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Special Announcement regarding the third Tom & Jerry Spotlight Collection (1 Viewer)

Ronald Epstein

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Two shorts, “Mouse Cleaning” and “Casanova Cat,” will not be included in the third and final "Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection" of theatrical animated shorts from the Hanna-Barbera era at MGM. Although this collection is intended for mature audiences and collectors (not for children), Warner Home Video made the decision to omit these two shorts because, regardless of their historical context and artistic value, the offensiveness of certain scenes containing inappropriate racial stereotypes would diminish the enjoyment of the Collection’s 35 other classic cartoons for a large segment of the audience.
 

Steve...O

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I'll caveat this by disclosing I am not familiar with these two cartoons so I don't know the nature of the material in question, but this is a very disappointing decision from WHV to deny consumers the opportunity to make their own judgements on this. I hope this is not a trend at WHV that will affect their other releases. People who buy these sets are adults and should not be treated like children who need to have their viewing habits censored.

I suppose this means that the Looney Tunes banned cartoons will stay that way?
 

TravisR

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I don't think so and that makes this decision even worse. If I remember correctly, WB's movie division handles the Looney Tunes releases and the TV division handles the Tom And Jerry releases.

It's stupid to say but I'd find this less insulting if WB just had a broad policy to keep all potentially offensive material off the market as opposed to one division releasing potentially offensive material but the other not doing the same thing.

EDIT: You'd think after the problems with the other T&J releases, that the WB (which is flat out the best company making DVDs in my mind) would have used some sense on this one.
 

DeWilson

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Is anyone making a list of what WB/MGM cartoons have been released on DVD edited-altered and which ones haven't/won't be released?

Make me wonder if we'll see The POPEYE "You're a Sap Mr.Jap" and other WWII Cartoons featuring Imperal Japanese Characters.
 

Tim Colby

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This is an excellent point. Why go through all the trouble of manufacturing and sending out replacement discs for edited cartoons on the first 2 volumes if you're going to censor the third? It makes no sense. Either give us everything unedited or censor all of it.
 

Kevin Martinez

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There's actually a blatant case of hypocrisy and double standard regarding this decision; Several cartoons that DID make it onto the DVD contain worse/more offensive gags than the two omitted ones.

These Tom and Jerry DVD's are simply not even worth the DVD-R's they're pressed on thanks to the bumbling and bullshit of Warner's Family Division. Hopefully after this George Felstenstein and Earl Kress can convince Warner to let them do a REAL tom and Jerry DVD with everything uncut and restored.
 

stewprime

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That's it. I am fed up with Warner Bros. DVD division. First, they release Night Court Season 1 and refuse to release further seasons. Then, they decide to release "taster" Best Of DVD's of Night Court and the Drew Carey show. (Yes, they did finally release Season 1 of Drew Carey but guess what? Still no season 2 announcement. Gee....I wonder where we've seen this before??) And now this idiotic decision to try remain in a favorable, politically correct, light even though it pisses off all the purists.

Warner Bros., GET A ****** CLUE already. Fire your heads of the DVD divisions as they could not manage their way out of a paper bag and get someone in there who knows what their doing.
 

Patrick McCart

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Geez, just go ahead and give the control over to the classics division so we can get complete chronological sets of ALL of the MGM cartoons. I mentioned it in another thread, but they can release the entire MGM cartoon library to DVD in six 4-disc sets. That's the 1930s Harmon-Ising cartoons all the way to the Chuck Jones Tom & Jerry cartoons.

Volume One: 1934-1938 (60 cartoons)
Volume Two: 1939-1942 (56 cartoons)
Volume Three: 1943-1947 (58 cartoons)
Volume Four: 1948-1951 (60 cartoons)
Volume Five: 1952-1955 (63 cartoons)
Volume Six: 1956-1967 (75 cartoons)
 

Rod J

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Since they are of no value to WHV, release them to the Public Domain and let any courageous company release them.
 

Corey3rd

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Both films feature blackface gags that go beyond the normal reaction shot featured in the first two volumes. In Mouse Cleaning, Tom emerges from a coal pile in black face and impersonates Steppin Fetchit. Casanova Cat has Jerry get black face from a cigar ash. He then proceeds to do a dance number on a heated saucer.

It bites that they held back on these two cartoons. Realistically they should be included as bonus cartoons on two "problem" film DVDs.
 

Harpozep

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Agreed. Utter nonsense. The past is the past. Study it, learn from it, do NOT bury it.

The bigwigs not doubt just live in fear of us Hoy paloy. Too bad our government does not fear us as much as these corporate bigwigs seem to.
Song Of The South anyone?

OY.
Well, perhaps somewhere in the world these now "Rare" shorts will find there way onto DVD. Between the French and Asian markets one can usually find some of the "Lost" animation.
 

Joe*A

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Naivete aside, isn't this just one form of censorship, something we up here in Canada and the U.S., I'm sure, abhor more than anything. I don't understand Warner on this one. They mention that they set is INTENDED for the adult viewer. What's the point of the warning?

Has it ever occured to Warner that society has matured to a degree and the one way to show the errors of our ways is to demonstrate it thru the medium of film. My goodness, there are countless films and television programs about ugly disgusting stereotypes and images that we as a society are embarrassed about but if we hide it as if it never existed, then we lose one way of demonstrating those wrongs to future generations.

Warner Home Video - I'm disappointed and I think you guys have missed the importance of these shorts. They are social historical statements of the time.
 

Heathen

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This is f*cking ridiculous. Guess what? If included in a set, and someone finds it offensive, you know what they should do? Don't select it from the menu! It's as simple as that. Since they themselves indicate that this was meant for the adult, or supposedly mature audience, then one would think that same mature adult could either handle the so-called offensive material or decide for themselves not to watch it. It's a damn shame that a small group of narrow-minded individuals can ruin an experience for the masses (as I am not talking just about this DVD set mind you...). I weep for this country in a few years...

Actually, if WB had any gumption or concern for their customers, they would make these two shorts available on Disc for those that wanted to complete their collection. Call customer service and order it, or send in an online printed form of some sorts. I would even agree to $1 for shipping. Say limit 1 per address and no PO Boxes.

C'mon WB! We thought that you cared about the collector with these sets... Don't destroy that trust at the very brink of completing this set... How do you think these same collectors will feel when you release other sets in the future?
 

Joe Lugoff

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They apparently think if people see these allegedly denigrating depictions of African-Americans, we'll somehow return to the days of legal discrimination. Apparently seeing "Song of the South" will get us dangerously close to returning to the days of slavery (although that's set after the Civil War.)

Actually, it's difficult to understand WHAT they're thinking!

If women demanded that anything that showed a woman being anything but strong and intelligent be banned, we'd never again see any movie made prior to 1965 or so.

No one hates cigarette smoking more than I do, but if depictions of smoking were banned (and I read that some people want that to happen!), again, we'd see hardly any movies or TV shows prior to 1980 or so.

It's beyond sickening: It's scary!

And I was going to get T&J today, and now I'm NOT! I'm serious -- I wanted all the T&J's, and now since that's not possible, the hell with it.
 

Randy Korstick

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Its also funny that they had no problem releasing them on Laserdisc 10 years ago. So I guess we are less mature than we were 10 years ago.
 

WillG

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Not that I defend the decisions to remove these cartoons, but it really is our own stupid faults (as a society) for things like this happening. We've gotten ourselves worked up into such a supersensitivity politically that race relations pretty much suck. Even since the last T&J set, the landscape has changed again considerably thanks to highly publicised racial transgressions (Which involved nothing more than words) from Mel Gibson, Michael Richards and Don Imus. Imus was fired from doing what exactly what he was hired to do which is being edgy just because he uttered one "insensitive" phraise. You can't necessairly blame people at WB for not wanting to be in Al Sharpton's crosshairs and possibly even losing their jobs. I'm sure these things I mention very much hurt the chances of the "banned" Looney Tunes shorts from appearing as well.

It sucks, but this is the price of a "politically correct" society that we all seem to want so bad.
 

Garysb

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So how can Warners release " The Jazz Singer" this fall with Al Jolson in blackface singing "Mammy" or Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland in blackface singing " Waiting for the Robert E Lee" in one of their musicals being released this month.
 

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