Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection

DVD Review by Jon Cooke

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After Warner Brothers shut down their animation department in the early 1960s, longtime director Chuck Jones formed his own production company with producer Les Goldman called Sib Tower 12 Productions and soon set up shop at MGM. A few years prior, MGM had shut down their animation department as well. The studio had previously been the home to legendary directors Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera who directed over 100 cartoons starring the famous feuding cat and mouse, Tom and Jerry. After being let go, Hanna and Barbera formed their own studio and starting creating original animation for television with much success. MGM had figured they had enough existing Tom and Jerry cartoons that they could just continue reissuing them. However, soon the studio changed its mind and decided to commission a new series of Tom and Jerry cartoons for theaters. They quickly hired Jones after a disastrous short-lived attempt by director Gene Deitch to revive the famed cat and mouse. Jones brought along with him virtually everyone he had worked with at Warner Bros.: storyman Michael Maltese, designer and co-director Maurice Noble, animators Ken Harris, Tom Ray, Dick Thompson, and Ben Washam, background artist Philip DeGuard, even Mel Blanc and June Foray were on-hand to provide the giggles and shrieks of the title characters.

Unfortunately, even with some of the most legendary names in animation history working on the cartoons, these new Tom and Jerry shorts just weren't very funny. Jones himself even said in later day interviews that he didn't feel comfortable with the characters. Rewatching these cartoons, you can tell Jones' heart wasn't really in it. Don't get me wrong, these are some amazing cartoons to look at. They are easily some of the best looking and best animated cartoons of the time period from any studio. There are also some clever gags and situations here and there. It's a shame that they fall flat overall.

Anyone expecting to see traditional Tom and Jerry cartoons like ones made by Hanna and Barbera are likely to be disappointed. Jones did his own take on the duo, redesigning Tom with thicker Grinch-like eyebrows and a personality that seemed to be a combination of Jones' own creations Claude Cat and Wile E. Coyote. Jerry became extra-cute and now sported eyelashes and a bigger head. Many of the gags in these Jones T&J would have felt more at home in a Road Runner cartoon. Jones would later agree, saying these were sort of "Road Runner and Coyote in cat and mouse drag."

There are a few highlights among the thirty-four shorts and the ones Jones himself directed tend to have more charm than the ones that were handed off to Abe Levitow and Ben Washam. "The Year of the Mouse" is a slightly darker take on storyline of Jones' 1948 Hubie & Bertie cartoon, "Mouse Wreckers". Here Jerry and a nameless mouse pal play mind games with poor Tom... making the cat think he's been attempting to kill himself in his sleep. "Jerry, Jerry Quite Contrary" takes place during a single night of Tom attempting to sleep, but a sleepwalking Jerry unknowingly tries to cause the cat harm. The characters were also placed in variety of settings which the artists obviously had fun designing such as a penthouse apartment, the circus, the Swiss Alps, and even outer space.

Warner Home Video has packaged all the cartoons in an enjoyable new 2-disc DVD set appropriately titled Tom and Jerry - The Chuck Jones Collection. While the cartoon themselves may not be everyone's cup of tea, this set is definitely worth a look for both fans of Tom and Jerry and Chuck Jones. First, all thirty-four of the cartoons are present in excellent all-new transfers presented in a "matted" widescreen format (as they were originally released to theaters). Even though the cartoons were filmed in "full frame" (1:33) aspect ratio for television purposes, they were made with a widescreen theater presentation in mind. I guess it's debatable which format is the "true" presentation, but I found the widescreen versions to be just fine. For more information, and some comparison screenshots, see the review posted on the DVD Talk website.

There are two major bonus features on this set. The first being an all-new 20-minute featurette about the Jones T&J shorts history narrated by June Foray. It covers a surprising amount of ground (even touching upon the ill-fated Gene Deitch shorts) and features a generous amount of interview footage of Chuck Jones where he reveals his true feelings about topics such as Hanna and Barbera's brand of limited made-for-TV animation. The other bonus feature is the recent half-hour documentary made for Turner Classic Movies by Oscar-winning filmmakers John Canemaker and Peggy Stern titled Chuck Jones - Memories of Childhood. If you have read Jones' autobiography, you may be familiar with many of the tales Jones shares from his earliest days. However, there is a relaxed charm about the whole piece and listening to Jones retell his memories of yesteryear is akin to sitting on the front porch with your own grandfather as he reminisces about "the old days". This was also one of the final filmed interviews with the animation legend. Both of these bonus features are well worth the price of the set and shouldn't be missed.

While more interesting from a historic viewpoint than an entertainment one, these Jones-era Tom and Jerry shorts have received a first-class presentation on DVD. This set will fit nicely in any collection of vintage animation and with its reasonable price, there really isn't much of a reason not to pick it up. It is an interesting chapter in the history of both Tom and Jerry, and Chuck.

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