Tom & Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology (1940-1958)

[mfunk9786]

Tom & Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology (1940-1958) dropped to $46.79

It’s funny - I know it’s supposed to be a big holy grail thing to be able to see all the racist Tom & Jerry shorts in one nice package, but now that this is out on the market I couldn’t care less about it. Is anyone else experiencing this phenomenon? Like… ok, yay media preservation, but I think I’m doing just fine without going through these.

[therewillbeblus]

I've been going through it slowly and find myself enjoying the shorts more than expected, or than I remembered from childhood. We'll see how the whole thing shakes out, but they're more consistently inventive and interesting to me than a lot of the Looney Tunes stuff I've revisited in recent years. I could care less about contexts of media preservation or politics, it's just been surprisingly fun. Granted I'm only a few eps in, so I could always eat my words

[domino harvey]

Honestly, having not seen any of them since I was a kid until recently, I think Tom and Jerry just suck in general. Not funny and not clever, at least not those I’ve seen lately as bonus features on WA Blus. I support uncensored media on principle but can’t imagine those aspects help them be any funnier or more creative

[Finch]

I've been enjoying them as well but to go from the shorts that WAC properly restored to those that WHV just slapped on is a bit of a whiplash. Still, grateful we have them at all.

[hearthesilence]

The commentaries on the DVD's for The Simpsons often bring up an attempt to make Itchy & Scratchy its own series - they likely repeat this anecdote because they can't count on viewers hearing every commentary, but basically the idea was seriously considered, and to test it out, they strung together all the segments they made over the years as if it was a full-fledged episode. It never tested well because it became obvious it was way too much for a full-length show, not unless they diluted it with a lot of things that were never done for Itchy & Scratchy before. Last time I revisited Tom & Jerry, that came to mind because even though it's a little less intense and includes other elements that make it more than violent gags, it's still a bit fatiguing and one-dimensional. It's kind of bewildering these two characters have together collected far more Oscars than any other animated character - you'd think the Three Stooges would have a shelf full of them. The ones that I like the most tend to be anomalies, like the zoot suit episode.

[therewillbeblus]

I think that's the draw - the episodes can feel like Itchy & Scratchy more than I remembered as a kid (obviously, it was an inspiration, but I didn't remember them pushing the boundaries so much). I'm still rating most eps as two stars on LB, but I guess I set a super low bar for the show and it's exceeding it by doling out an okay ratio of good/bad

[Matt]

Very coincidentally, while catching up on my Warner Archive discs, I watched two cartoon shorts wherein a mouse disrupts the playing of Listz's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" on piano: The Cat Concerto with Tom & Jerry and Rhapsody Rabbit with Bugs Bunny and unnamed mouse. Some of the same gags appear in both, though the T&J shorts is, as usual, wordless. These shorts have apparently been the subject of competing plagiarism claims since their premieres.

In my opinion, the T&J version was much funnier and tighter and more focused on the performance of just the one piece of music. The Bugs Bunny short throws in additional musical quotations from the funeral march from Wagner's Siegfried and the "Largo al factotum" aria from The Barber of Seville (aka "Figaro Figaro Figaro") to boogie woogie and "Chopsticks," as is characteristic of Carl Stalling's musical direction. It features as well Bugs shooting a member of the audience who's coughing, always a fun touch.

[Zot!]

all the racist Tom & Jerry shorts in one nice package.

I think Tom and Jerry just suck in general. Not funny and not clever

fatiguing and one-dimensional.

I can't say I'm not a little surprised at the aggressively reductionist and intellectually lazy reaction to this collection from the forum. Speaking though T&J somehow had a monopoly on racial or cultural gags in the 1940s, or were particularly bad actors in this respect is a bad start. I'm not going to launch into a impassioned defense of Mammy Two-Shoes, but I do think it is worth consideration that the character was ultimately the authority in their world, and Tom feared her, and understood his place in the hierarchy.
These were obviously theatrical shorts meant to accompany features over many years, as such they are not meant to be binged or understood as a complete statement. Humor is of course subjective, but the beautiful and expressive animation that accompanied these cartoons is rightly popularly considered as such, and the brilliant universality of the scenario is probably unprecedented. If anybody is in doubt as to how good these are, all you have to do is take a look at the multitude of miserable late era attempts to restage the same characters and regurgitate the gags, and it comes into clear focus how these cartoons were nuanced masterful work. As Jarvis Cocker sang in Pulp's Bad Cover Version... "It's like a later 'Tom & Jerry' / When the two of them could talk". I mean c'mon, Itchy and Scratchy? It's a funny 30 second satire, but the reason it couldn't work as a show is because they've take out all the art, and left the violence.

[domino harvey]

I don’t know why you excluded the part of my quote about supporting their release uncensored to suggest my objections were rooted in that particular aspect. Why is me thinking something isn’t funny “intellectually lazy”?

[Zot!]

I don’t know why you excluded the part of my quote about supporting their release uncensored to suggest my objections were rooted in that particular aspect. Why is me thinking something isn’t funny “intellectually lazy”?

It was mfunk I was calling out for that aspect, for referring to it "all the racist Tom & Jerry shorts"....as thought they were all racist, particularly racist, or that they were somehow expectional in that respect for that era. Sorry I lumped my response together...but I would suggest that the T&J cartoons collected here can be judged on other virtues beyond sheer hilarity, and that describing something as "sucking" is not a well considered critique.

[domino harvey]

Well, no, it’s not a particularly deep critique, but it was also initially an offhand comment in the deals sub forum. Which ones would you say are the most worthwhile? Letterboxd tells me I’ve logged five of the shorts (though I saw many more growing up), perhaps I have not experienced the best the series has to offer

[hearthesilence]

First one I'd recommend is Heavenly Puss where Tom dies and is told he must get Jerry to forgive him or face eternal damnation. Another would be the aforementioned zoot suit episode. But they made so many of these, I can't say I'm surprised there are less-than-great ones that were indeed one-dimensional and fatiguing.

[Zot!]

Ah, that is totally fair for a deals thread. It sounded out of context. I’m not exactly a Tom & Jerry scholar, and I’d probably just refer you to some authority’s top 10, but your question sent me aimlessly browsing and the first thing that came up was a gag where Tom steals a duck egg and runs into the kitchen in a great hurry to fry it. In his urgency he however does not forget to put on a ridiculous chef hat to fry this single egg. This had me cracking up ever since. Obviously I am either a soft touch, or this is actually hilarious.

[Zot!]

they made so many of these, I can't say I'm surprised there are less-than-great ones that were indeed one-dimensional and fatiguing.

Absolutely, trying to marathon T&J is going to kill any enjoyment. Its best in short spurts, as was always intended.

[therewillbeblus]

I’m watching about three at a time, and it’s starting to wear thin- though even in the less inspired eps there’s usually at least one or two decent gags that make the viewing worthwhile. I have no doubt that the hit-to-miss ratio isn’t going to be great and hearthesilence is right about its dimensionality at large, but I admittedly enjoy whenever the meanness is given a slightly clever spin that accentuates the absurdity of its violent heart

[swo17]

First one I'd recommend is Heavenly Puss where Tom dies and is told he must get Jerry to forgive him or face eternal damnation. Another would be the aforementioned zoot suit episode. But they made so many of these, I can't say I'm surprised there are less-than-great ones that were indeed one-dimensional and fatiguing.

Do you know the titles for these recs?

[knives]

I’d say, as someone who has seen about a hundred of the films that T&J is the Stanley Kramer of the short world. Weirdly beloved in its time and still holding some cultural cache, but overall pretty awful and incredibly small seeming when compared to other cartoon shorts from the era.

That said I’d recommend pretty much any of the films that break the formula as being at worst reasonably enjoyable.

[hearthesilence]

First one I'd recommend is Heavenly Puss where Tom dies and is told he must get Jerry to forgive him or face eternal damnation. Another would be the aforementioned zoot suit episode. But they made so many of these, I can't say I'm surprised there are less-than-great ones that were indeed one-dimensional and fatiguing.

Do you know the titles for these recs?

Heavenly Puss is the title for the first, The Zoot Cat is the title for the second.

[hearthesilence]

Also my memory's playing tricks - Tom performs Louis Jordan's "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" in Solid Serenade, not The Zoot Cat, but The Zoot Cat is still recommended.

I see some people saying Heavenly Puss is the greatest Tom & Jerry cartoon ever made and I may agree if I was more certain of my memory - it stands out quite a bit for many reasons.

[hearthesilence]

Puppy Tale is probably another one I’d recommend that’s also a little dark, albeit very sentimental in a way Disney’s shorts could be. It again shows a guilty conscience and more importantly shows dying to be a real consequence (in this case, implied).

It’s also one of a few where Tom nearly drowns, though the plot device is always done for the same reason, leading to a temporary truce. (Just Ducky is another one that does that. That might be a good one too but I can only remember the ending.)

To be clear, I think even the best of these are a cut below Warner Bros.’s shorts at the time, so best to keep expectations in check.

[andyli]

Puppy Tale is probably another one I’d recommend that’s also a little dark, albeit very sentimental in a way Disney’s shorts could be. It again shows a guilty conscience and more importantly shows dying to be a real consequence (in this case, implied).

It’s also one of a few where Tom nearly drowns, though it’s always done for the same reason, leading to a temporary truce. (Just Ducky is another one that does that.)

The third short on the very first disc (The Night Before Christmas) has something along these lines, with Jerry nearly frozen to death and the two reaching a temporary truce.

[Robin Davies]

The Itchy and Scratchy cartoon The Tears of a Clone might be the most terrifying bleak thing I've ever seen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfSuWPyV0yY

[colinr0380]

This is a kind of "Identify That Cartoon" question, but does this have a short on there which is the source of one of the moments (along with the bad lady being forcibly transformed into a robot, with a hideous wig, in Superman III) that scarred my psyche as a kid, where at the end of one of the usual episodes of hijinks Tom suddenly turns to the camera and looks out of the screen whilst spookily saying something along the lines of "Dooonn't You Belieeve It!"

I'm still not entirely sure if that actually happened in reality or not! But it certainly made an impact and scared me off of Tom and Jerry for a while!

[Gregor Samsa]

The Cartoon Research blog has a multi-part review that largely champions the set and includes useful capsule reviews of each short:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
The Cinemascope Shorts

[Swift]

This is a kind of "Identify That Cartoon" question, but does this have a short on there which is the source of a one of the moments (along with the bad lady being forcibly transformed into a robot, with a hideous wig, in Superman III) that scarred my psyche as a kid, where at the end of one of the usual episodes of hijinks Tom suddenly turns to the camera and looks out of the screen whilst spookily saying something along the lines of "Dooonn't You Belieeve It!"

I'm still not entirely sure if that actually happened in reality or not! But it certainly made an impact and scared me off of Tom and Jerry for a while!

Apparently it's present in a couple of Tom & Jerry cartoons as well as others.