Tom & Jerry: Spotlight Collection announced (1 Viewer)

[Roger Rollins]

How great that the CinemaScope cartoons are 16x9, and that TOUCHE PUSSYCAT is 5.1.

That's truly a first. There were Tom & Jerry cartoons in perspecta, which was just mono optical moved around, but never a true stereo T&J cartoon. WB obviously went to the trouble to do these right, which is a big indicator that the 3 cartoons included with slight edits were likely the wrong versions pulled by mistake.

Maybe I'm an optimist, but because I've been so impressed with their overall excellence, that I assume a WB gaffe is a mistake that, like with KISS ME KATE, they'll own up to and make good on.

I'm so psyched to buy this tomorrow. A CinemaScope cartoon with 5.1 audio. WOWEE!

 

[Mark Anthony]

Does anyone know if Warner allowed non US customers of "kiss me kate" to take advantage of the exchange program, as presumably the same would apply here when the proper discs become available...my copy's already been shipped so would be nice to know!

M

 

[David Galindo]

I second Roger. Im on my way to the store to buy it right now. Woo! Will post opinions later.

 

[JonathonSan]

I just picked this DVD set up at Target. I did happen to notice there was NO indication on the packaging that these shorts are uncut. It says they are restored and remastered, but nothing about uncut. I will wait to unwrap them until I hear what Warner will do about them.

I did want to see a comparaison to the Japanese imports I bought that were supposed to be uncut, but were not. Maybe I'll post what I think later, if I open it up.

Jonathon

 

[TedD]

I just gotta say it:

This set has some of the worst DVD mastering to ever come out of a major studio.

Trying to play this set at 48 Hz refresh rate shows major combing on motion on just about every cartoon.

FFDSHOW says the frame rate on the DVD alternates between 24 and 25 Hz.

I don't buy the story about these being new transfers.

Ugly TV release windowboxing on most of the titles...

Every cartoon with perspectasound came out post 1955 and was intended for projection at 1.85:1, not 1.33:1! Granted , the animation was done within a 1.33:1 frame, but that wasn't their original projected OAR.

I'm really sorry I wasted my money on the set and both WB and the mastering house they contracted this work to should be ashamed of themselves.

Ted

 

[Roger Rollins]

Ted D writes:



I think you may be a bit confused by the "Perspecta" credits on some of the older 1.33 cartoons. MGM reissued the Tom & Jerry cartoons of prior years with revised "Gold Medal" titles indicating a PERSPECTA SOUND referece in the titles. You can find these credits on cartoons originally released as far back as the early '40s, because MGM permanently altered the main titles. However, those cartoons are presented in their OAR, which is 1.33.

T&J started going the CinemaScope route with TOUCHE PUSSYCAT at the end of 1954. I believe a few older 1.33 cartoons continued to be released in tandem with the newer CinemaScope ones, 3 of which are on this collection, and I think look and sound quite wonderful. New Tom & Jerry animation made from 1955-58 was all CinemScope, until the MGM cartoon studio folded, and all that continued to be released were the "Gold Medal Reissues" from earlier years.

As to comments regarding the quality of the earlier cartoons, I have no reference point to the tech specs you mention. Your ire may well be justified, but you probably have a finer and more sophisticated viewing home theater than I do.

All I know is that while far from being perfect, the cartoons on this new DVD look remarkably better, sharper, cleaner, and clearer than my laserdisc boxed set versions.
I'm grateful for the improvement.

The purchase price ($19) was well worth it for me just to have the 3 Scope cartoons in 16x9 with that extra TOUCHE PUSSYCAT bonus being 5.1 surround sounding glorious.

 

[TedD]

I could very well be as I wasn't aware that they were re-releases.

However, the fact remains that, though these are probably pretty watchable on a typical 40" to 60" TV set, fed by a stand-alone garden variety DVD player, anyone who trys to watch this DVD set on any equipment beyond that, (Progressive scan, scaler, HTPC, Sony Qualia running at 1080 24pSf) is going to be in for a real unpleasant experience.

Vern

 

[TonyD]

can someone supply a link to this jerry beck web site that i have read about in this discussion?

i saw a link to another forum earlier but it was not identified as the beck site.

 

[PaulP]

www.cartoonresearch.com

 

[Tim Hess]

No High Steaks!!!!!

I've been trying to track this one down for ages!

 

[Douglas R]

At cartoonresearch Jerry Beck says:

"Warner Bros. Home Video is very, very upset over the edited cartoons that made their way into the TOM & JERRY SPOTLIGHT COLLECTION.

This was a mistake made at the servicing level. Warner Home Video and I became aware of the error only ten days before the official release date - and by then, the dvds were on their way to the stores.

It is part of Warner Bros. Home Video's marketing plan not to release edited or censored cartoons because they know that collectors want them complete.

The company is taking immediate steps to correct the situation. The proper digital masters of all three cartoons have been located and are being prepared now for replication. It may take as long as six to eight weeks to have a corrected disc ready for replacement.

From what I’ve been able to gather, the intention is for fans to be able to replace Disc 1 at no charge to them. I know from personal experience that Warners had a problem a year ago with the film KISS ME KATE. The transfer was not done correctly and fans were upset. Warners responded immediately, created a new transfer and eventually fans recieved replacement discs. It was not an overnight process. But it all worked out in the end.

Those of you waiting for the uncut disc 1 to appear on store shelves, I cannot say when that will happen. It will not happen soon. The quickest way to get the set the way you want it is to buy it now and go through the replacement process.

Despite this inconvience, There is much to recommend on the TOM & JERRY SPOTLIGHT COLLECTION as is. The CinemaScope transfers are amazing, and the never-before-released stereo soundtrack on TOUCHE PUSSY CAT is really fantastic. (Only eight MGM Cartoons were recorded in true stereo at the time and this is the first one to be restored and released as originally intended).

Heck, I’d buy the dvd just for that".

 

[Iain Jackson]

This is really annoying - I really want to get this boxset now, but if I do it's unlikely that I'll ever be able to replace the first disc seeing as I'm in the UK. It would be alright if I knew someone who lived over in the States, but as far as I can remember I don't...

 

[ZackR]

Thumbs up to Warner for apparently preparing to replace the disc. We all make mistakes. It is awesome to see Warner reacting so quickly to get this sorted out. I would have been annoyed had this gone uncorrected, but two thumbs up to Warner for doing the right thing!!

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

I'll copy what I posted over at Cartoon Research becuase I am very pleased to hear the steps that Warner Bros. are taking to correct this issue...


"Mistakes are not above us, these things do happen from time to time and the fact the Warners is doing all that they can to correct the situation and accomodate us more than makes up for the production oversights. It might be a bit of an inconvenience, but it's better than having censored prints to watch and the fact that Warners feels so strongly about the issue bodes very well for us animation fans with future releases. It also shows just how far they are willing to go for their consumers which is honestly much more than we can say for most of the major studios these days. Who else has been delivering such consistent product and been as devoted in the realm of classic animation? What other studio holds so much signifigance over customer satisfaction and takes our criticisms to heart? I really see no valid reason for complaints given what we now know. I'm sure this is just as disadvantageous for WB and will ensure that the company puts forth an extra effort toward efficiency with upcoming titles in order to avoid similair reoccurances. Once the discs are corrected and exchanged, we will have exactly what we were promised. The cleanest uncut available prints that could possibly be obtained, presented in their original theatrical aspect ration in chronological order for what's been delivered in each volume, and packed with a plethora of great supplemental features including commentary tracks by our very own Jerry Beck, some wonderful documentaries on Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera (the first of which I'm sure any of us have ever seen), along with art galleries and pencil tests, etc. An excellent value for a relatively low cost and rather than criticizing and condemning Warner Bros. for their unfortunate shortsighted production error which they are working hard to amend, we should all be sending emails and putting in phone calls letting them know just how me we animation fans appreciate their dedication to deliver us what we ultimately want which is uncut and remastered prints of these great films which to date, no other studio has put forth even a fraction of the effort to match! I'm now very much looking forward to picking up this set and I want to thank Jerry Beck for all the hard work that he's put in as well in supporting all of us!!!"

 

[Mark Anthony]

A remark on the cartoon research forum made me wanna ask this; my dvd copy is in the post, so as I haven't viewed it my comments are based on others comments!...

It is known that all shorts made up to (and possibly including '52) have their original negatives lost in the MGM vault fire and so the best available elements are presumably theatrical prints made at the time and/or archival dupe neg's/inter neg's etc - therefore the image on these earlier 'toon's cannot be expected to be as good as the WB Looney Tunes DVD which are technicolor restoration's based on original elements...

...so the question is why don't the other post '52 'toon's (excluding the cinemascope toon's which apparantly look great) look as good (or almost as good) as the Looney Tunes and 'scope's if their elements exist?

Have WB just decided that as they have an uncut master, restored and made for TV broadcast some years ago, it's good enough and therefore these don't need re-working for dvd.

Knowing that collector's demand 16x9 enhanced OAR for anything remotely widescreen, they have had to make new hi-def transfer's for the 'scope toon's, but everything else is using pre-existing tv masters and could look much better if gone through the same process - ie new hi-def transfer's from best available elements and digital clean up.

Thoughts? Anyone got any facts?

The funny thing is WB are usually spot on with their transfers, re-doing even reasonable transfers from the early days of dvd for SE re-issue's, so i'm surprised thats this has happened...maybe good sales will increase the quality level for volume 2?

M

 

[TedD]

Theatrical prints don't have windowboxed titles with funky looking fake coloring filling out to the edge of the frame!

There is no way these transfers came, unchanged, from anything remotely resembling the theatrical release experience!

Ted

 

[Charlie O.]

What's the point of window boxing the title cards anyway?

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

To make the titles legible on monitors with high overscan.

Regards,

 

[Patrick McCart]

This is why windowboxing is used on title sequences:

Windowboxed original:



What you probably see on your average TV:



The same title card without windowboxing:



I think windowboxing with colored void is really ugly, but black borders are fine. Those who have 0% overscan monitors don't have to deal with this, but most people do. I hate it when the edge of a credit sequence is cut off, thus creating stuff like "dited by George Tomasini" or "pecial Effects by Cliff Richardson"

Yeah, windowboxing doesn't reflect the theatrical look... but on a film projector, you can at least adjust the aperture plate, the framing, the mattes on the screen, etc. Unless your monitor or projector has a feature that lets to adjust for overscan (or if you have a DVD player allowing overscan correction), you're stuck with the cropping.

 

[John Whittle]

Mark Anthony wrote: "It is known that all shorts made up to (and possibly including '52) have their original negatives lost in the MGM vault fire and so the best available elements are presumably theatrical prints made at the time and/or archival dupe neg's/inter neg's etc - therefore the image on these earlier 'toon's cannot be expected to be as good as the WB Looney Tunes DVD which are technicolor restoration's based on original elements...

Mark, while I do know of several nitrate fires that happened on the years and many negatives were lost by all studios in such cases, not everything on a title was stored in the same place just because of this. Intermediate materials came several years after the first Eastman color negative/positive print and the first emulsions were not very good. (Singin' in the Rain and Citizen Kane were both lost in vault fires)

Technicolor cartoons were photographed with a sequential camera on a single piece of black and white panchromatic negative--perhaps that's what was lost, but I doubt that "every short" was lost in such a fire.

Technicolor used the sequential negative to make black and white seperation positives (R-G-B) which were used to make negatives (Y-C-M) to make matrices for IB Printing. Many of these elements were stored in Tehnicolor vaults on Romaine Street and elsewhere.

Cinemascope came out well after the 1952 incident, but there have been many comments about quality by various people and I don't know how many of them are really qualified engineers or technicians to make those calls.

In any event, Warner Bros seems to be underway in making a new master and new exchange discs for the problem transfers. As for the title insets with the color window frame, I don't know if that was done optically by MGM Labs many years ago or added later in video transfers.

Unfortunately there was a time where MGM Lab took over printing and release printing and some of the corrections they made were cut into original negatives and the pieces they took out were lost (a couple of scenes in GWTW come to mind).

Films produced for 1.37 release had titles that filled the frame and does get cut off in television, many re-issues had new titles made to frame at 1.85 with the balance of the cartoon left alone to run with cut off heads and feet.

If you come from a background of 16mm film collecting you'll know that this full set is less than 1/4 the cost of a single cartoon in 16mm and most of those prints were on Eastman stock and are today a shocking "pink" and some with little image at all.

John