The Extras
The Extras
Announcing the TOM & JERRY GOLDEN ERA ANTHOLOGY Blu-ray
Warner Archive announces the release of all 114 Tom and Jerry animated shorts produced by Hanna-Barbera at MGM between 1940-1958, completely uncut and uncensored in a definitive collection coming December 9th.
• Comprehensive six-disc Blu-ray collection from Warner Archive features the entire Hanna-Barbera Tom and Jerry library in chronological order
• Special features include two new documentaries: "Animal Hijinx: The Friends and Foes of Tom" and "Lady of the House: The Story of Mammy Two Shoes"
• The set includes 20 audio commentaries, HD excerpts from "Anchors Aweigh" and "Dangerous When Wet," and a 28-page booklet
• DVD version will be available at select retailers while the deluxe Blu-ray set will be available from online retailers carrying Warner Archive products
• George Feltenstein and Jerry Beck discuss the importance of presenting these cartoons uncensored as they were originally created for theatrical release
• This release corrects issues from previous attempts, including the canceled Golden Collection Volume 2 from 2013
• The cartoons have been restored using the best available elements despite the original negatives being lost in a 1978 fire
Pre-orders are not available yet.
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Hello and welcome to the Extras. I'm Tim Millard, your host, and joining me are animation historian Jerry Beck and George Feltenstein from the Warner Archive. Hi guys.
Tim Millard:Hello, gentlemen.
Tim Millard:Well, it's always great to have you guys together because that means it's fun animation discussions. You guys together, because that means it's fun animation discussions. And today is a very exciting day because you have some great news to share with animation fans out there.
Tim Millard:So I'm going to turn this over to you, george.
Tim Millard:Well, for fans of Cat and Mouse by the name of Tom and Jerry, we're very happy to announce that all 114 Tom and Jerry animated short subjects produced and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera at the MGM Animation Department between 1940 and the last release was 1958, all of them are coming out in an uncut, uncensored. All of them are coming out in an uncut, uncensored. 114 cartoon collection on DVD from Warner Brothers Discovery Home Entertainment and on Blu-ray. A six-disc set with five discs of the cartoons on BD50s and a bonus disc making a total of six, are coming from the Warner Archive Collection to commemorate everybody's favorite cat and mouse on their 85th birthday, their 85th anniversary, and there will be, as I said, the Blu-ray set from the Warner Archive Collection has a bonus disc with two new documentaries, which we're really excited about, some vintage clips and some other goodies that we think the fans will really enjoy. And the best part of it is that, as I mentioned before a little bit, the cartoons are completely uncut, uncensored, all 114 of them presented chronologically, looking and sounding fantastic.
Tim Millard:This has been a labor of love for many people here within the company. This would not have happened without the collaboration of many colleagues here. I don't want to mention anyone specifically by name, because then they'll get bombarded with emails and phone calls and God knows what else. There are some people that really went to the mat for this so that we could do this the right way, which we've never been able to do before. 30 years ago, jerry and I put together the Art of Tom and Jerry Laserdisc box sets, and even those releases were compromised in quality and sometimes we weren't able to provide complete versions of certain cartoons because the masters that Turner would send to us at MGMUA were censored. These are all completely uncensored as they were shown in theaters, and that is a monumental achievement, and I can't name names, but just know that a lot of people in a lot of different divisions within this corporation all saw the wisdom of paying homage to Hannah and Barbara and their wonderful cat and mouse that kept people around the world because Tom and Jerry is universally beloved in so many countries, especially because they don't talk, they shouldn't talk. We won't talk about that 1992 feature.
Tim Millard:This is a moment of celebration for the true animation fans who have been begging, clamoring and pleading for this, those who were so disappointed in 2013 because the Tom and Jerry Golden Collection Volume 2 was going to be missing Casanova Cat and missing mouse cleaning and that announcement and people's nasty comments all over the internet ended up canceling the release, ruining it for everyone.
Tim Millard:Well, now all those past pains can be put in the past, because it's only celebration. These cartoons are going to look and sound magnificent. They're all going to be presented uncut chronologically with, on the Blu-ray version, a whole bonus disc and there will be 20 commentaries included amongst the 114 animated short subjects in these collections. The DVD set will be available at certain retailers that still carry physical product. The Blu-ray version from the Warner Archive will have a deluxe booklet and really nifty packaging and will be available from your favorite online retailer, whoever that may be, but anybody who carries Warner Archive products will certainly be touting this. The release date is December 9th and I think it's going to be under the Christmas tree of a lot of people, I know.
Tim Millard:Well, one of the people, of course, that has been involved with Tom and Jerry, not working at Warner Brothers but obviously I'm talking about you. Jerry is here with us, so why don't you tell us, jerry, a little bit about what this means to you and what's so special about this release?
Jerry Beck:Well, this is definitely a special release. This is one of those must have uh items. Uh, if you're collecting at all, this does uh supersede a lot of older sets that were done way back when. Um, because a they're, these are restored, um, it's the whole thing all in one package. Like George said, we did this way back when. We did this like 30 years ago I don't even know the date, but it was in the 90s and uh, uh, this is one of those things we wanted to make good forever. We hoped to do it. What was it 10 years ago? Uh, with the, with the golden collections. That didn't happen.
Jerry Beck:The great news is that we live in a different era, mainly because of the technology, the fact that we've dug deeper into the archives, the scanning, the high def all of that has improved. No matter what you've had before, this is definitely an improvement. This is really the ultimate set as far as this series is concerned, and there's bonus materials, as george will tell you, and uh, great bonus docs. I hope george talks tells you uh reveals what they are. Uh and uh, uh. You know it's the.
Jerry Beck:I don't want to say it's the final word, but I think it is. It's. It's really the final word on tom and jerry. No, it doesn't have the chuck jones cartoons or the gene dyche cartoons or the filmation cartoons, but it's it's got the ones we all want and I'm not putting anything else down. We it's got what we want. Here it is. And I actually know I was going to ask, george, this is the beginning. As much as we've been doing this for 30 years, as much as we've been doing great stuff on Blu-ray for the last more than 10, this is really the beginning, right, george?
Jerry Beck:Yeah, I mean, we're starting a new slate here and it's going to be good stages that bode well for 2026 and beyond, hopefully, that we're excited about because this, this opens a lot of new doors, yeah and uh. I also want to speak to the fact that some of the cartoons that were on, like the golden collection, volume one, which was a nice collection, but some of the cartoons didn't look good and also, uh, not the best elements we have were used right. So people were seeing 1960s reissue titles with the black mgm lion on the back of them and like it was like no, no one was paying attention. Jerry and I were not involved with that, um, but we're now correcting for that. We are correcting a lot of mistakes that were made in the past. It's also funny, jerry, you mentioned those laser disc sets that we did, yeah, leave.
Jerry Beck:They were 125 dollars a piece retail price uh because it would cost you, you know, somewhere between 250 and 300 dollars to get all this. And we look at the quality on those now and, uh yeah, it's hard to believe that. We once thought they were amazing but compared to what we grew up with on television they were.
Jerry Beck:But I also want to talk about some new material that is on our bonus disc, again exclusive to the Warner Archive Blu-ray set. We have a new documentary called Animal Hijinx, the Friends and Foes of Tom, and then a really, really exciting documentary that has been many years in the making it was actually started for Golden Collection Volume 2 and never finished because that release got squashed, got squashed and thankfully the elements were still there and the filmmaker, constantine Nazar, who has been our partner in making documentaries and all sorts of things for so many of our releases, but specifically for all the animation collections, yes, constantine was able to fulfill his dream. After 13 years he has made a documentary called Lady of the House, the story of Mammy Two Shoes, and this is a retrospective on that character, which really never got that name. Jerry, isn't that correct? That's not an official name.
Jerry Beck:That's not the character's name at all, but it has been pegged that way for decades.
Jerry Beck:Well, I've seen this documentary. Jerry's in this documentary.
Jerry Beck:I'm younger with more hair.
Jerry Beck:But I am not. But there are some wonderful animators, animation historians, film historians, animation historians, film historians, and there's some great archival footage with your late friend June Foray. There's just great, great material in the way this is put together to give you context of this character that really was so integral to a lot of the best Tom and Jerry cartoons. And then, in addition to the documentaries, we have the excerpt from anchors away with Jerry the mouse and Gene Kelly. We have the excerpt from dangerous when wet with Tom and Jerry and Esther Williams. Both of those, of course, are on HD.
Jerry Beck:The bonus disc is high definition and I may have mentioned this already. If I am, I'm repeating myself. But uh, both of those, of course, are on HD. The bonus disc is high definition and I may have mentioned this already. If I am I'm repeating myself. But we have 20 of the cartoons, have audio commentaries from beloved animation historians and there's a 28-page booklet in the Blu-ray collection, exclusive to the Blu-ray collection it's not in the DVD set that has original artwork, sketches and essays. So this is really a first for the Warner Archive. We've never had such a deluxe offering with a bonus disc and a booklet and fancy packaging. But I think we're moving up in the world.
Tim Millard:You've had a lot of great firsts this year, George.
George Feltenstein:And this is just another one of them for the Warner Archive. And, as Bugs Bunny would say, and the year ain't over yet, doc.
Tim Millard:And I think you mentioned that this is coming out in December, so it's going to be perfect for a holiday gift date December 2nd is the street date.
Tim Millard:Well, this is a great gift for animation fans. I mean, this is the 85th anniversary of Tom and Jerry and I know there's been a lot going on from the studio for consumer products and other things, but to do this for the physical media fan is a wonderful, wonderful gift for the holiday. And to go back a little bit about some of the more sensitive cartoons that are included in here, that's going to be a huge, huge thing for the fans, isn't that Jerry?
Jerry Beck:Well, yeah, I mean, there's a whole bunch of cartoons on here that won't be televised by your streaming services or the broadcast channels because they don't want the kids to see some of these films. These films, of course, were never made for kids. I say that every time I come on, but that's true, it's made for the whole audience. They were products of their time.
Jerry Beck:Again, this is really one of the pinnacles, the highlights of the history of animation is the Hanna-Barbera series of Tom and Jerry in the forties and fifties, and for it to finally, once and for all, be presented complete, you know, never, looking like they've never had before. I mean, I don't even know what else I can say other than take my money. You know I want this now and, uh, you know, I'm just so excited that, uh, we could do it the way we believe it could be done. We're living in a great period where people like george are at warner's and george and talks to me occasionally and no, and we can guide the company to do the right thing on some of these releases, all of these releases.
Jerry Beck:That's why I wanted to make note of the fact that people can see the films in the way they were meant to be seen. And, jerry's point, this has been our ethos for god knows how many years. These were films made to be shown to adults in theaters. That were okay if the kids were in the audience.
Jerry Beck:Yeah, you know it wasn't pornographic or anything like that, but suddenly there became this oh my God, you can't possibly show this and you can't possibly show that. Well, this is a collection for the adult collector and it's up to the parent whether they want to share this with their child or not. But adult collectors grew up with these cartoons and a lot of them got to see them uncut until somebody got in there with a very heavy pair of scissors. Some of that is dealt with a little bit in the documentary about the Lady of the House, about how that character, mammy TwoShoes, which is really not her name she was reanimated to be an Irish washerwoman in the 1960s and revoiced by June Foray, and then there was another attempt to change it again and the way it originally was was intentionally funny and respected by the people who provided those voices. And that is what the contextual documentaries really provide is another light to look at where these fall in, not only the history of animation but the history of film, because another thing that Jerry and I have both been very insistent about is and I'm quoting Jerry now is like you wouldn't do that to Singing in the Rain, you wouldn't do that to An American in Paris. These films need to be treated the same way.
Jerry Beck:And I think, am I quoting you right, jerry? Yes, that's been his watch cry. And we all owe a tremendous debt to Jerry, because even before I got into the home video business, jerry was behind in October of 1980. The very first group of Tom and Jerry cartoons that were among the very first group of MGM home video releases in October of 1980. Yep, and that was long before I got to MGM UA home video, and it wasn't even MGM UA home video. Then it was MGM CBS home video. That's right, but I still have my Betamax tape that I bought as a kid, oh yeah.
George Feltenstein:I still have all my VHSs of that period. I thought this would be a one and gone forever thing. I thought it was never going to happen again.
Jerry Beck:Well, some people have tried to make it that way but got to tell you folks, physical media it rules.
Tim Millard:Yeah.
George Feltenstein:And these cartoons, the way they're going to look in this new collection is going to surprise a lot of people, because some of them haven't looked very can do it. You know we have streaming services.
George Feltenstein:They have them come in the cartoons listed, you know, in order or whatever, and you get to pick the one you want to watch and this, and that you have the broadcast channels that run whatever they want to run at that time. This gives you complete freedom to pick what you want to see when you want to see it. You can see the chronology and the uh progression of the characters and animation as it goes through through time. Um, I mean it's, you know, that's what's great about home. You know media and that's what's great about being able to own these. If a streaming service pulls the tom and jerry cartoons, you will still have them, you know, and that's really, really it, that's it.
George Feltenstein:I I fear the day that we don't have physical media. I hope that never happens, but, um, because that's the way it was, george and I lived through this. That was the way it was in our childhoods, our teenage years, right, our early twenties. That's how old we are. That that we, you couldn't go and buy Casablanca. You couldn't go and get the. You couldn't buy these things. They were either on TV at a certain date and you had to make sure you were there to watch it, or maybe played in a repertory theater If you were lucky, or a museum, if you were lucky. But to be able to own, to like, a book you know, to be able to have it on your shelf, pull it off and watch it any time. This is definitely. I know it is for George. It's a dream. Come you to build a library that will entertain you and those in your life for years and years to come and it's something you can share with other people.
George Feltenstein:And if somebody is talking about something, you're also getting it with the very best quality. Yeah, yes, there are alternative ways of seeing. Jerry mentioned that, uh, but you're not getting the curation and you're not getting the context, because what we have here are we have these documentaries, we have these essays, we've got the booklet, we also have 20 commentaries among the 114 cartoons, all in one release, and that is basically unprecedented, and I hope and Ierry, just as they were the first mgm cartoons to make it on beta and vhs and I think they were on a ced and a laserdisc too.
George Feltenstein:Yeah, um, you know, before we did our laserdisc box set you know, um, you know, back back in our day, um, I'm gonna, I'll do some confession, confession and reveal a little bit about myself. But I don't think I could have gotten through high school if I didn't see Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny when I got home and they really inspired me to go on and they really mean a lot to me and that's why I got involved with documenting the history of animation, because at that time there were no DVDs, tapes, there weren't even books. So I got involved with how many cartoons were there? Who did them? You know that kind of thing. I got involved. I just started researching it and that's how I got involved.
George Feltenstein:Back in our day, remember, we would buy things. If you're a movie buff, uh, you would buy these books which I still have, uh, from citadel publishing, like the films of john wayne, you know what I mean. Uh, you know the films of every big movie star, the films of gene kelly, and I would buy those books a to relive those great films. They'd have stills, the credits. We didn't have imdb, we didn't have a computer, we didn't have youtube, and we'd buy those books. And I was comforted knowing I had the record of these films Leonard Maltin's, our Gang, right and Magic to document.
George Feltenstein:You know, these the cartoons, we bought those things because we wanted them as soon as this idea of home video came to be, the idea that you got to have a complete set. You know which we sort of pioneered way back when I slept better at night, you know, knowing that I could watch Acrobatic Bunny whenever I it, because you know those cartoons really mean something to me. They're deeper than just a funny little seven minutes. They got me through school, like I said. So this is the payback, this is what we're doing to. You know, make sure these things live forever. Make sure these things live forever.
George Feltenstein:Now I think it's somewhat well-known, sadly, that the original negatives for all the Tom and Jerry cartoons burnt in a tragic fire in 1978, they had been copied for preservation onto safety film those that were on nitrate film, but it was all the cartoons from 1940 to about 1952. So we've always been at a disadvantage. We thought that a handful of them didn't burn up and that information was incorrect. It wasn't original negatives at all. They were safety separations and not nitrate original negatives at all. They were safety separations and not nitrate original negatives. But because they were the successive exposure, people thought that it was nitrate and it wasn't and it was at a different facility. But the point is is that every effort has been made to use the earliest generation source material of the best quality and mistakes that were plentiful on prior releases have been hopefully eradicated or made the best that they can be dealing with what we can deal with, and everybody here is very, very proud.
George Feltenstein:This has been such a wonderful congregation of different people in different departments here at Warner Brothers, all working together to have something wonderful to do for Tom and Jerry's 85th birthday.
George Feltenstein:And there was a time in this company where you couldn't say how old a cartoon was, you couldn't say that a character had an anniversary or birthday, because somebody thought that was going to jeopardize one thing or another. And this is when there already was IMDb, where you could look and see whenever anything was released or made. Not that IMDb doesn't have errors in it it does but overall it's pretty good. But the point is now I think everybody's put their best foot forward and my hope is that our loyal customers who have been asking, pleading, crying for this I hope it will make a lot of people really happy. I know that I'm grateful to my colleagues and, of course, to both of you and to everybody who gathers together to support our efforts here, and it's really wonderful to think how this is arriving just in time for Christmas. And you know, let Santa come down your chimney with Tom and Jerry. It doesn't get better than that.
Tim Millard:Well, I know I'm looking forward to seeing these. Gee, some of these have not been seen for so long, and to just have it all together in one collection is going to be amazing. I'm going to want to watch them chronological just because there's no way I've ever seen them that way before. So it's going to be a brand new experience in HD. Beautiful sound, beautiful picture. It's going to be fantastic. George, jerry, this is exciting news, as always.
Tim Millard:Thank you for coming on and sharing this with the fans. Well, thank you, tim.
Tim Millard:As always, we are so grateful for the opportunity to share what's happening with the people out there who support our work, and I thank you and I thank them and just to let everybody know we'll we'll get back together once we get the discs and we'll be talking about these as well, so they can look forward to that down the road.
George Feltenstein:But we're going to have to do 114 different podcasts.
Tim Millard:It'll be sometime in June next year by the time I finish. No, but that'll be a lot of fun.
George Feltenstein:Just one of them will be all about the cartoons that have mouse in the title, exactly.
Tim Millard:All right, thanks. Exactly All right. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Well. This is just so exciting for animation fans and for fans of Tom and Jerry and those of us who grew up with all of these fantastic classic cartoons. And for those of you who'd like to get your pre-order in right away, it is available already on Amazon, so I have a link in the podcast show notes. Get your pre-orders in and that way you'll get it sent to you as soon as possible in December. Until next time you've been listening to Tim Millard, stay slightly obsessed about animation.