Tom And Jerry’s Greatest Chases
Warner Home Video
Cast: Tom Cat, Jerry Mouse
Extras: “The Worry song” from “Anchors Aweigh”
Rating:
Everyone knows and loves ’Tom And Jerry, ’ the cat and the mouse who practically created the term ’Cat and Mouse Game.’ It is the epitome of love-hate relationships, the icing on the cake of mischief, a bottomless well of ideas that have inspired generations.
On this DVD, Warner Home Video presents 14 episodes of the ’Tom And Jerry’ cartoons, bringing a truly explosive cartoon firework to life. Sadly, the prints used for this DVD show quite some signs of wear with speckles, scratches and dust visible almost throughout. Fortunately however, the furious action on the screen quickly – and completely – distracts from those deficiencies. The transfer is strong in its color reproduction and appears balanced with solid blacks. Cartoons are a tough beast when it comes to compressing the material for DVD and it is evident on this DVD. Although the compression is generally good, some digital artifacts are evident in the presentation. Pixelation in some of the solid-colored parts of the image is showing through, giving those surfaces a bit of a noisy look that should not be there.
The DVD contains a monaural Dolby Digital audio track that is presented in a good 2-channel mix. While the audio is mostly free of noise, as expected its age is undeniable. With a limited frequency response and no bass extension, the music and sound effects are often harsh sounding. The audio is free of distortion however and makes these ’Tom And Jerry’ cartoons greatly enjoyable, especially considering that these films are over 50 years old.
For every fan of these animated cartoons, this DVD is a great release. Having 14 of these highly entertaining episodes on a single disc, spiced up with the infamous ’Anchors Aweigh’ sequence in which Jerry dances with Gene Kelly, no ’Tom And Jerry’ fan can afford to miss this release.