Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Volume 2: Flawed, But Still the Best

-A review by Matthew Hunter

    I believe the best way to review this DVD set is to say that it's far from perfect, but it's the best so far. Tom And Jerry Spotlight Collection Volume 2 is definitely more fun content-wise than the previous set. Volume 1 is essentially a collection of the Tom and Jerry cartoons we see all the time on Cartoon Network (although thank God we see them at all!). This follow-up volume, thankfully, loosens up a little, and we finally get to see Tom and Jerry's edgier side.

Now, if you are one of those people who will refuse to buy a set due to censorship, you may want to stop reading right now. I must say that it makes me furious to see that a few cartoons featuring Mammy Two Shoes have her voice redubbed. These versions occasionally show up on Cartoon Network, and serve their purpose well in making the character accessible to the public again, as well as returning some of the best Tom/Jerry escapades back to the airwaves. But do they have a place on DVD as a substitute for the originals? No! Honest mistake, I'll admit, but something that should have easily gotten caught by quality control, if there is any. On the plus side, though, the cartoons are not edited otherwise, and several Mammy cartoons appear unaltered! Nitpicks with the few redubs aside, once you start watching this set, you will have too much fun to care. This is the real Tom and Jerry, showing the best of their cartoons from the Hanna-Barbera years. If you want to introduce someone to Tom and Jerry who may  not be familiar with them, this is the way to go. From early shorts like their film debut, "Puss Gets the Boot", to milestones like "Old Rockin' Chair Tom", mid-career favorites like "The Missing Mouse" and later cartoons like "Tom and Cherie", it's an excellent collection.    The cartoons themselves vary in picture quality. I can't help but wonder what I'm missing in some of them, because in comparison to the Warner cartoons presented on the Looney Tunes Golden Collections, these prints have a little more wear and tear. The earliest cartoons look the best, the prints of "Puss Gets the Boot", "The Night Before Christmas", and "The Midnight Snack" will blow you away, while others, like "Part Time Pal" and Springtime For Thomas" look like they could use a spritz of whatever magic window polish they've been using on the WB shorts. Don't let that deter you, though, because they still look better than I've ever seen them personally. Also worth mentioning are the later CinemaScope cartoons, five of which appear on this set in what appear to be brand new, restored prints, shown in their original wide-screen dimensions. I had seen most of these a thousand times, and have never seen them like this. Don't skip these just because you think you're sick of them, you ain't seen nothing yet

This is the set cartoon fans have been waiting for, and I think it's worth owning and supporting despite the few errors. The cartoons represent the best of the cat and mouse team, and many of these are never shown on television these days. Watch a few cartoons and you will realize that while simplicity of concept is what makes these cartoons so good, there's more to Tom and Jerry than meets the eye. The characters have a more complex chemistry than just a baseball  bat to the face here or a few mousetraps in painful places there. The characters often team up against a common problem or enemy, and realize that there is a balance-one cannot survive without the other. This is what makes Mammy Two Shoes such an important force in the Tom and Jerry universe, and with the exception of Spike and Tyke in later years, no other character managed to add quite so much tension to the Tom/Jerry feud. It is clear that Tom and Jerry would probably coexist, happily going about each others' own business, were there no threat of a tough-as-nails black woman with a broom who hates mice and expects cats to get rid of them. Jerry loves to scare Mammy, and laughs right along with the audience when she takes her frustration out on Tom! But when Mammy goes too far, such as trying to REPLACE Tom, with the egotistical Lightnin' or the robotic Mechano, Jerry wastes no time in getting Tom back in her good graces. The fact of the matter is, all of these characters simply want to live in peace in the same house, but cats, mice and humans make a volatile (and violent)  combination! I am particularly thrilled at the inclusion of my personal favorite Tom and Jerry short, "Old Rockin' Chair Tom". Jerry terrorizes Mammy and teases Tom, ultimately dumping them both down a flight of stairs. Mammy decides enough is enough, and brings in a new, younger cat named "Lightnin'" to be Tom's replacement, and the interloper wastes no time in kicking Jerry out and framing Tom so that he will suffer the same fate. Needless to say, neither Tom nor Jerry will stand for it, and the results are some of the funniest cartoon footage I've ever seen. If cartoons like this aren't enough, there are some clever twists on the Tom and Jerry formula where the duo leave Mammy's house for no apparent reason and have crazy feuds elsewhere. Thus, we get the underwater adventure "Cat and Mermouse", Jerry's visit to the big city in "Mouse in Manhattan", the ranch adventure "Texas Tom" (a repeat from the first Spotlight collection, for no apparent reason) and the musketeer-themed "Tom and Cherie". Fans of Tom and Jerry's cuter side, have no fear, "Little Quacker" and "Jerry and Jumbo" are here, too.

    What makes all of these cartoons so noteworthy and so watchable after all these years is that, like any classic films, they have a number of strong elements coming together to make them great. The direction team of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera amazingly directed every one of these cartoons and managed to keep the simple concept of cat vs. mouse going for dozens of cartoons, picking up seven Oscars along the way. Their sense of point of view, timing, and character make the cartoons interesting to look at as well as funny. Who can forget "The Mouse Comes To Dinner", where a setting as simple as a dinner table could become a world of its own, or "Mouse in Manhattan", where Jerry realizes just how small he is compared to New York's towering skyscrapers. Then there's the music composed by Scott Bradley, who can go from classical to waltzes  to to hot jazz without skipping a beat, with signature "accents" along the way. Plus, both Tom and Jerry are strong personalities, even though they rarely speak. These cartoons are a testament to the importance of pure character animation, an art form that is sadly getting rarer by the minute in modern cartoons.

      As far as special features go, this set doesn't have much to offer. There is an introduction by Whoopi Goldberg attempting to apologize for the political incorrectness of Mammy, which is unnecessary but understandable. Out of 28 cartoons, the set has only 4 commentaries, by historian Earl Kress and Mad TV star Nicole Parker. None of these told me anything interesting that I couldn't tell from just watching the cartoon. There is a pencil sketch animatic for "the Midnight snack", which is interesting, and documentaries on Tom and Jerry and animators as actors. Nothing really extravagant here, but Warner Home Video has spoiled me with its lavish bonuses on the Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera TV show series. If you want the best collection of Tom and Jerry you'll find anywhere on DVD, buy this set. If you want absolute perfection, you may be a little disappointed, but you'll want to buy it anyway!