Customer Reviews

Tom and Jerry - Spotlight Collection, Volume 2

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

It has become something of a full-time job tracking DVDs, not because of the sheer number of discs being released, but because of the editing done to our favorite TV shows, movies, and cartoons on the format. One of the more spectacular examples in recent memory was the first Tom & Jerry Spotlight Collection, which featured 3 edited shorts and was quickly followed up with promises from both Warner Bros. and animation historian Jerry Beck that this error would be rectified.

Fast forward a year, and Volume 2 is announced with renewed claims that the shorts contained are uncut. While some of the shorts featuring the now-controversial character Mammy Two-Shoes have the original voice (which belies a reference to Hattie McDaniel of Gone With the Wind fame), others feature the redubbed "politically correct" voice that Turner created in the '90s. The bottom line here is that Warner Bros.' (or at least their children's video division) can't be trusted to produce an uncut DVD set (or even a restored set, as most of the prints here are the same ones seen on Cartoon Network and Boomerang), much less to be honest with their intentions. Of course, with a growing list of edited, time-compressed, and music-replaced cartoons on DVD, the average viewer quickly gets the idea that most studios view classic animation as disposable entertainment not worthy of a correct, well cared for release. And until we stop buying such shoddily-produced DVDs, that view will continue to prevail.

Not only are 4 cartoons using redubbed voices for the maid, but my favorite Saturday Evening Puss is poorly mastered and looks worse than any cartoon on this set. Plus they repeat Texas Tom from Vol. 1. Did nobody involved in this project look at the set list and notice that Texas Tom already came out? And it wasn't even one of the three cartoons snipped on the first set. Expect to see it on Vol. 3.

political corectness is an absolute travesty and to say that tom and jerry or bugs bunny may not be suitable for younger viewers is an absolute disgrace. i love tom and jerry but will not purchase this set on principle alone. it boggles my mind to think that a visual disclaimer should be shown to bemoan the "hurtfull" images shown for two seconds in a cartoon from fifty or sixty years ago while todays generation is fed a steady diet of filth and corruption with not so much as a peep from this p.c. crowd. i recently purchased the looney tunes volume 3 dvd and while the cartoons are "unedited" (i cant believe this is even an issue) whoppi goldberg is at the beginning of each disc to make sure and tell us that these cartoon contain objectionable material. thanks whoppi, because you know i might forget i was watching a cartoon and take it literally. is this a joke? has she watched mtv lately? is what kids are watching today less objectionable then what recent generations were watching back then? are rap music thugs less objectionable than a maid shown in a tom and jerry cartoon? please dont insult my intelligence by omiting and hopeing i wont notice. five stars for the real tom and jerry, zero stars for p.c. palookas.

I was truly looking forward to a DVD Tom and Jerry set that included "Puss Gets the Boot" and the other first ten cartoons, but it seems now (and forever?) I will have to be satisfied with my laserdiscs for seemingly complete and uncut episodes.
What puzzles me is that the Mammy Two-Shoes character is hardly a negative portrayal of an older Black woman. I find Elmer Fudd and Mr. Meek more negative white stereotypes *laughs*!
Besides, weren't Mammy's vocal inflections and style of speech being hailed as "Ebonics" just ten years ago by the very community that is now expected to be so offended? I ride the bus to work every day and I hear very similar vocalisations. And no one complains, much less the people speaking.
No, the likely truth is that a paranoid, guilt-plagued elite of Caucasian men are responsible for butchering these wonderful, and without a shred of mean-spiritedness, cartoons.
When will it end? When no one buys this junk, and makes their wishes known to the manufacturers.
Warner Entertainment, please clean the cartoons up, collate them, and present them on DVD. Nothing more is required for the publics' entertainment or security.

***UPDATE - July 12,2009**
So, I saw this set at Target for [...] and figured "okay, it's steal". And the box said something about a NEW intro by Goldberg. And it SEEMED like Mammy Two-Shoes was back, until I read a fellow reviewers comments that only the copies where Jerry isn't holding cheese and Tom is kinda upside-down are the completely unedited versions. Four cartoons are edited, apparently.

Hey-Zeus! Finding the right copy of this thing is getting absurd - and now there's another reviewer that receieved the wrong copy from right here at Amazon even though they have the correct version pictured.
Your best bet is to find an eBay seller who will tell you EXACTLY which copy they have.

To top it all off, I was ready to purchase volume 3 when even that one has deletion issues! It was a matter of Tom in coal dust-induced black-face doing a Steppin' Fetchit impersonation in "Mouse Cleaning", and Jerry doing a little cigar smoke-induced, black-faced soft shoe in "Casanova Cat".
Fetchit was BLACK, he was proud and he was funny. Do Whites get all upset everytime Archie friggin' Bunker says something stupid, or blame whomever for releasing All In The Family dvds? Do they get their backs up whenever Jerry Lewis does his nerd thing, or do Jews get bent-out-of-shape when videos turn up of Jack Benny doing his "cheap" routine"?
I've got news for you, Warners: NEITHER DO BLACK PEOPLE RE: CARTOON MICE.

Its' just YOU being paranoid and idiotic. Do some market research in Los Angeles, New York City, 7/8ths of Mississippi, wherever - and see if anyone who's skin isn't pale gives a damn.

What the Eff, Warners?
The community that is expected to be offended has posthumously forgiven Michael Jackson for attempting to change his very race and exonertated him for at least appearing to be a pedophile, and Warners is worried they'll offend somebody because they're making a few dollars on a cartoon created sixty years ago?
Disney released all their possibly racist stuff (they only had Leonard Maltin apologising - not exactly Soul-Brother #1, y'know?) and I'll tell you - even I was offended! Disney's early racist gags are brutal by comparison with any other studio, and enough to make anyone cringe.

But Bless 'em for getting it out there! What are future Americans supposed to believe - that Good White Folk have never done a wrong thing?
All that's accomplished in this historical revisioning is white washing decades of true history.

Future Americans won't even know what the fuss was about if this trend continues. And I'm not saying I want the African American Community to go on for another hundred years with a massive inferiority complex and slavery's burden on their hearts, but it's part of who they are - like the Holocaust is for Jews, like the European Westward expansion is for Native Americans, like almost losing the 1980 Olympic hockey finals is for Whites.
They deserve to exhibit what they've suffered to get where they are, and not have it swept under the PC carpet because Warner Entertainment is chickens**t. Not everybody had their "Miracle On Ice". The world deserves to know.

Get ready for the REAL craziness, folks, when they edit every time Bugs Bunny kissed Elmer Fudd because it might be offensive to homosexuals.
I'm not kidding - give it about ten to fifteen years.
It took less time to go from singing the praises of "Ebonics" to this current bulls**t, and EVERYBODY'S to blame.


Allow me to close with one more thing: this kind of revisionism creates anger in the hearts of those who love this material - anger at the companies that own, edit and withhold the material, anger at the media for stirring up trouble where there was none, and, sadly, anger at those who are supposedly being appeased and protected.

Back about twenty years ago I couldn't find a White man with anything nice to say about Bill Cosby (who's albums I grew up on and love) because they thought he was withholding "The Little Rascals" from them. It was a lie, but it took years for the truth to surface and many folks still think he had them.
The dvd set is out, the lie is exposed, but the anger remains.
Warner, don't create racial rifts over nothing.
Keep Whoopi and Leonard employed and let's all have a few laughs.
******************************************************************'
UPDATE: February 2011 - thanks to our good buddy KnyghtOwl we now know that Warner's disc replacement service is still offering discs that have Mammy's voice restored to original. The number is [...]. I don't as yet know the criteria for ordering.
We'll miss the missing two cartoons, but it's better than nothing!

It's hard to read these "These cartoons are edited" reviews on Amazon, simply because they don't give a brief explanation on exactly WHICH cartoons are missing cuts or containing the redubbed voices of Mammy-Two Shoes.

After buying this set, I am able to find out which cartoons contain the redubbed voice of Mammy-Two Shoes. Out of the 37 cartoons (excluding TEXAS TOM which is already included on Volume 1), only four contain the redubbed voice of Mammy, which are:

Saturday Evening Puss
Knit-Witty Kitty
Polka Dot Puss(?)
The Lonesome Mouse

Now after reading those "These cartoons are edited" reviews, I thought at first Warner Bros. only used the Cartoon Network/Boomerang prints which leave out minor cuts, but amazingly, these cartoons, which have been literally edited on Cartoon Network/Boomerang (or any other major TV network)--

Puss Gets the Boot
Fraidy Cat
Dog Trouble
Puss n' Toots
The Mouse Comes to Dinner
Mouse in Manhattan
Trap Happy
Part-Time Pal
Old Rockin' Chair Tom
Safety Second

--ARE PRESENTED IN THEIR ORIGINAL UNEDITED FORMS RIGHT HERE IN THIS DVD SET!! That was more than what I would expect when it comes to the WB releasing MGM cartoons on DVD. The rest of the cartoons in this set are presented unedited as well! How about that?

I wouldn't know whether or not to recommend this DVD set to anybody, depending on how they are writing reviews here on Amazon, but I would pinpoint my opinion on this set: On the downside, it's still a disgrace to have a few cartoons contain redubbed voices of Mammy, and neither is it any better than Volume 1. But on the upside, it's still a lot better than how Tom and Jerry cartoons have been airing on TV these days.

But that's just me. What do you guys think?

Note to WB and all DVD producers who edit/redub/"PC"-tamper with any and all film/cartoon/tv/music productions: This set and its predecessor have convinced me NOT to buy them--I'll simply transfer my "Art Of Tom & Jerry" Laserdisc box sets from the 90s (which are the true unedited works) to DVD myself. With the technology we have today, I can create a decent product (albeit without any "extras"). I paid a premium price for the Laserdiscs way back when, so I have no problem with transferring these classic toons myself for my own purposes. I'd gladly buy them again on DVD to avoid all the trouble and headache of transferring them myself, but NOT when they are presented like this.

I refuse to buy... release a true unedited version!!! Enough with the Sensitivity Crap!!!!!

Didn't buy the first collection because of all of the negative reviews (and because I still have my Art of Tom and Jerry Laserdiscs that shows them in release order). After reading there would be a P.C. disclamer on the set I went out and bought it expecting unedited cartoons. Well, Mammy is back in place, but her voice in some of the episodes was re-dubbed to make her sound less stereotypical. And this after Whoopi G. spends 3 minutes telling us that the character is so important to the series that she just can't be left out. Poor Tom and Jerry. Will we ever see the original versions again? Either we see Mammy dropped and re-animated as a white woman, or we see Mammy and have her voice altered (in the 60s she even was redubbed with an Irish accent in some cartoons!). Or on TV she's just edited out sometimes. I give up.

I absolutely REFUSE to waste any more money on releases that are not the originals. I will happily shell out the green for the original Mammy voice, the black-face gags, and other scenes that have otherwise remained unrevealed by virtue of censorship.

the cartoons are EDITED folks..

EDITED!!


i'll continue spending my money on bootleg T&J dvds from ebay since they are UNCUT & untampered with