Tom & Jerry....DVD vs. Laserdisc

[Darth Tater]

Okay all these Tom & Jerry DVD's confuse me, so I'm going to try to ask this simply!

I have all the T&J laserdiscs converted to DVD. Other than picture quality, what do the DVD releases offer over the laserdisc releases? I'm mainly concerned with having ALL the HB cartoons and having them as uncensored as possible. Are the DVD less censored than the laserdiscs?

[Jon Cooke]

Originally Posted by Darth Tater

Okay all these Tom & Jerry DVD's confuse me, so I'm going to try to ask this simply!

I have all the T&J laserdiscs converted to DVD. Other than picture quality, what do the DVD releases offer over the laserdisc releases? I'm mainly concerned with having ALL the HB cartoons and having them as uncensored as possible. Are the DVD less censored than the laserdiscs?

From what I recall, the laserdiscs used edited copies of the following shorts:

"The Framed Cat" - has June Foray's redubbed Irish voice for Mammy.

"Saturday Evening Puss" - uses the version that replaces Mammy with newly created animation with a white teenage girl.

"His Mouse Friday" - has all the cannibal dialogue muted.

"Feedin' the Kiddie" - blackface gag after the candle lands on Tom's tail is cut.

[Darth Tater]

So there is a DVD that has all those cartoons unedited? Which DVD set?

I especially miss the "mmmmmmmmm...barbequed cat!" line. I remembered that from years ago and so disappointed when the laserdiscs had all that dialog just MUTED. Not replaced...MUTED. Mouth moves, nothing comes out.

[Bobby Bickert]

What was the point of muting the "cannibal" voices anyhow? They didn't sound like stereotypical "Negro" voices; they sounded, well, like Paul Frees.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Originally Posted by Darth Tater

So there is a DVD that has all those cartoons unedited? Which DVD set?

I especially miss the "mmmmmmmmm...barbequed cat!" line. I remembered that from years ago and so disappointed when the laserdiscs had all that dialog just MUTED. Not replaced...MUTED. Mouth moves, nothing comes out.

The first two volumes of the Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection contained a few edited cartoons. Warners offered replacement discs, though. (According to Wikipedia, "Warner Home Video has corrected the problem and the discs can be purchased without any problems.") The third volume left out the cartoons Mouse Cleaning and Casanova Cat.

[Treadwell]

Do the laserdiscs contain anything that the DVDs don't? I thought there was at least one instance of an LD version containing an original audio track of Mammy Two-Shoes but the DVD had one of the re-dos, or something like that.

[Brandon Panther]

Originally Posted by J. J. Hunsecker

The first two volumes of the Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection contained a few edited cartoons. Warners offered replacement discs, though. (According to Wikipedia, "Warner Home Video has corrected the problem and the discs can be purchased without any problems.")

Can anyone here actually confirm that?

[Super Nintendo Chalmers]

Originally Posted by Brandon Panther

Can anyone here actually confirm that?

Yes, I can. I recently re-bought the first two collections and they were both just fine. One slight issue I had was Flirty Birdy was quieter than the rest of the cartoons, so I had to turn the TV up, but I'm not sure if that occurs just on my collection or if it's on all prints of it.

[ThePeterNetwork]

Is there still a store that actually still has the Tom & Jerry Spotlight Collections in stock? I've checked Best Buy, and all they have is the inferior Greatest Chases collections. The only other place I can think of where they sell these discs is Amazon, even thought I'm not really a fan of T&J in retrospect (no offense )

Now, if there were a Tex Avery disc with nothing but cartoons...

[Super Nintendo Chalmers]

Originally Posted by ThePeterNetwork

Is there still a store that actually still has the Tom & Jerry Spotlight Collections in stock? I've checked Best Buy, and all they have is the inferior Greatest Chases collections. The only other place I can think of where they sell these discs is Amazon, even thought I'm not really a fan of T&J in retrospect (no offense )

I guess it depends on the area, but our local Barnes and Noble is the best place to find most animation DVDs. Every time I go in there they always have the LTCGs, the Tom and Jerry Spotlights, all the sets of the Flintstones, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Garfield, and many others. In fact, Barnes and Noble was the only place that I found the recent release of The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie. And, your right, Best Buy is terrible for animation DVDs, and I wish we still had Circuit City, because they always had a better selection than Worst Buy.