In 1962, MGM hired Chuck Jones to do a series of Tom and Jerry theatrical shorts. Jones, best known for his work on Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, produced some real classics. The shorts would go on to be aired during the now-extinct Saturday morning cartoon block for decades. The end of the production run on this 34-short series also signaled the closing of MGM's animation department. Warner Bros. released all of them last week (6/23) on DVD.
The actual shorts look better than this studio-provided and approved image.
According to everything printed on the packaging, WB fully remastered these shorts, but there are still artifacts present throughout. That being said, they look a lot better than other formats I've seen them in, from TV airings to VHS, which usually pan-and-scanned them. The 34 shorts span 1963-67 and include:
Penthouse Mouse (1963)
Jerry-Go-Round (1966)
The Cat Above and The Mouse Below (1964)
Love Me, Love My Mouse (1966)
Is There a Doctor in the Mouse? (1964)
Puss 'n' Boats (1966) Much Ado About Mousing (1964)
Filet Meow (1966)
Snowbody Loves Me (1964)
Matinee Mouse (1966)
The Unshrinkable Jerry Mouse (1964)
The A-Tom-inable Snowman (1966)
Ah, Sweet Mouse-Story of Life (1965)
Catty Cornered (1966)
Tom-ic Energy (1965)
Cat and Dupli-Cat (1966)
Bad Day at Cat Rock (1965)
O-Solar Meow (1967)
The Brothers Carry-Mouse-Off (1965)
Guided Mouse-ille (1967)
Haunted Mouse (1965)
Rock 'n' Rodent (1967)
I'm Just Wild About Jerry (1965)
Cannery Rodent (1967)
Of Feline Bondage (1965)
The Mouse from H.U.N.G.E.R. (1967)
The Year of the Mouse (1965)
Surf-Bored Cat (1967)
The Cat's Me-ouch (1965)
Shutter Bugged Cat (1967)
Duel Personality (1966)
Advance and Be Mechanized (1967)
Jerry, Jerry, Quite Contrary (1966)
Purr-Chance to Dream (1967)
The extras include a family-oriented featurette about how Tom & Jerry and Chuck Jones mutually benefitted from "teaming up" called Tom and Jerry...and Chuck [20:23]. It includes a healthy amount of archival footage of Jones speaking for himself. The real gem is Chuck Jones: Memories of a Childhood [26:11], a Turner Classic Movies-produced biographical featurette that is replete with significant life events that inspired him as an animator. Fans of either Tom and Jerry or Jones get a nice, concentrated dose of both here. I'd love to see the Lowry guys take a crack at these when they're prepped for Blu-ray, but that's probably a ways off.
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