Tom and Jerry Greatest Chases Vol. 3 DVD Review
Warner Home Video Releases Classic Hanna-Barbera Cartoon
Oct 9, 2009
"They chase. They chase. They chase, they chase, they chase. Chase, chase, chase. Chase, chase, chase . . . the Tom and Jerry Show!"
(No apologies to The Simpsons, since Itchy and Scratchy is clearly an homage – read: blatant rip-off – of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's classic cat and mouse duo.)
Love 'em or hate 'em, there's not denying Tom and Jerry's popularity with animation fans: with 7 Academy Awards for Best Animated Short, plus another 6 nominations, it's clear many people didn't tire of watching Tom chase Jerry, and Jerry hand Tom some kind of violent comeuppance.
Warner Home Video has now released a third DVD featuring 14 more vintage theatrical shorts, under the Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases banner. All collected from Tom and Jerry's 1940 - 1957 theatrical heyday, these classic shorts are a goldmine for those who can't get enough of the dueling duo.
Warner Home Video Releases Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases Volume 3, featuring 'The Two Mouseketeers,' 'Smitten Kitten' and 'The Night Before Christmas'
Warner Home Video has done a great job with the video transfer, cleaning up the look and sound of these vintage shorts. One can easily imagine yourself sitting in the theatre for the first time in the late 1940's or early 1950's, watching these shorts for the first time while waiting for the main feature to begin.
Much like in previous installments of the Greatest Chases DVDs, WHV has popped in a couple of noted shorts in the mix. Volume 3 gets the Oscar-winning 1951 short 'The Two Mouseketeers,' where Tom must protect the King's banquet from the marauding Jerry and his younger relative Nibbles, voiced by six-year-old Francoise Brun-Cottan.
Interestingly, Warners decided to retain the short's original ending, where it's implied that Tom was executed (via guillotine) for failing to stop Jerry and Nibbles from plundering the banquet table.
In addition, there are two Oscar-nominated shorts: the first is 1952's 'Touché, Pussy Cat' which also places T&G in Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers universe, and brings Nibbles along for the ride. This time, Jerry must turn Nibbles into a proper King's Mouseketeer.
Much more effective is 1942's 'The Night Before Christmas,' where Tom's attempts to roust Jerry from the house on Christmas Eve has a surprising consequence. Tom and Jerry would find some form of détente in another short in this set: 'Smitten Kitten,' two of only 12 times in the duo's 65-year history where this happened.
DVD Extras
Echo . . . echo . . . echo . . . echo . . . echo . . .
The Final Analysis
Yep, these shorts can be extremely repetitive, and sometimes you want Tom to chew and swallow Jerry just to put them out of our misery. But for those who can't get enough of Hanna and Barbera's most famous animated team, Tom and Jerry's Greatest Chases Volume 3 DVD gets a 6/10.
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