midnight snack(1941)

[babybuggybunny]

something bothering me for long time about this cartoon.every one knows that this is the 2nd Tom and Jerry cartoonbut how could it be that in the title card we can the 50's tom and jerry?
I mean to this picture:
http://www.tomandjerryonline.com/images/tjtc_tjtt0tc.jpg

[Duck Dodgers]

Because the copy we always see is the 50s reissue of that cartoon....many cartoons of the 30s and 40s were reissued in theaters in the late 40s or fifties....including WB's ( this explains the Blue Ribbon series ).

When they reissued the cartoons they usually changed the title cards or cutted them ( as they did with the WB cartoons ).

[babybuggybunny]

and why does no body restoring them?

[babybuggybunny]

BTW,

is this the reason that in the cat concerto title card wrote that this cartoon won the oscar?

[The G Man]

and why does no body restoring them?Because of the MGM vault fire that destroyed all the original materials back in the 60's.

[Ray Pointer]

I'm not satisfied with the vault fire theory as being an excuse. First, this cartoon has been seen on television in recent years with the original title card. As has been discussed previously, MGM had so many negatives and so many versions that it is many times confusing and time consuming trying to match up the original versions. The negatives are stored in various facilities around the country and other parts of the world. Understand too that original camera negatives for the most part no longer exist, or have been discarded since Safety Film Dupe Negs and Fine Grains were made years ago. Aside from the fire hazzard of the original Nitrate films, the studios were assessed a "Nitrate Storage Tax" by the State of California. This motivated many of the studios to "donate" their Nitrate materials to UCLA, which is state supported.
Doing this, the studios maintained the rights to the films, while the state took on the responsibility and cost of maintaining the films, and the studios escaped paying the storage tax. Many films considered "lost" were discovered this way, and during the time that Turner held the MGM library, many were found and saved. New negs and reconstructed color prints were made, much of what was being released on Home Video and on Cable Television in the 1980s and 90s being the result.

As for having THE MIDNIGHT SNACK with its original T&J card, this is a matter of motivation on the part of the producers of the DVD and their access to the proper materials, as well as their overall knowledge of the films and subject matter. For the most part, many of these people do not seem to have the attention to these details that we affectionados have. It's too bad that we are not the ones hired to do the job. But in all fairness, if we were on the inside, we might have a greater understanding of what is really going on and why the end result is what we see.

[J Lee]

Don't forget how thorough MGM was in their re-releases, even to the point of going back and doing new orchestral recordings ("The Early Bird Dood It!") that were mixed into the original score or new title card background drawings and camera pans ("Texas Tom") for the re-releases, even into the mid-1950s.

That's a lot of work on a simple re-release, to the point I'm not sure Metro would care that much about the originals (though you would think at least one or two of them would be either in the Library of Congress or the UCLA Film Archive, if MGM doesn't have them).

[Vdubdavid]

Ray, when might "The Midnight Snack" have aired with the original title? Anyway, your post just reinforces my opinion from what I've seen in restoration documentaries and heard in tales from Jerry Beck behind the scenes, the fact that major Studios, with all their billions and know how, can't figure out just what they have in this computerized age and catalog it, much less put it out to the public, is utterly disgraceful. This is what makes me want to go into this business. I'm sorry if I put anyone off, but I just have to say what I think sometimes.:o

[The Spectre]

Were the actual title cards (as in, episode title and credits) replaced as well?

[Jack]

Were the actual title cards (as in, episode title and credits) replaced as well?
Yep, MGM would often times replace those too. "Texas Tom" is a good example, and Jerry Beck's MGM titles page (http://www.cartoonresearch.com/mgm.html) also shows some tips for spotting a mid 50's reissue title. Note that in the screenshots for "The Shooting of Dan McGoo," that the original and reissue cards have different backgrounds.