Product Details

• Actors: Lillian Randolph
• Directors: Joseph Barbera, William Hanna, Rudolf Ising
• Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 1.0), Spanish (Dolby Digital 1.0)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: October 25, 2005
• Run Time: 320 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000ADS61M
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,047 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  #11 in	Movies & TV > Animation > Cartoon Network > Tom & Jerry
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• For more information about "Tom and Jerry - Spotlight Collection, Volume 2" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

• This is item 2 in The Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The second Spotlight Collection features both the first "Tom and Jerry" short and some of the last films in the series. In 1940, the cartoon unit of MGM was under pressure to produce more, so story man Bill Hanna and animator Joe Barbera were allowed to direct a cartoon. "Puss Gets the Boot" received an Oscar nomination, and introduced the duo that would become Tom and Jerry. (Tom was originally "Jasper.") The series ran for 15 years and won seven Oscars. Many of the cartoons follow the pattern set in "Puss Gets the Boot": Mammy Two-Shoes (Lilian Randolph) warns Tom that if he makes a mess or lets in any mice, he's out on his ear ("O-W-T, out!"). Jerry overhears the threat and makes trouble. The look of the characters changed more noticeably over the years than the storylines: their rounded designs didn't really suit the widescreen format, so they were drawn flatter and more angular.

It's interesting to see how some of these cartoons prefigure the later work of Hanna and Barbera: the underwater antics in "The Cat and the Mermouse" anticipate Tom and Jerry's frolic with Esther Williams in Dangerous When Wet (1953); Yakky Doodle on The Yogi Bear Show (1961) was copied from Little Quacker. In several cartoons, Mammy Two-Shoes' voice has been redubbed, and the subtitles offer cleaned-up versions of her dialogue. In "Old Rockin' Chair Tom," she declares, "If you is a mouser, I is Lana Turner, which I ain't!" The subtitles read, "If you're a mouser…I'm Lana Turner, which I'm not." Whoopi Goldberg discusses the use of stereotypes in the introduction, and these later reworkings falsify history. (Unrated, suitable for ages 7 and older: cartoon violence, ethnic stereotypes) --Charles Solomon

Product Description

Trends come and go; but the chase is eternal, just like the evergreen appeal of animaton's supreme cat-and- mouse team! This second Spotlight Collection of Tom and Jerry's cartoon capers boasts 40 restored and remastered shorts (including their screen debut Puss Gets the Boot, in which Tom was called Japser). This delicious assortment covers their golden years - including three Academy Award nominees* and six in their rarely seen widescreen CinemaScope - and includes spiffy, character-profiling Special Features. Get ready to duck, weave, jump and laugh and the hapless feline and the wily rodent take each other on.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Audio Commentaries: Commentary on Saturday Evening Puss, Puss N' Boots, The Night Before Christmas, and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Mouse by Madtv's Nicole Parker and Animation Historian Earl Kress.
Documentary:Animators as Actors: Actor's workshop of where the inspiration for character personalities come from.
Featurette:The Comedy Stylings of Tom And Jerry:Tom and Jerry have kept audiences laughing for years. Find out who Hanna-Barbera drew upon to create this great comedy duo.
Introduction:Tom and Jerry Introduction by Whoopi Goldberg
Production Sketches:1941 Pencil Sketch: "Midnight Snack": A side by side comparison with the color episode and the black and white pencil sketch of this famous episode.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

147 of 149 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fool me once...., November 14, 2005

By	Garrett Aja (North Las Vegas, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

87 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Warners drops the ball again, October 27, 2005

By	joseph Corey "party favors columnist" (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

80 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars p.c. has to go, November 26, 2005

By	James A. Pantano "jackthewhack" (beacon, new york United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.