While I would generally abhor any kind of product getting 30 1-star reviews on Amazon before it even came out, I’ve got to hand it to the fan outrage over Warner Home Video’s decision to exclude Mouse Cleaning and Casanova Cat from Tom & Jerry: Golden Collection Volume Two – it’s impressive.
For those of you who don’t know, WHV has had an aversion to including these two verboten cartoons on any kind of release in the history of dual-layer technology. They were forbidden from being included in the less prestigious T&J Premiere Collections, and they’re now being excluded from the adult collector’s market. It’s a truly bizarre move. Mouse Cleaning was actually restored from an original nitrate specifically for this release, and equally (and more so) racially insensitive titles have found their way onto various other T&J, Looney Tunes, and Popeye collections – including this very release.
Things might change. An episode of Tiny Toon Adventures was intentionally supposed to be left off the series’ third volume due to questionable content (namely a preachy, PSA-type episode that clumsily teaches kids about the dangers of alcohol), but was ultimately included due to a decidedly quieter amount of fan outrage. As for myself, I sure won’t be buying the set in its current state. I’ve bought the damn T&J cartoons enough for one lifetime; even the last volume wasn’t done right, though it was complete and uncensored.
The irony is that in the VHS era, little more than a decade ago, both of these cartoons were available, completely uncensored, on VHS compilations aimed at kids and families. It’s a shame. Casanova Cat is routine, but Mouse Cleaning is easily one of the best entries in the series. And dare I say it, its offending scene (with Tom emerging from a truckload of coal in blackface, and Mammy spying him on the porch and mistaking him for a… um…) is one of the few racially-charged gags in any film that’s actually… well, funny.
Tom and Jerry – Mouse Cleaning by gfsguy1988
Tom n Jerry – Casanova Cat by takuyamiyata
2/23/13 UPDATE: Official PR suicide note from Warner Home Video:
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment carefully monitors all content it plans for release. While undertaking a review of “Tom and Jerry: The Golden Collection Volume 2,” the company felt that certain content would be inappropriate for the intended audience and therefore excluded several shorts.
“And dare I say it, its offending scene is one of the few racially-charged gags in any film that’s actually… well, funny.”
I also found it one of the more clever uses of the typical cartoon blackface gag, in which usually the mere sight of character emerging in blackface is the whole joke. The couple times I watched this uncut, with the overall weirdness of Mammy talking to Tom and Tom talking back (the only time he ever does this), blowing his cover and Mammy throwing that one piece of coal and hitting Tom a mile away, and Tom falling down as if she killed him, I couldn’t help but laugh–though with the usual bit of guilt from laughing at a gag associated with that or similarly dated stereotyping. Now that I think about it, Tom looks like he’s almost as tall as Mammy in that one.
I agree with the overall consensus that the exclusion of “Mouse Cleaning” and “Casanova Cat” is just baffling when looking back at not only every other major uncut cartoon set WHV did release, but the fact that Volume 1 was entirely uncut and uncensored with similarly racial material just as objectionable, I’m left dumbfounded why those two are essentially blacklisted from the set. And a chronological, collector oriented set to boot.
The restorations and video transfers for these two shorts are apparently already finished, so I agree that WB should seriously reconsider reinstating these two into the set before the release date.
I’ve yet to figure out why these cartoons, available on the web for anyone on the web to enjoy are not available on collections for adult collectors of animation to purchase.
I’m still waiting for Warner Bros. to release that Censored 11 DVD. It’s pretty inane how in 2013, releasing these theatrical cartoons is still an issue, even when these are being included in collector’s sets specifically aimed at adults.
It obviously isn’t 1945 or 1946 anymore, when attitudes were completely different than the ones we have now and considered taboo, but that doesn’t mean that the Ku Klux Klan made any of these cartoons, including these Tom and Jerry shorts that you are talking about. That is also no excuse to keep people sheltered from historical content.
By the way, thank you so much for posting a much cheaper, affordable Kindle version of your book I can download right away. I was pleasantly surprised to see that since I thought you weren’t going to release a Kindle version.
I didn’t want to wait days to read crucial information that would explain so much about what happened during the production of Ren and Stimpy.
As I said in my e-mail to WB, it’s an arbitrary double standard. They’ve allowed racist gags on other cartoons released to DVD, so why are these two singled out? It doesn’t even make sense, since these sets are intended for the collectors (not families like the Spotlights and single disc sets) and all WB would have to do is plaster a disclaimer on the menus that these cartoons are products of their times. Which they already did. So that should be the end of it!
WB CLASSIC ANIMATION: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment carefully monitors all content it plans for release. While undertaking a review of “Tom and Jerry: The Golden Collection Volume 2,” the company felt that certain content would be inappropriate for the intended audience and therefore excluded several shorts.-
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Jerks.
“Wundermild carefully monitors all items he plans to buy. While undertaking a review of the press release of “Tom and Jerry: The Golden Collection Volume 2,” wundermild felt that lack of certain content would be inappropriate for the intended purchase and therefore cancelled his plans to order.”
We are close to 80 one star reviews. Now Thad.