If any classic cartoon characters have endured longer than most and have remained in the public eye consistently, it’s Tom and Jerry. They are arguably more relevant and iconic from a broad perspective than the Looney Tunes, whose popularity rises and falls, or Mickey Mouse, who’s basically a mascot now. This duo has persisted and basically still gets far more attention than any other characters from that age of animation. I can mostly attribute this to the fact that they barely talk and the humor of the cartoons tends to be derived from visuals, which travels well overseas (see Ice Age and the Minions as modern examples of this case). Even so, the classic cartoons the duo starred in are some of the best pure slapsticks the medium has ever seen. For fans of those cartoons, a special treat has been given as all 114 of the classic shorts from the original Hanna-Barbera run from 1940 to 1957 are now on one big set for the first time.

The release and restoration of Tom and Jerry have been a bit sporadic. The MGM library of cartoons has a big wrinkle in their availability and access compared to other studios in that most of the original films were destroyed in a vault fire in the 60s. While all of the cartoons and most of the films whose original copies were destroyed do have copies, it makes it harder to get good quality restorations since the quality of the remaining material isn’t as good as others that can go to the source, and the best prints are a bit harder to get. As a result, many prior restorations of Tom and Jerry cartoons either felt a bit underdone or went for prints that didn’t use Technicolor (the primary and best coloring process at the time), which made some shorts look a bit washed out. I bring this up since this new Blu-ray set has gone back to the vaults for a good number of shorts to redo their restorations. This results in many looking much better than the prior releases. This comes with an asterisk, however, as not all the shorts were able to be redone due to the quick turnaround for the release. While this is acceptable since it only counts for a couple of cartoons and most of them look acceptable, some absolutely needed some work espcially the two or three that look worse than previous DVD releases. The most egregious is the one for the short Heavenly Puss, which looks way too dark and washed out. Some shorts also take their restorations from the botched production of the planned Golden Collection line of DVDs for the series that ended after one volume due to the poor quality done. However, even if these are problems, the fact that we even have this set in the first place is miraculous, given how niche the audience for this sort of release is. So I think most are willing to overlook the mess-ups, even if it could have benefited from having a bit more time to get proper restorations together. Plus, the fact that most of the shorts look good in general is something to commend the release.

The biggest selling point of this set is having access to all the shorts made by Hanna-Barbera during the original run. Prior releases either put them together in lower quality, put them in random order, or left out some shorts. Everything is here and fully available in chronological order of release and completely uncensored. This includes two shorts that were pulled from previous DVD releases due to their content and one short that was oddly included but was censored: Mouse Cleaning, Casanova Cat, and His Mouse Friday. I will be upfront in acknowledging that the history of Tom and Jerry is weighed down by the appearance of stereotypes. This includes Tom’s owner, Mammy Two Shoes, who was a character that played into stereotypes of black women of the period. The three aforementioned shorts that are getting a full release here for the first time either have a huge focus on stereotypes or a has major jokes focusing on one. However, WB has always operated under the mantra that older films and shorts should be seen uncut. Every release out of Warners like this has acknowledged that the media being presented are products of their time, with proper warnings that they are for adult collectors and should be viewed with the perspective of proper context. Suppressing them or only releasing them in a censored state would be like acting as if the problematic elements didn’t exist at all. Not to mention that it was odd that many other shorts with similar content had been widely circulated beforehand, while these three were given the shaft. Giving proper context and warning about the content is the most appropriate way to approach this material rather than censoring it or not allowing it to be accessed at all. There’s even a new documentary focusing on the owner character that discusses the history and broader elements while giving praise to her voice actress, Lillian Randolph, since her delivery elevated the character beyond basic stereotypical elements.

I feel that accessibility is one of the hardest things facing film and television now. It’s an odd thing to say, given that we have streaming and such, but considering how films and shows can be moved from services due to licensing agreements or deleted entirely for tax purposes, the world of streaming is far more fragile than we think. It’s why I feel that physical releases are still important. Allowing proper ownership of a film or show rather than locking them behind a large service is something that I feel we take for granted, and many simply want to focus on a few things rather than paying for a lot of content they really don’t care about. Heck, I mostly focus on classic animation myself, mostly because I have always watched them this way and appreciate both the curation and access to these libraries on my own time. Not to mention how the large corporate leadership that owns most media now tends to think in spreadsheets and stocks only, and treats media not highly profitably or brand-focused like garbage. That is why this release is so special, even if it is one of the more beloved and consistently maintained of its era. Not only allowing all the shorts of the classic period of Tom and Jerry to be uncut fully for the first time, but also allowing the public an easy way to access all of them at once is something that is wonderful. We take for granted how many films and shows used to have physical availability at a moment’s notice, compared to how we have to look up where or if a film or show is streaming. I know that the state of media and streaming is complicated due to the economics, but allowing physical media as an open option is a positive and necessary attribute for the public to have in the face of streaming becoming more convoluted and expensive.