Tom and Jerry-Classic Collection-Volume 11 (1963)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1963
Running Time	108:08
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Chuck Jones Maurice Noble
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Mel Blanc
Case	Alpha-Transparent
RPI	$14.95	Music	Eugene Poddany

After the surrealist efforts of the Deitch/Snyder team, MGM hired celebrated American animator Chuck Jones to reinvigorate the Tom and Jerry animated series. Jones who had previously worked for Warner Brothers for over thirty years (Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies) started his own animation studio in 1963, named Sib Tower 12 Productions, with business partner Les Goldman and would go on to produce 34 Tom and Jerry animated shorts over 5 years.

Volume eleven of the Tom and Jerry Classic Collection assembles the first 17 animated shorts produced by Sib-Tower 12 Productions and distributed by MGM (1963-1966):

• Penthouse Mouse

• The Cat Above & The Mouse Below

• Is There a Doctor in the Mouse

• Much Ado About Mousing

• Snowbody Loves Me

• The Unshrinkable Jerry Mouse

• Ah Sweet Mouse Story of Life

• Tom-ic Energy

• Bad Day at Cat Rock

• The Brothers Carry-Mouse-Off

• Haunted Mouse

• I'm Just Wild About Jerry

• Of Feline Bondage

• The Year of the Mouse

• The Cat's Me Ouch

• Duel Personality

• Jerry, Jerry Quite Contrary

Video

The Chuck Jones shorts were all produced in Academy format, but with compositions that made them compatible to be matted to Academy wide-screen format as well. On this single-sided, single layered DVD all the cartoons are presented in a cropped aspect ratio of 1.33:1 Full Frame. The theatrical shorts have been encoded at an average bit-rate of 4.37 Mbps, achieving a smooth transfer with average colour rendering. The transfer appears soft but remains relatively clear despite heavy film grain and assorted film artefacts. There is a selection of subtitle options available which appear in small white text.

Video Ratings Summary

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Audio

Towards the end of the MGM era some of the Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts had the soundtracks recorded in stereo. However on this DVD there are Dolby Digital 1.0 audio soundtracks available in a number of language options. There are no errors apparent on the soundtracks and they remain clear and audible. Dialogue is limited in these animated productions. The cartoons are scored by the late Eugene Poddany. Unfortunately the soundtrack does not make use of surround sound but nevertheless is suitable in respect to the age of the source material.

Audio Ratings Summary

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Main Menu

A static and practical 16x9 enhanced menu, featuring an image of the characters with language, subtitle and episode selection. There are no scene chapters for episodes.

There have been various DVD releases of Tom and Jerry cartoons in themed compilations. In terms of the “classic collection” there have been two other major releases:

Region 1 - Tom and Jerry: Spotlight Collection.

This 2-disc DVD set contains a selection of 40 cartoons. Various cartoons have been omitted due to censorship, while at least three cartoons on this release have been altered in terms of dialogue and have had visual gags edited out due to being regarded as racially contentious. These cartoons are The Milky Waif, The Truce Hurts and The Little Orphan.

Extras included on this set are:

• Animation historian Jerry Beck providing a commentary on three episodes.

• A 27 minute documentary entitled How Bill and Joe met Tom and Jerry.

• A 17 minute documentary entitled Behind the tunes: the MGM orchestra.

• “Anchors Aweigh”: a dance sequence with Gene Kelly (8:11)

• “Dangerous When Wet”: swimming sequence with Esther Williams (7:46)

This NTSC set includes an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono soundtrack and English, French and Spanish subtitles.

Region 2 – Tom and Jerry: Complete Collector's Edition.

This 6-disc, double-sided DVD collection includes 157 Tom and Jerry cartoons out of the 161 episodes produced. The negative is that 15 episodes have had either audio changed or video edited out. The only soundtrack available is English Mono with no extras.

An excellent visual guide to the censorship implications can be found here.

Region 4 – Tom and Jerry: Classic Collection Volume 1-12

It seems the local release is actually the Region 2 DVD collection, released as single-layer, single-sided DVD discs and as such the censorship still exists on the local release.

Overall, each region unfortunately has become a victim of political correctness and your preference will depend on whether the Region 1 extras are of importance to you, or whether you would rather have the majority of episodes. Also, the Region 2 release suggests the cartons have been digitally re-mastered but this is not the case.

This release contains Chuck Jones’ reinvention of the successful Tom and Jerry animation series. The animation style and the speed of the gags are distinctive to Jones’ vision and psychedelic influences. Unfortunately the 11th volume of the DVD series is an unremarkable release of a classic animation series.

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