Tom & Jerry

Post by **Ben** » February 26th, 2009, 3:18 pm

There was hardly any music in the Deitch cartoons...I remember them being more about sound effects and ambiance...quite weird.

Also, I'd say his designs were much closer to Bill & Joe's originals than Chuck Jones' coyote-esque redos. Deitch (coming before Jones, remember) seemed to capture the early Tom & Jerry even if they were "simpler" lined and drawn for limited animation.

Post by **Darkblade** » February 26th, 2009, 5:08 pm

The last cartoon that was part of the Deitch era had alot of it...That would make sense of the designs of tom and jerry....In one of the cartoons there a guy{who was tom's owner i think} he got ticked off really easily. I heard he was based off of a different character in a differnt cartoon.

Post by **EricJ** » February 27th, 2009, 1:40 pm

Ben wrote:Also, I'd say his designs were much closer to Bill & Joe's originals than Chuck Jones' coyote-esque redos.

Chuck's T&J's were chronologically somewhere between "I Was a Teenage Thumb" and his 80's coyote redo's, back when he didn't have Michael Maltese writing for him anymore, and Chuck writing his own material was precious, winsome and overbearingly stylized--
How many times (besides the neo-Coyotes) do we have to see a bomb go off with the cartoon sound effect "Gigantic Explosion!"?

Post by **William** » February 28th, 2009, 12:51 am

UPDATE, GUYS:

From http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Tom-Je ... tion/11409

The T&J shorts on Tom and Jerry - The Chuck Jones Collection will be presented in their originally-designed-for-theaters 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

Post by **Ben** » March 1st, 2009, 4:49 pm

Excellent! These shorts were made in the open matte process for later TV exhibition. Those were the versions presented on the LaserDisc boxed collection. I was interested in having them on DVD, but now the widescreen framing will be used, there's even more reason to have them since it means I can stop blowing up the image if I want to run one of these in that ratio.

Post by **AH3RD** » March 13th, 2009, 8:34 am

Daniel wrote:Oh well, I'm sure AH3RD is somewhat happy, if Warner can release this, then maybe they can release that 70's version he loves so much.

Yup! Definitely crossing my fingers for the release of The Tom & Jerry Show: The Complete Series!

It's inevitable. It's unavoidable.

Post by **LotsoA113** » June 28th, 2011, 9:21 pm

Uh, Ben, don't know if you find this interesting but Tom and Jerry...IS OCMING TO BLU-RAY!!

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Tom-Je ... me-1/15578

FINALLY!

Post by **Randall** » June 29th, 2011, 12:40 am

Unbelievable. Assumedly, they're planning to do this right--- no edits!

Not my favorite series, though, and I've rarely revisited the laserdisc sets I have (also unedited); so, not sure if I'll bite. Looney Tunes would be much more tempting.

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » June 30th, 2011, 2:29 am

Frankly,

I'd care a lot more if WB finally did a proper Blu ray release of the Tex Avery MGM shorts.

Seems to be a long-shot at this point in time but many people have waited for a new collection of those shorts since the LD box 18-19 years ago.

A few of these shorts have popped as extras in classic WB movie DVDs but so far no official collection on 5" disc.

Post by **Ben** » June 30th, 2011, 7:34 am

Love it, love it! About time we started to get some real classic animation compendiums!

Post by **Randall** » July 1st, 2011, 12:49 am

I just can't believe that anyone (among old-school cartoon buffs) would want Tom & Jerry shorts more than Tex Avery shorts, but apparently that's what Warner thinks. However, I do hope that the T&J set sells well on Blu, to encourage similar releases.

Post by **Ben** » July 1st, 2011, 3:47 am

Yeah: I couldn't write more the other day because my keyboard packed up, but I was going to add that it seems they're using established characters (and ones that must continue to sell well given how many compilations they keep putting out) to test the waters.

T&J might not be the first thing that collectors would be clambering for, but it's in the right ballpark and, if this sells well enough, maybe we can look forward to an eventual Avery collection. I'm kind of surprised that they're not going the Bugs 'n' Daffy route, but maybe the reality is that those characters just don't shift enough units outside the collector core audience?

I do think it's going to be a cold day when we start to see the big kind of sets we used to get on DVD, but this is an interesting step in the right direction, the first true classic animation compendium (and for collectors too!), and will hopefully open the gates to more of the same.

I wouldn't be surprised if we don't start seeing the Looney Tunes after this, but not in the same configurations as before. My guess would be for slimmed down 40 cartoons a set type deals, maybe the "best" of the first two Golden sets for a Volume One, etc. I think anything coming out on Blu at this point, like this T&J set, will be much more character-centric than The Dover Boys or High Note, for example (although if they're brave enough they could put out a real core collector set down the line).

Anyway...these are the earlier, funnier Tom & Jerrys, so I'll be in for this and hoping for more!

Post by **EricJ** » July 2nd, 2011, 2:21 am

T&J might not be the first thing that collectors would be clambering for, but it's in the right ballpark and, if this sells well enough, maybe we can look forward to an eventual Avery collection. I'm kind of surprised that they're not going the Bugs 'n' Daffy route, but maybe the reality is that those characters just don't shift enough units outside the collector core audience?

Warner thinks T&J stayed in the public eye, because they could safely hitch them up in DTV's to whatever other marketable Time-Warner corporate property Warner wanted to promote: "T&J Meet Sherlock Holmes"..."T&J Meet Wizard of Oz (MGM Version)" After all, fans said, who cared what corporate indignities they subjected Itchy & Scratchy to; nobody liked the characters anyway.

But OTOH, Warner also knows that if they ever tried pushing their corporate-synergy luck and made a DTV "Bugs & Daffy Meet Harry Potter and Batman", true Bugs fans would be storming the studio gates within minutes, with bricks, bottles, and shouts of "Remember Space Jam!"
(Even Warner's last attempt at selling Bugs mainstream fell victim to angry fans when the studio tried cutting corners--They tried selling a widescreen-cropped Best-of Bugs for mass-market, and the fans rammed it back down the studio's throat.)

So now, Warner thinks "more kids remember" T&J than the Looneys, because they can sell T&J at Wal-Mart, but they can only sell Bugs to the prestige collectors.
Uh, there's "more" remembering, and there's "better" remembering.

Post by **Ben** » July 3rd, 2011, 5:09 pm

Um...didn't I just say all that in four lines or less?

Post by **EricJ** » July 3rd, 2011, 10:59 pm

(Yes, but the devil's in the details...)

Tom & Jerry

Re: Animation Blu ray releases...