for the Blu-rays.
Extras on
Jones include a trailer for the
other release and two fine featurettes everyone will want to catch. Tom & Jerry... and Chuck
(narrated by the great June Foray and on DVD 1) tells of the rise of the characters
and how Jones landed up making these shorts.
DVD 2 has Chuck Jones: Memories Of Childhood, a brand new look at the
master artist and creator’s life that is yet another must see. You also get a Scooby Doo DVD trailer. Chases only offers trailers for other
Warner animated releases on DVD.
- Nicholas Sheffo
