December 2, 2025 • 66 mins
Animation historians George Feltenstein and Jerry Beck join the podcast to CELEBRATE this landmark release bringing all 114 MGM Golden Era (1940-58) Tom and Jerry shorts to Blu-ray, uncut, uncensored, and restored in HD. We trace the decades-long path through ownership changes, vault fires, and restoration choices that finally made it possible. George Feltenstein of the Warner Archive also addresses fan questions with a deep-dive into the restoration process.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tim Millard (01:13):
Hello and welcome to the extras up Tim Large, your
host, and joining me are GeorgePhelps Dean of the Warner
Archive and animation historianJerry Beck.
We're here to review therecently released Tom and Jerry
Golden Era Anthology Blu-ray.
Hi guys.
Hello, hello.
I assume you spent the weekend,like I did, reviewing this uh
(01:36):
this brand new Blu-ray, and it'sfantastic.
I love it.
It's a really uh it's a a dayof celebration.
It's finally here.
All of those Tom and Jerrycartoons on one release.
Amazing.
What are your thoughts?
George Feltenstein (01:54):
Well, it's about time.
I was gonna say at thebeginning of 2025, which has
certainly been very much of aroller coaster of a year for the
world, but at the beginning of2025, I was looking forward to
the CinemaScope Tom and Jerrycollection.
Right.
And uh never in my wildestdreams did I think we would be
(02:22):
here in December of 2025 withall 114 Tom and Jerry theatrical
cartoons from MGM in onecollection that is uh a
beautiful Blu-ray bouquet and atribute to Mr.
(02:43):
Hannah, Mr.
Barbera, and all of their loyalstaff that made magic at the
MGM cartoon department for 17years.
It's an awesome experience inthe true sense of the word
because I'm in awe of their workand to be able to bring it to
(03:04):
people's shelves is the goal.
unknown (03:08):
Yeah.
Tim Millard (03:08):
Well, it's a it's a real day of celebration because
of that.
I mean, you had no inkling ofthis, as you just said, and here
we are.
I know the comments and thelead up from the fans has been,
wow, I never expected this.
And that's I think how we're alot of us are feeling and uh
enjoying it.
And uh Jerry wanted to get yourtake.
(03:30):
I mean, this day for you, it'sa very special day as well.
Jerry Beck (03:34):
Well, uh, George, remind me, uh George and I have
been doing this sort of thingfor years.
Um when was the uh uh we didthe uh laserdisc set, the art of
Tom and Jerry?
Three, not counting the ChuckJones one.
That's the thing.
We had to do three sets.
Did we have the uh uh Lady ofthe House shorts on those?
(03:55):
Uh we didn't have any specialfeatures.
We didn't have any specialfeatures?
Well, okay, but did we have wedidn't have uh did we have the
cartoons that featured thatcharacter?
George Feltenstein (04:06):
Yes, but they were edited.
Yeah.
We had the versions that TurnerBroadcasting would let us
release.
Give people context for thosewho don't understand.
This is very confusing topeople.
Okay, but I'll do this reallyfast.
(04:28):
1986 Turner Broadcasting buysMGM UA Entertainment Company,
March 1986.
As part of that transaction,United Artists Corporation is
sold back to Kirk Kerkorian.
So you've got MGM EntertainmentCompany, you've got United
(04:51):
Artists Corporation.
There is no more MGM UA.
Three months later, Ted can'tafford to keep the studio, sells
the name MGM and the logo backto Kerkorian, keeps the library,
sells the lot and the lab toLorimar, and MGM Entertainment
(05:18):
Company, which was Ted'scompany, had to change its name
since the name was sold toUnited Artists and the Leo logo
was sold to United Artists.
Ted was left with the library,that became Turner Entertainment
Company, part of TurnerBroadcasting.
It was 1986.
(05:38):
MGM UA Home Video was part ofthe Kakorian-controlled
post-merger stuff in '86.
And that's where I ended upworking.
And we had the home videorights to the Turner-owned MGM
(06:00):
library, which cuts off at theend of April 1986.
So during that time, I waseventually running MGM UA home
video before I moved to TimeWarner.
And that was when Jerry and Ibegan our Laserdisc sets
(06:20):
starting with Golden Age ofLooney Tunes and then Art of Tom
and Jerry, Complete TechSavory.
But the masters for those setscame from Turner Entertainment
Company and Turner Broadcasting.
1996 is when TurnerBroadcasting was purchased by
(06:41):
Time Warner, and TurnerEntertainment Company became
part of Warner Brothers.
So that is how these MGM Tomand Jerry cartoons have been
owned by Warner Brothers foralmost 30 years now.
And as I moved with the libraryto Warner Brothers, so did
(07:05):
Jerry and I move our efforts atanimation, which had a little
hiatus there, starting with DVDand whatnot.
But we were not as involvedwith Tom and Jerry's earlier DVD
iterations.
Right.
I had a peripheral involvement,but I was theatrical catalog,
(07:31):
so I wasn't really supposed tobe involved.
I did help with the LooneyTunes, which Jerry and I, you
know, collaborated on, but I hadno involvement with the earlier
Tom and Jerry DVD and Blu-rayiterations.
And there was a lot of back andforth about how to approach
(07:52):
them.
And the fact that WarnerArchive got it shot to do Tom
and Jerry CinemaScope was veryexciting.
And it really wasn't untilafter that hit the market that
one of my colleagues within thegreater Warner Brothers Home
Entertainment said, let's dosomething big for Tom and
(08:15):
Jerry's 85th anniversary beforethe end of the year.
And that created where we arenow.
So I just wanted to clarifythat because there is still a
lot of confusion because since1986, the company that operated
(08:38):
and operates now as anAmazon-owned company, Amazon
MGM, is not actually thecorporate successor to Metro
Golden Mare.
They are MGM in name only.
They are the corporatesuccessor on paper to United
(08:58):
Artists Corporation.
So a lot of people like, youknow, hundred years of MGM.
Well, not really.
Um it's it's a actual the theentity can lives on at Warner
Brothers.
And that's why Tom and Jerryhave played a very, very
(09:20):
important role within WarnerBrothers because there have been
numerous Tom and Jerry newanimation projects, uh,
direct-to-video things, andthere was a theatrical feature,
and there have been things donefor television.
And we're not here to talkabout that.
(09:40):
We're here to talk about theabsolute prime golden age of Tom
and Jerry as overseen by BillHanna and Joe Barbera at the MGM
Cartoon Department, beginningwith Jasper the Cat 1940 Puss
Gets the Boot.
And this collection has all thecartoons uncensored, uncut, and
(10:05):
uh that's an enormousachievement, especially as a
beautiful high-definitionBlu-ray.
Tim Millard (10:12):
So, really, it's been almost like 40 years that
you guys have been working onTom and Jerry at some level, and
this is the first time, I mean,that it's all in one release.
It's all in one release.
George Feltenstein (10:26):
The first time was the Cartoon Movie
Star's video cassettes.
Jerry Beck (10:31):
Yeah.
George Feltenstein (10:32):
Because that was the first idea of we can
sell classic animation toadults.
Right.
I guess that was Looney Tunes,that was Tech Savory Screwball
Classics Volume One, that wasTom and Jerry.
And uh oddly enough, in the VHSBetamax era, uh, we didn't have
(10:55):
initially a problem withcensorship of the cartoons, the
Tom and Jerry's.
But the laserdiscs that came,there were three of them.
The first two were all theHannah and Barbera cartoons.
Yep.
But if you look back, theretail price, I think, was $125
(11:20):
a set.
Tim Millard (11:23):
So you needed multiples.
George Feltenstein (11:28):
Yeah, yeah.
So double that.
So it's it's very exciting.
The one thing that's wonderfulabout those box sets, though,
were the beautiful, you had thesize to create.
Yeah.
Beautiful packaging, beautifulinserts.
And uh, I still have a sealedcopy of all those sets.
(11:48):
But uh, I haven't put aLaserdisc in a Laserdisc player
in a very long time.
Tim Millard (11:54):
Well, Jerry, give us a little impression on the
importance of this with all ofthe episodes uncut, uncensored.
The fact that you know the thatthe fans get this now.
Um it hasn't been available atall.
And it's an HD.
Jerry Beck (12:15):
Yeah, no, this is a real um what's the word, showing
respect to the fans.
The cartoons are a commodity.
The MGM, uh, you know, thecompanies had had the the rights
to put them out.
Have uh, you know, there was alot of cartoons.
There was there are manymultiple ways to put those
cartoons out on various types ofsets.
(12:37):
You know, you can do it bytheme, you can do it by this,
you can do it by that.
The bottom line is this is awork of art.
These are great Hollywoodcartoons.
They may be the best Hollywoodcartoons.
They're by MGM.
Their budgets are right upthere.
They're, you know, Disney hasbeen said to have the biggest
budgets.
I can probably agree with that.
(12:58):
But MGM matches that, noquestion about it.
They probably saw what Disneywas spending for a short, and
they, you know, they matched itat least.
And uh these cartoons arelavish.
Uh no, nothing has been sparedto produce them so they
maximally work this way.
I I personally believe that MGMback in 1940 was for 10 years,
(13:22):
was waiting for a creator, aseries, characters to match what
MGM could give that creator tomake a great series.
They never quite got that.
They got some great creators ofiWorks, Harman and Ising, but
they never came up withcharacters that that the
audiences could relate to, theaudiences would love and embrace
(13:45):
Hannon Barbera under Iising'sunit at uh MGM.
They hit the magic formula.
They got it.
They, okay, we have characters,and now MGM backed them.
They backed them through thethrough the war, through the
post-war period, you know, intothe 50s, cinema scope.
And these cartoons are, youknow, they're beautiful.
(14:06):
They're funny.
George Feltenstein (14:07):
Seven Oscars.
Jerry Beck (14:09):
Seven Oscars.
But the bottom line is they'refunny and they make people
laugh, and everybody loves them.
And in a bigger way, in a in ain so big of a way than the last
uh classic Hollywood cartoonsthat were run on cable TV on
Cartoon Network, uh, I maybethey still are right now.
(14:30):
I have to tell you, I've losttrack because, well, they're on
me TV tunes too.
The thing is, they they uh uheven Bugs Bunny.
Believe me, no one loves BugsBunny and Warner cartoons more
than me, but but uh but when itcame down to it, the commercial
viability of of Tom and Jerry,their popularity is so huge and
(14:53):
global.
One last thing I'll say theoriginal Hanna Barbera Tom and
Jerry that's on this set.
You know, as we all know, theseries was continued later by
Chuck Jones, Gene Deitch, andthen later on on television
versions and uh and then in thewisdom of the Warner Brothers
(15:13):
studio, our friend Sam registerspeople work there now.
When they do a new Tom andJerry movie or something like
they've done shorts, it's in theHanna Barbera style.
They they've matched, they gotit.
They got whoa boy, they knowthey know they even got to get
the music.
Scott Bradley, everything'sgotta be like that because
that's the only way it works.
You know, it's the best way itworks, let's put it on.
George Feltenstein (15:36):
And that's why we're so lucky that Sam is
here.
Yeah.
Because he, like us, he lovesthe great stuff, and to have his
team love the great stuff andit shows in their work, yeah,
and it works for multiplegenerations.
But I think that's the otherthing about Tom and Jerry that's
(15:58):
so important is the charactersnever lost their popularity
since being introduced 85 yearsago.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
No.
George Feltenstein (16:10):
And even to the point where when all the
studios were selling theircartoons to television, MGM held
Tom and Jerry back for almost adecade.
Yeah.
Uh, because they were stillmaking money with them in
theaters all over the world uhwith the gold medal reprints, as
(16:31):
they called them.
Warner Brothers had the blueribbon reissues, MGM had the
gold medal reprints, but theywere releasing a schedule of
classic Hannah and Barbera madeTom and Jerry cartoons right up
through 1970, 71, I think.
And that that also is one ofthe factors in what creates
(16:58):
problems for us in the survivingfilm elements, because the
cartoons were so popular, theelements were used a great deal,
and that has caused someproblems in trying to do the
work we can do, which issomething we can talk about as
we get down the pike.
(17:18):
But a lot of love went intocreating this set, and I do,
I've mentioned this before whenwe announced it, but uh a
colleague of mine here at WarnerBrothers Home Entertainment,
this colleague was dedicated toseeing that all the cartoons got
(17:43):
released uncut and as acelebration of their 85th
anniversary.
And the tenacity and passion ofthis colleague is chiefly
responsible for this getting allof the blockades pushed down.
So the cartoons are complete,uncensored.
(18:06):
I think Jerry mentioned thatone cartoon, Yankee Doodle's
Mouse, had something on it thatwas uh tied to the titles during
the war, that was cut forreissue, that doesn't exist
anymore.
But that's the only thing I canthink of that is not part of
the original cartoon.
That I mean, they're allostensibly uncut and certainly
(18:31):
uncensored.
And that the Blu-ray has awhole bonus disc with hours and
hours of special features,including there's a whole story
behind two of the specialfeatures, which we can we can
talk about in a moment if youlike.
But um I mean I that's Jim.
(18:52):
I have to ask you.
Um, I assume you've watched theset, and I would love to know
what you think.
Tim Millard (18:59):
Well, uh, I I love it.
I mean, just the quality ofeach short film is fantastic.
I love the startingchronologically from the very
first one, which is you know,which was nominated for an
Academy Award, and seeing theprogression of these, seeing the
(19:23):
introduction of the charactersas you go, the transfers, I
think looked fantastic.
You just mentioned the music,sounds terrific.
And I'm not a nitpicker.
I've mentioned this on some ofour other uh podcasts, looking
at the classic cartoons.
I'm enjoying these in HD,hearing them, watching them.
(19:44):
They're fantastic, and it'sterrific.
They're introducing theseclassics, 80-year-old cartoons
or or you know, whatever agethey are, and they feel current,
they feel very much because ofhow good they look and sound.
And so you're gonna have awhole new audience of young
(20:08):
people, I think, in addition tothe collectors, of course, who
now have this wonderful treat intheir hands.
But you also have now thesecartoons looking and sounding so
good that a whole newgeneration, a whole new audience
of people who know Tom andJerry, they of course remember a
little bit about them, but youput this in, and from the
(20:28):
get-go, you just see and arereminded why these are classics,
why they're so good.
And I just really, really amenjoying going through this set.
I haven't watched them all yet.
I'm I'm what two, three discsin.
Uh, and I watched all theextras, of course, because we
want to talk about that.
But they are great, and I'mloving it, and I think this is
(20:51):
just a treat for both thecollector and of course just any
animation fan.
And I did want to talk aboutone of the great parts you just
mentioned, of course, and that'sthe return of Mammy Two Shoes,
um, because that's a big part ofthe uncensored part.
And we won't get into all thedetails of why the censorship.
(21:12):
Many people understand uh andknow that story, but it's so
great to see and hear LillianRandolph's voice, to see the
slippers, the skirt, everythingin there, and to know that
you're watching it the way itwas originally made.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah.
George Feltenstein (21:28):
Well, I I think that we don't want to
avoid the elephant in the room,which is what happened
subsequent to, let's say, 2010.
2011 was the first release onBlu ray of Tom and Jerry Golden
Collection Volume 1.
And this was handled by ourkids' marketing team.
(21:56):
Lovely people, some of whom arestill here, some of whom are
not.
But a lot of love went intothat set.
Uh, some of the cartoons lookedamazing, some of them not so,
but the entertainment value wasthere, and more importantly, the
cartoons were complete anduncut.
(22:18):
When it came to volume two,there were two cartoons that it
was deemed by a legal reviewcommittee that existed at the
time that they could not bereleased due to objectionable
content, despite the fact thatwe had introduced using
(22:39):
disclaimers and putting thingsinto historical context.
And ironically, the problemdidn't come from the home
entertainment area.
It came from a veryhigh-powered executive who was
(23:00):
involved in television, not evenhome entertainment, not legal
home entertainment.
It wasn't anything like that.
But this person had a lot ofpower here at the company at the
time, and there was going to bea new Tom and Jerry series
launched on Cartoon Network, Ithink.
And she blew a gasket and said,you cannot put those cartoons
(23:26):
in this collection.
So it was announced.
I think a lot of people who arelistening or watching uh this
uh discussion uh know that itwas announced, Golden Collection
Volume 2, and uh the negativeresponse due to the omission of
(23:46):
those two cartoons led the headof that business unit.
At the time, our division wasuh theatrical catalog, new
theatrical features, and thentelevision and family.
And the person who was the headof television and family got
(24:08):
together with the head of thefamily unit and said, if people
are going to be so upset aboutthis, uh, we're just not gonna
release it at all.
And the release was canceled.
I don't think all the peoplethat were doing their
complaining realized that itwould result in a release like
(24:28):
that getting pulled, but that'swhat happened.
That was 13 years ago, Ibelieve.
If my if my internal calendarwas correct, certainly 12 years
ago, if not 13.
So everything just kind of sat.
And what was particularlyupsetting is a good friend of
(24:49):
ours, uh, Constantine Nazar, whois a wonderful filmmaker, and
who had worked with us on theLooney Tunes special features,
which Jerry and I were much moreinvolved with the Looney Tunes
Golden Collections than at leastI was on what had happened with
(25:11):
Tom and Jerry.
But Constantine worked at NewWave Entertainment, and that was
what, 22 years ago, you know,started making special features
for the Looney Tunes.
They eventually approached Tomand Jerry as well, and he was
working on two new documentariesfor Golden Collection Volume 2
(25:31):
that no one ever got to see, andfrankly, they weren't finished.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah.
George Feltenstein (25:37):
And here we are now 12 or 13 years later,
since the debacle of GoldenCollection Volume 2 that never
came out.
Constantine got to go back andfinish the two documentaries,
and it's a mixture on the Ladyof the House documentary, which
(26:00):
is about the character of Dinah,aka Mammy Two Shoes.
Mammy Two Shoes was neverreally an official name for the
character.
Is that correct, Jerry?
Jerry Beck (26:10):
Yes, it was never.
Yeah, you're correct aboutthat.
George Feltenstein (26:13):
So what I love about the piece is it goes
into the artistry of developingthe character, and so many radio
performers provided the voicesfor great classic animated
cartoons, but Lillian Randolphwas one of those people.
And instead of hiding thecharacter and burying cartoons
(26:37):
that may have gags that arepolitically incorrect and a
product of their time,everything is presented uncut,
uncensored, and celebrating thetalented people that
collaborated on making thesethings.
And I'm hoping that that willspread to other films that we
have in the library,particularly animated ones that
(27:00):
have been suppressed, that itwould be maybe time to open up
those doors because we're allgrown-ups.
And that's more important tosay that these collections are
made for adults.
It says so on the packaging.
There is a disclaimer at thebeginning, but they were made
for adults in theaters.
(27:21):
And if kids were in the theaterat the time, they were to be
entertained as well.
But these are not sillysymphonies, these are not
beautiful little animatedcartoons.
These are funny, funnycartoons.
The beauty of MGM's cartoonsand Warner Brothers cartoons is
they have great artistry, theyhave great writing, great
(27:46):
animation, and they're so funny.
And I don't think any othercompany has the monopoly, shall
we say, of funny, great classicAmerican animation than we do.
And to be blessed with LooneyTunes, Tom and Jerry, Tech
(28:08):
Savory, Popeye, we've gotbasically the best.
And now Tom and Jerry, you canfinally own all 114 theatrical
cartoons that Bill, Hannah, andJoe Barbera made at the MGM
Cartoon Department without anyrepression or censorship.
(28:30):
And that's quite anachievement.
And it would not be possiblewithout the passion and
persistence of my colleague, whoI will not name, to avoid the
amount of uh telegrams if theystill had such things that uh
this person would get thankingthem.
(28:52):
I'm very glad that everybodypulled together to make this
happen because they saw that itmade tremendous sense.
And uh the net result will be,I hope, thousands and thousands
of people being properlyentertained and their days
brightened by the joys that areto be had watching the cartoons
(29:17):
in this collection.
Tim Millard (29:19):
Let me ask a just a funny question.
But Jerry, have you seen thesecartoons the way they're
presented now in HD?
No.
No, even you are seeingsomething fantastically new.
Jerry Beck (29:36):
There were many times where I had the disc on.
I was sort of reviewing it.
I do other things while I haveit on.
I listen to the sound, but I'mand I'll look up at the picture,
and more than I can everremember, maybe except for the
Looney Tunes, George.
George knows this, but I lookedup and I couldn't look down.
I couldn't look down becausethe crystal clarity of some of
(30:00):
the cartoons on here that I'dnever seen that way before was
killing me.
I it's so clear.
You can to me, I I I call ityou can see the cells in the
background.
You know what I mean?
You can see the that it looksbrand new.
I I I I don't I I I don't know.
That's an experience I lovebecause it's the way people saw
it when when they when thesecartoons first came out, when
(30:23):
they were first on the bigscreen.
The colors.
I mean, it's it's amazing.
You know, we've we've had Tomand Jerry on um Blu-ray before,
but this time around, the wayit's done and uh in order, you
know, as a historian, withwhatever that means, as an
educator, a teacher, teach thehistory of animation.
(30:44):
This is a great way to learnanimation and learn what you
know, what happened, how thesecharacters evolved, and they
did.
You know, the Tom and Jerry ofPuss Gets the Boot is completely
different in style and lookfrom Tot Watchers, the last one.
And yet they're Tom and Jerry.
They're Tom and Jerry all theway through.
You know, the personalities arethere and it's just it's great.
unknown (31:09):
Yeah.
Tim Millard (31:09):
Yeah, I I enjoyed that part when when you're
watching those first five, youjust see jumps between of the
character design and and justthe confidence that that the uh
creators had even in, oh, weknow where we're going with this
and what making this work.
Jerry Beck (31:28):
We live in a world today where if somebody was
pitching a cartoon, they have topitch it uh completely formed,
whether it's SpongeBob orScooby-Doo, even uh had to be
here's the characters, here'swhat they look like, here's the
stories, here's the backgrounds.
They didn't do that back then.
Nobody came in and pitched BugsBunny or Tom and Jerry.
(31:48):
They developed the characterson screen.
And we get we get to see thatin the first five, 10 cartoons.
We get to see the characterscome to be, you know, and um,
and then they hit their stride,you know, by the by the war
years, by the mid-40s, and it'syou know, it's the Tom and Jerry
(32:09):
we love.
Tim Millard (32:10):
Yeah, yeah.
And and then you see theintroduction of each of the
other characters, um, which isfantastic.
And to know, oh, this is thefirst time that this character
is is on, it's really fun.
George, uh, I just wanted toclarify the the cinema scope you
mentioned, you know, that was agreat release that was planned,
was not known then at thatpoint that this release was
(32:34):
going to come out.
Um, but I just want to clarifyif some people did just want to
know, are all of them includedhere?
Obviously the answer is yes.
And that includes also thethree bonus cartoons that were
on that release.
George Feltenstein (32:48):
That's correct.
Tim Millard (32:49):
Yeah, yeah.
I just want to clarify that ifyou purchase the Cinema Scope,
it's a great collection.
They are repeated in this set.
If you didn't buy it, ofcourse, you'll have them on this
set as well.
So those are all in there, uh,and that's fantastic.
Also wanted to talk about thisbooklet, which I'm holding up
here.
And it's got original sketchesfrom the Golden Era.
(33:11):
It also has kind of a timelinein it uh of some of the films.
It doesn't have them all inthere.
Uh, that's a nice bonus that isexclusive to the Blu-ray, as
well as that extras uh disc,which has the bonus disc is only
on the Blu-ray from whereyou're exactly and it has the
(33:32):
two new featurettes, sevenarchival featurettes, I believe,
and then it's got excerpts fromthe movies.
Jerry Beck (33:41):
Um Anchors Away and Angers One Away, right?
Tim Millard (33:45):
So it's got those in there, and they look
terrific.
I watch those, they look uhfantastic.
And then you have, I believe,20 commentaries in this set as
well.
So a lot of great extras thatare included in this set.
George Feltenstein (33:58):
It's also not out of reach from a
financial standpoint.
I think it's a very reasonablypriced release.
It's basically six discs for aretail price of $60.
Thankfully, I think some majorretailers are discounting it a
(34:20):
little bit.
But, you know, we're very proudof it.
A lot of work went into this.
When we first announced it, youknow, I said what our approach
was, which was uh we looked atall the masters, we made
improvements, our masteringteam, I should say specifically.
(34:40):
The mastering team madeimprovements to 60 of the
cartoons that already existed ashigh definition masters with
additional color correction thatneeded to be helped, some audio
issues that needed to beaddressed.
They also did additional dirtand scratch removal, anything
(35:01):
that would be film damage, butthey did not remove cell dust or
anything that would have beeninherent in the original
animation.
So there were 60 cartoons thatgot cleaned up.
There was not any uh digitalnoise reduction or grain
(35:24):
management done.
There seem to be assertionsfrom some people who've already
seen it that uh that was used.
I have been told by mycolleagues who oversee these
things that that was not done.
But what they did do was they,based on the quality levels that
(35:44):
we, you know, demand basically,they clean them up to 2025
standards so there isn't a youknow uh a black speck on a
negative is going to be a whitespot on the film, and we like
our films to be cleaned up.
And uh there were 11 where weneeded to go back to film, and
(36:09):
that included the 23 that werein the Cinema Scope collection,
you know, they already had beenuh given an upgrade.
So, all in all, uh the qualityis is uh I think quite good.
It's good to excellent.
And uh one of the things thatis potentially not known is that
(36:35):
unlike the Warner Brotherscartoons, all the Tom and Jerry
cartoons that were made onnitrate stock, very flammable,
uh, up through 1951, with theexception of six cartoons from
that huge group, all theoriginal negatives were lost in
(36:58):
a tragic fire on the East Coastat an archive where they had
been sent for safekeeping.
Uh, we lost hundreds of MGMfeature films.
The whole cartoon library wentup in smoke, as did the Short
Subjects Library.
There were six that somehow gotuh they must not have been in
(37:24):
the right box to go to the EastCoast uh that we discovered
around 2007.
And some of those where theoriginal negative is still
extant are on this set as partof a new presentation, most
notably the infamous mousecleaning, which was one of the
(37:45):
two cartoons that precluded therelease of Golden Collection
Volume 2.
So not only does mouse cleaninguh make people happy because
it's uncut and it's a greatcartoon and it's funny, but also
it looks amazing, and thereason is it's one of the six
nitrate-era cartoons where wehad the original to go back to.
(38:10):
What MGM did, for those whodon't know, is there were only
two companies in the 1960s thatsaw the danger that lay ahead uh
with nitrate film, and it wasDisney and MGM, both Disney and
(38:31):
MGM, and Disney was basicallyjust an animation and family
movie company.
They were in a big studio atthat time, but they saw to it
that they preserved all of theirnitrate onto safety film.
Similarly, MGM started anitrate to safety conversion
program in the early 1960s.
(38:52):
And for the cartoons, uh theypreserved them by making what is
called a color reversalinternegative, a CRI, not a
great film stock.
It's a reversal film stock thatcould be used to make prints.
It could be used also to makeanother internegative.
(39:14):
And they made a printing CRIand archival CRI on each
cartoon, but after the big fire,those CRIs or elements made
from them were all we had towork with.
And uh that has caused uh someproblems along the way,
(39:38):
including for the creation ofthis set.
But overall, um, I think theresults speak for themselves.
Uh almost everything looksabsolutely spectacular.
And for those that don't lookquite as good as we had hoped,
uh, everybody did the best theycould given the film elements
(40:01):
that exist here at this studio.
That doesn't mean that thereisn't possibly a perfect nitrate
technicolor print in someone'sbasement in Bucharest.
That may be.
But also when you transfer, wenever transfer now, and
certainly not in my time.
Uh, you don't transfer from aprint unless there's nothing
(40:25):
else.
And transferring from a dyetransfer technicolor print uh
has also the danger of even moresoftness.
Uh the beauty of a night of atechnicolor print, especially
nitrate, is that the colordoesn't fade.
Um but uh MGM did not save itsnitrate print library when they
(40:50):
converted things over to safety.
I don't know what they did withtheir nitrate prints.
There is nothing in ourpaperwork which goes back to the
1960s uh that indicates whatwas done with the nitrate studio
prints.
But my assumption is that whenthey made a new safety studio
(41:12):
print, they may have justpitched the nitrate print
because it was old and beat upor whatever.
But MGM was one of thosecompanies that made sure they
had a prime proper print ofevery short cartoon and feature.
Um and uh on these cartoons,theoretically, we should have
(41:39):
two CRIs as they intended.
But over time, some of thoseelements have been subject to
Vinegar syndrome and uh or somekind of destruction.
Uh, and there wasn't an addedlayer as there was for feature
(42:00):
films.
For the Technicolor featurefilms, they made safety
separation master positives,which are basically fine grains,
black and white, each onedesigned to reflect going
through the prism of the cameraand so forth and so on.
They didn't do that extra levelof protection, unfortunately,
(42:22):
on the cartoons.
So it's either CRIs or elementsmade from the CRIs, and that's
where sometimes we get into alittle trouble.
But we did the best that wecould with all that we had.
So uh for the 114 cartoons, 60were given additional color, uh
(42:47):
cleanup, and 11 were remasteredfrom film.
And uh one of those 11 happensto be the aforementioned mouse
cleaning.
Tim Millard (42:59):
Well, maybe this is a good time for us, uh Jerry.
I think some people sent yousome questions.
Jerry Beck (43:06):
Um people sent me some questions.
Some people I I asked them todirect their questions to the
extras.
Tim Millard (43:14):
Let me let me start that over then.
But uh Well, let me start thatover then, Jerry.
Jerry.
George Feltenstein (43:19):
Let me start that over again, Jerry.
Tim Millard (43:21):
Start that over, Jerry, so that I'm sorry.
Well, maybe this is a goodtransition then, uh uh George.
Some people sent questions uhto the extras who have uh
received a copy and had a chanceto look at it.
Maybe now's the good time, uhJerry, that we could answer or
go through a few of thosequestions.
Jerry Beck (43:42):
Some of those questions came in.
I don't know if these peopleactually saw the set.
I think they're just uhspeculating on the question.
Tim Millard (43:49):
Maybe a combination, yeah, possibly.
Jerry Beck (43:51):
Let me see what we've got here.
Okay.
I don't know the names of thepeople.
I'm just gonna read uh the fewquestions.
First one is uh and and George,you may have answered these
already.
So let's let's just see what wegot here.
We know for certain I don'tknow where the Lindbergh baby
is.
No, that wasn't the question,but uh we know for certain that
the original nitrate negativesof MGM cartoons produced up to
(44:14):
1951 were lost in a vault firein the 70s.
Recently, however, it wasinitially thought that the
original nitrate negative ofmouse cleaning, uh, but which
George later claimed uh was asafety copy of the negative, has
been discovered.
Was this a safety copy uhobtained directly from the
original camera neg or uh fromthe extensive exposure negative?
(44:38):
Furthermore, are there similarcopies of other MGM cartoons?
I guess they meant to say thisway.
Uh and are these the absolutebest copies to use for MGM
cartoons up to 1951 in absenceof the original negatives?
So, George, what would you sayabout that?
You've already answered that uhuh mouse cleaning was from the
(45:02):
original Cameron egg.
It's one of the few that exist.
Um I'm not sure what the restof that question would be, but
uh uh what what after anoriginal Cameron egg, what's the
best for cartoons?
What's the best uh master filmelements that one could use if
(45:26):
you didn't have the originalcameron egg?
That's the question.
George Feltenstein (45:29):
Well, this kind of relates to what I was
talking about before.
Uh it turns out that there area total of 13 MGM cartoons where
the nitrate survives.
Six of those are Tom and Jerrycartoons, the other seven are
(45:54):
not.
And they uh there are a bunchof there there are a few Tex
Averies in there.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Yeah.
George Feltenstein (46:01):
Um, and some of them uh have already
surfaced in the Tex Avery setthat we did.
Um but that is when you look atthe scope of several hundred
cartoons uh and that sixsurvive, that's uh a
heartbreaking uh reality.
(46:25):
Uh I had thought that bylooking in our inventory, I had
thought that what was initiallya discovery in 2007 of you know
these 13 nitrate originalnegatives, uh I had thought that
(46:49):
uh they weren't because theysaid they were out, and I didn't
have the detail.
Uh when we started working onthis set and the subject of
mouse cleaning came up, I didfurther research and found that
yes, what had happened was whenthese 13 were discovered by
(47:15):
yours truly in the inventory,the listings.
I had mentioned this to thepeople who were overseeing
preservation at the time.
They made what MGM should havemade before the fire, they made
successive exposure positivesthat were basically a backup to
(47:38):
the negative.
That's what you do.
You don't not CRI is not thebest way to go forward.
So, for example, on a lot ofthe Technicolor restorations
we've been releasing on Blu-ray,uh, where we've been
recombining the originalnegative, some of those original
negatives aren't completebecause of the big fire in 1978.
(48:03):
So we've had to go toseparation positives for those
burnt reels.
Some films burnt entirely, likeall but one reel of Singing in
the Rain burnt.
Oh my God.
So the reason why Singing inthe Rain looks as good as it
does is because of theSeparation Master positives.
They did not make SeparationMaster positives when they were
(48:27):
doing the nitrate to safetyconversion in the 60s and 70s.
Instead, they made CRIs.
For these 13 cartoons, wherethe original negative somehow
stayed on this coast, um therewere successive exposure safety
(48:48):
positive protection mastersmade.
That's what I saw subsequentlyin the inventory.
And that was when we actuallylooked for what we had on mouse
cleaning, we found out thatthere are six Tom and Jerry's,
some of which had been alreadyused, and one or two of the tech
(49:09):
savories were already used onuh I think volume three.
Um so that's basically thestory.
Now, when we talked about Tomand Jerry on an earlier podcast
to announce this, I had giventhe instructions to the
mastering department.
(49:29):
If you see a 1960s MGM Lion,because I know that the Golden
Collection volume one was filledwith them, uh I said, you know,
there's got to be somethingbetter.
You should have this CRI.
And it turns out thatspecifically, I know one, I'm
(49:52):
trying to remember which one itis, but uh there's uh an early
cartoon where I I saw that, Ichecked it out, and it turned
out that the best survivingelement was an internegative
that had been made in the 60s,and it was another generation
(50:16):
away, but it also uh it was thebest available element because
CRI had been damaged in such away or or had warpage that
couldn't be uh fixed.
So the best unifiedpresentation, because you know,
(50:40):
I was looking at these discsbefore they were replicated.
I saw the lion from the 60s,and I called the mastering team
and said, What's going on?
I said, We're not supposed touse that.
Well, it turns out that onseveral of them, the best
element we had was a lessergeneration, another generation
(51:06):
away, which was uh adisappointment.
Um, and there are just a smallhandful of shorts that don't
look as great as I wish theydid, but our team did the best
that they could with the bestelements that we have.
And uh, you know, when youstart getting into, well, we
(51:29):
found a print, uh, you're stillanother generation away, maybe
that would help, you know.
So I'm not saying that this isthe definitive be all end all.
There could be things in inarchives, you know, there could
be something in people'sbasements, but there's not going
to be our original negativesand uh separation positives.
(51:53):
Um, but if you want to see whatperfection looks like, and it
just so happens it's a greatcartoon that everybody's been
asking for, mouse cleaning is anexample of when you have uh,
and it's noted, it says secondcutting on the original
negative, and that means thatthey change the titles for the
(52:18):
theatrical reissue.
Whenever I see second cuttingor third cutting, each time, you
know, my heart drops a littlebit.
Because, of course, we wanteverything to be as original as
it was, but uh like the cartoonYankee Doodled Mouse that has a
wartime reference that was cutout of it that we probably will
(52:40):
never see again unless someone'sgot a print from the early 40s.
So um that kind of answers thatquestion in a long way, but it
also explains the great amountof detail and research my
colleagues went through inputting all this together.
Speaker 2 (52:59):
Yeah.
Jerry Beck (53:00):
The uh there's a couple of other questions just
again, these are, you know, yousort of answered them, but but
but people ask.
And so they uh you alreadyasked a you you already answered
the question about YankeeDoodle Mouse.
Somebody asked that.
We don't have the originalnegatives or any earlier version
than than a later reissue.
(53:21):
So no, that the originalversion wasn't used.
Um uh here's the question aboutthe were were all the
problematic metro colorrestorations from the 1960s.
I don't think they maderestorations in the 1960s.
Uh were they so were all theproblematic metro color
(53:42):
restorations from the 1960s madein the previous years redone
for this set using technicolorcopies?
You know, that's a this guy's aquestion, but I don't think he
understands right exactly whatwe're talking about, actually.
George Feltenstein (53:58):
But you know, so yeah, for
clarification, yeah.
Uh when MGM reissued thecartoons that were made in the
40s and 50s in Technicolor, uhto use their own lab and to save
money, they made Metro Colorreissue prints, hence the
(54:22):
internegative I was referencingbefore.
Uh in some cases, the bestsurviving element on a
particular cartoon, speakingfrom 2025, uh in certain cases
is a third generationinternegative, which is a
(54:47):
disappointment.
And it is very possible that,you know, long before you or I
were involved in this process,or maybe you were when you were
at MGM before I was, um theoriginal transfers of these
cartoons to one-inch analogvideotape could have been made
(55:12):
from elements that no longerexist, safety elements that
could have gotten lost, stolen,destroyed, water damaged, thrown
out.
I mean, now if we have anelement that has warpage or some
kind of damage, uh, we canhandle that because our scanners
(55:32):
are so smart, you know, thatthey can adjust for that.
But um, and I hate to say this,but Jerry, you'll you'll you'll
understand what I mean.
There was, and unfortunately tosome degree, still is an
attitude among people handlingfilm that cartoons are a lesser
(55:58):
important ilk.
And I think you should respecta cartoon the same way you
respect any classic uh piece offilm history.
Yeah.
I mean, even if it's a badcartoon, yeah.
I mean, you regardless of whatis it, you want to protect it in
(56:23):
the best way.
Yeah, because this is thelegacy of people who are no
longer here, and we want toprotect their legacy and be a
champion of their legacy andmake everything available with
the best possible quality.
I had the experience, I'll say,of working people when I first
(56:45):
got into the industry of peoplewho had the absolute they they
were not bad people, they werenice people, and they really
cared about what they did, butthey made some incredibly
short-sighted decisions.
A perfect example of this iswhen all the pre-48 uh color uh
(57:17):
uh cartoons and the black andwhite Mary Melodies, when which
were part of the MGM slashTurner library, when they were
put onto videotape, uh 35millimeter nitrate prints were
(57:38):
captured onto the one-inchvideotape.
And to protect those cartoons,you should go back to the
original negative, all of whichon the Warner Brothers cartoons
we have, I think, you know, 99%of the original negatives.
Um, instead of going back tothe original negative, they took
(58:01):
these prints, madeinternegatives from the prints,
and then interpositives from theinternegatives.
So four generations away,spending uh seven figures to
make these protection elements,which are totally worthless.
But these people thought theywere doing the right thing.
(58:22):
It might have been somewhat ofa ill-thought-out process.
Thankfully, when those cartoonscame back to Warner Brothers,
uh proper thought processes wentinto getting the original
negatives, going back to them.
And uh we don't have thatluxury on the MGM cartoons, with
(58:48):
the exception of these 13,including the six Tom and
Jerry's.
So uh we're just grateful forwhat we have.
And I should also add that eventhough CRIs, color reversal
internegatives, are really anabysmal kind of element, we've
been able to yield great resultsworking with them because of
(59:12):
the tools that exist now inscanning and color correction um
without tampering with theinherent organic nature of the
animation.
Jerry Beck (59:27):
Um, I want to ask, make sure I get one more
question.
I also want to just quicklyclarify.
Everybody who writes in is gotsome vilification, which I uh is
not unwarranted, towards metrocolor prints.
Now, what they mean, what Ibelieve the the the writers mean
(59:47):
is reissues.
That's what they mean.
They mean if they're saying ametro color print of a of a Tom
and Jerry cartoon, they'retalking about a reissue,
obviously.
And because those in the 60s inparticular, I believe, it'll
say metro color right underneaththe MGM line, right?
At the on the opening logo.
And um what was this?
Is a simple answer.
(01:00:08):
I think I know the answer, butwhat was Metro Color?
It wasn't an Eastern color, butit was Micro Lab.
George Feltenstein (01:00:16):
It was like yeah, the whole industry in
1954, you know, started in asearly as 52.
That's when we got WarnerColor.
Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
Right.
George Feltenstein (01:00:31):
Uh the E the single strand Eastman color
process made filmmaking in colorcheaper, and also the cameras
were not bulky, and they could,you know, have much more
flexibility in the filmmaking.
So the net result was thatMGM's lab could process Eastman
(01:00:59):
Color.
They eventually put the MetroColor name on what they printed.
20th Century Fox put deluxecolor by deluxe.
Deluxe on theirs.
Technicolor was still printingdye transfer, 35 millimeter in
the United States until 1974.
(01:01:20):
So even though the three stripsweren't going through the
Technicolor camera, they werestill doing the inhibition
process of making dye transferprints.
In 35 millimeter as late as1974 here in the US, 16
millimeter, they stopped in1970.
And the UK stopped in 77 andRome in 79.
(01:01:42):
And I could go on and on aboutTechnicolor, but I won't.
But the point is that the MetroColor reissues have the more
1960s lion on the head.
And that's why, specifically,when I saw one of those when I
(01:02:05):
was looking at the disc replicasright before they were about to
replicate, I questioned,because I said we need to fix
all those.
But uh it had a 1960s logo, uhlion logo, and I went and
(01:03:08):
inquired and then found out thatwe didn't have anything better
to go back to.
That's not to say that 20 yearsago that CRI might have been
around for a one-inch standarddefinition master.
So that explains it.
If you see the MGM cartoons instandard definition, and you've
(01:03:31):
got you know a blue line and ablue square around it because
they were trying to stay withinTV safe, you know.
So there's there's uh you know,basically it's in a box.
Um those are usually the early,early transfers that were done
(01:03:52):
off of CRIs or even off metrocolor prints.
Jerry Beck (01:03:59):
Yes.
George, um the last question,just because I've a lot of
people have asked me this, and Ithink you should answer it, is
the rationale or the thinkingwith the bonus cartoons that you
put on to Warner uh archivecollection feature film
releases.
(01:04:20):
For example, uh somebodypointed out um uh the Marx
Brothers at the Circus featuresa really rare MGM cartoon called
Jitterbug Follies.
And uh, but they were a little,they they didn't they didn't
think the quality was as good assome of the other bonus
cartoons that they've beengetting from other features.
(01:04:40):
So, George, explain the wholethinking there and what you do
about it.
George Feltenstein (01:04:43):
When we put bonus cartoons on a feature or
short subjects, it kind of takesus off the Tom and Jerry
subject for a minute, but it's aperfectly appropriate question
because we have used many Tomand Jerry cartoons as bonus
material because we want tocreate that going to a night at
(01:05:05):
the movies experience.
And um with very rareexception, and nothing comes to
mind where we actually did this,we use whatever is on hand.
Um the Jitterbug Follies andWanted No Master.
I would love to see remasteredin HD, those two milk gross
(01:05:27):
cartoons.
Yep, you know.
Yeah, we want um this is whatwas available.
We use the same extras on theDVD of at the circus, so we
wanted to port them over.
We don't have uh, we don't havea lot of budget to work with on
(01:05:47):
providing extras.
I wish we could createdocumentaries and all sorts of
things for our, you know.
Um, we do often being able touse these cartoons and sometimes
shorts, uh, we do provide a wayfor people to own in HD certain
(01:06:08):
things they've never been ableto own before.
A lot of the cartoons that weresupposed to be in Golden
Collection Volume 2, uh, theywere mastered in HD.
Now they've either been keptthe way they were or improved
upon for this set.
unknown (01:06:24):
Right.
George Feltenstein (01:06:24):
But we did put those on several releases
that date from 1948 to 1956 orseven, you know.
Um, but that explains it thatwhen we put a cartoon on a
short, that is no guarantee thatit's been remastered.
It's just there as a bonus.
(01:06:45):
People are buying the movie,they get something else besides
that.
It's a nice extra.
Jerry Beck (01:06:51):
Right.
George Feltenstein (01:06:52):
Well, there you go.
There's the answer.
Right.
Tim Millard (01:12:58):
Well, George Jerry, this is a great day, a great
celebration of uh of a fantasticrelease.
It's gonna make so much peopleit's gonna make so many people
happy this Christmas to havethis.
I'm just loving going throughit.
And uh there's a lot ofcartoons on here.
It takes some time.
George Feltenstein (01:13:19):
And it's a lot of a lot of special material
because all the specialfeatures from all the previous
collections, including the new,the two new ones, which are
quite substantial, buteverything from the past was
repurposed here.
So it's really a uh acelebration to honor William
(01:13:43):
Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
Long may they reign.
Tim Millard (01:13:47):
Yes, yes.
Well, as always, George, Jerry,thank you for coming on and
explaining to the fans all thework and all of the people who
should be thanked andcelebrating uh as fans.
You say this all the time,George, how Jerry, you guys are
fans too.
You're not just animationstars, you're fans of these.
(01:14:08):
You've been working on thesesince the 80s, you know, in one
various form or another.
And the joy to bring them outnow in HD in one set, uncut,
uncensored, and now availablefor everyone.
Uh, it's fantastic and a greatcelebration.
So thank you for coming on theextras as always to share that
(01:14:30):
with the fans.
George Feltenstein (01:14:31):
You're welcome.
Thank you, Tim.
Hello and welcome to the extras up Tim Large, your
host, and joining me are GeorgePhelps Dean of the Warner
Archive and animation historianJerry Beck.
We're here to review therecently released Tom and Jerry
Golden Era Anthology Blu-ray.
Hi guys.
Hello, hello.
I assume you spent the weekend,like I did, reviewing this uh
(01:36):
this brand new Blu-ray, and it'sfantastic.
I love it.
It's a really uh it's a a dayof celebration.
It's finally here.
All of those Tom and Jerrycartoons on one release.
Amazing.
What are your thoughts?
George Feltenstein (01:54):
Well, it's about time.
I was gonna say at thebeginning of 2025, which has
certainly been very much of aroller coaster of a year for the
world, but at the beginning of2025, I was looking forward to
the CinemaScope Tom and Jerrycollection.
Right.
And uh never in my wildestdreams did I think we would be
(02:22):
here in December of 2025 withall 114 Tom and Jerry theatrical
cartoons from MGM in onecollection that is uh a
beautiful Blu-ray bouquet and atribute to Mr.
(02:43):
Hannah, Mr.
Barbera, and all of their loyalstaff that made magic at the
MGM cartoon department for 17years.
It's an awesome experience inthe true sense of the word
because I'm in awe of their workand to be able to bring it to
(03:04):
people's shelves is the goal.
unknown (03:08):
Yeah.
Tim Millard (03:08):
Well, it's a it's a real day of celebration because
of that.
I mean, you had no inkling ofthis, as you just said, and here
we are.
I know the comments and thelead up from the fans has been,
wow, I never expected this.
And that's I think how we're alot of us are feeling and uh
enjoying it.
And uh Jerry wanted to get yourtake.
(03:30):
I mean, this day for you, it'sa very special day as well.
Jerry Beck (03:34):
Well, uh, George, remind me, uh George and I have
been doing this sort of thingfor years.
Um when was the uh uh we didthe uh laserdisc set, the art of
Tom and Jerry?
Three, not counting the ChuckJones one.
That's the thing.
We had to do three sets.
Did we have the uh uh Lady ofthe House shorts on those?
(03:55):
Uh we didn't have any specialfeatures.
We didn't have any specialfeatures?
Well, okay, but did we have wedidn't have uh did we have the
cartoons that featured thatcharacter?
George Feltenstein (04:06):
Yes, but they were edited.
Yeah.
We had the versions that TurnerBroadcasting would let us
release.
Give people context for thosewho don't understand.
This is very confusing topeople.
Okay, but I'll do this reallyfast.
(04:28):
1986 Turner Broadcasting buysMGM UA Entertainment Company,
March 1986.
As part of that transaction,United Artists Corporation is
sold back to Kirk Kerkorian.
So you've got MGM EntertainmentCompany, you've got United
(04:51):
Artists Corporation.
There is no more MGM UA.
Three months later, Ted can'tafford to keep the studio, sells
the name MGM and the logo backto Kerkorian, keeps the library,
sells the lot and the lab toLorimar, and MGM Entertainment
(05:18):
Company, which was Ted'scompany, had to change its name
since the name was sold toUnited Artists and the Leo logo
was sold to United Artists.
Ted was left with the library,that became Turner Entertainment
Company, part of TurnerBroadcasting.
It was 1986.
(05:38):
MGM UA Home Video was part ofthe Kakorian-controlled
post-merger stuff in '86.
And that's where I ended upworking.
And we had the home videorights to the Turner-owned MGM
(06:00):
library, which cuts off at theend of April 1986.
So during that time, I waseventually running MGM UA home
video before I moved to TimeWarner.
And that was when Jerry and Ibegan our Laserdisc sets
(06:20):
starting with Golden Age ofLooney Tunes and then Art of Tom
and Jerry, Complete TechSavory.
But the masters for those setscame from Turner Entertainment
Company and Turner Broadcasting.
1996 is when TurnerBroadcasting was purchased by
(06:41):
Time Warner, and TurnerEntertainment Company became
part of Warner Brothers.
So that is how these MGM Tomand Jerry cartoons have been
owned by Warner Brothers foralmost 30 years now.
And as I moved with the libraryto Warner Brothers, so did
(07:05):
Jerry and I move our efforts atanimation, which had a little
hiatus there, starting with DVDand whatnot.
But we were not as involvedwith Tom and Jerry's earlier DVD
iterations.
Right.
I had a peripheral involvement,but I was theatrical catalog,
(07:31):
so I wasn't really supposed tobe involved.
I did help with the LooneyTunes, which Jerry and I, you
know, collaborated on, but I hadno involvement with the earlier
Tom and Jerry DVD and Blu-rayiterations.
And there was a lot of back andforth about how to approach
(07:52):
them.
And the fact that WarnerArchive got it shot to do Tom
and Jerry CinemaScope was veryexciting.
And it really wasn't untilafter that hit the market that
one of my colleagues within thegreater Warner Brothers Home
Entertainment said, let's dosomething big for Tom and
(08:15):
Jerry's 85th anniversary beforethe end of the year.
And that created where we arenow.
So I just wanted to clarifythat because there is still a
lot of confusion because since1986, the company that operated
(08:38):
and operates now as anAmazon-owned company, Amazon
MGM, is not actually thecorporate successor to Metro
Golden Mare.
They are MGM in name only.
They are the corporatesuccessor on paper to United
(08:58):
Artists Corporation.
So a lot of people like, youknow, hundred years of MGM.
Well, not really.
Um it's it's a actual the theentity can lives on at Warner
Brothers.
And that's why Tom and Jerryhave played a very, very
(09:20):
important role within WarnerBrothers because there have been
numerous Tom and Jerry newanimation projects, uh,
direct-to-video things, andthere was a theatrical feature,
and there have been things donefor television.
And we're not here to talkabout that.
(09:40):
We're here to talk about theabsolute prime golden age of Tom
and Jerry as overseen by BillHanna and Joe Barbera at the MGM
Cartoon Department, beginningwith Jasper the Cat 1940 Puss
Gets the Boot.
And this collection has all thecartoons uncensored, uncut, and
(10:05):
uh that's an enormousachievement, especially as a
beautiful high-definitionBlu-ray.
Tim Millard (10:12):
So, really, it's been almost like 40 years that
you guys have been working onTom and Jerry at some level, and
this is the first time, I mean,that it's all in one release.
It's all in one release.
George Feltenstein (10:26):
The first time was the Cartoon Movie
Star's video cassettes.
Jerry Beck (10:31):
Yeah.
George Feltenstein (10:32):
Because that was the first idea of we can
sell classic animation toadults.
Right.
I guess that was Looney Tunes,that was Tech Savory Screwball
Classics Volume One, that wasTom and Jerry.
And uh oddly enough, in the VHSBetamax era, uh, we didn't have
(10:55):
initially a problem withcensorship of the cartoons, the
Tom and Jerry's.
But the laserdiscs that came,there were three of them.
The first two were all theHannah and Barbera cartoons.
Yep.
But if you look back, theretail price, I think, was $125
(11:20):
a set.
Tim Millard (11:23):
So you needed multiples.
George Feltenstein (11:28):
Yeah, yeah.
So double that.
So it's it's very exciting.
The one thing that's wonderfulabout those box sets, though,
were the beautiful, you had thesize to create.
Yeah.
Beautiful packaging, beautifulinserts.
And uh, I still have a sealedcopy of all those sets.
(11:48):
But uh, I haven't put aLaserdisc in a Laserdisc player
in a very long time.
Tim Millard (11:54):
Well, Jerry, give us a little impression on the
importance of this with all ofthe episodes uncut, uncensored.
The fact that you know the thatthe fans get this now.
Um it hasn't been available atall.
And it's an HD.
Jerry Beck (12:15):
Yeah, no, this is a real um what's the word, showing
respect to the fans.
The cartoons are a commodity.
The MGM, uh, you know, thecompanies had had the the rights
to put them out.
Have uh, you know, there was alot of cartoons.
There was there are manymultiple ways to put those
cartoons out on various types ofsets.
(12:37):
You know, you can do it bytheme, you can do it by this,
you can do it by that.
The bottom line is this is awork of art.
These are great Hollywoodcartoons.
They may be the best Hollywoodcartoons.
They're by MGM.
Their budgets are right upthere.
They're, you know, Disney hasbeen said to have the biggest
budgets.
I can probably agree with that.
(12:58):
But MGM matches that, noquestion about it.
They probably saw what Disneywas spending for a short, and
they, you know, they matched itat least.
And uh these cartoons arelavish.
Uh no, nothing has been sparedto produce them so they
maximally work this way.
I I personally believe that MGMback in 1940 was for 10 years,
(13:22):
was waiting for a creator, aseries, characters to match what
MGM could give that creator tomake a great series.
They never quite got that.
They got some great creators ofiWorks, Harman and Ising, but
they never came up withcharacters that that the
audiences could relate to, theaudiences would love and embrace
(13:45):
Hannon Barbera under Iising'sunit at uh MGM.
They hit the magic formula.
They got it.
They, okay, we have characters,and now MGM backed them.
They backed them through thethrough the war, through the
post-war period, you know, intothe 50s, cinema scope.
And these cartoons are, youknow, they're beautiful.
(14:06):
They're funny.
George Feltenstein (14:07):
Seven Oscars.
Jerry Beck (14:09):
Seven Oscars.
But the bottom line is they'refunny and they make people
laugh, and everybody loves them.
And in a bigger way, in a in ain so big of a way than the last
uh classic Hollywood cartoonsthat were run on cable TV on
Cartoon Network, uh, I maybethey still are right now.
(14:30):
I have to tell you, I've losttrack because, well, they're on
me TV tunes too.
The thing is, they they uh uheven Bugs Bunny.
Believe me, no one loves BugsBunny and Warner cartoons more
than me, but but uh but when itcame down to it, the commercial
viability of of Tom and Jerry,their popularity is so huge and
(14:53):
global.
One last thing I'll say theoriginal Hanna Barbera Tom and
Jerry that's on this set.
You know, as we all know, theseries was continued later by
Chuck Jones, Gene Deitch, andthen later on on television
versions and uh and then in thewisdom of the Warner Brothers
(15:13):
studio, our friend Sam registerspeople work there now.
When they do a new Tom andJerry movie or something like
they've done shorts, it's in theHanna Barbera style.
They they've matched, they gotit.
They got whoa boy, they knowthey know they even got to get
the music.
Scott Bradley, everything'sgotta be like that because
that's the only way it works.
You know, it's the best way itworks, let's put it on.
George Feltenstein (15:36):
And that's why we're so lucky that Sam is
here.
Yeah.
Because he, like us, he lovesthe great stuff, and to have his
team love the great stuff andit shows in their work, yeah,
and it works for multiplegenerations.
But I think that's the otherthing about Tom and Jerry that's
(15:58):
so important is the charactersnever lost their popularity
since being introduced 85 yearsago.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
No.
George Feltenstein (16:10):
And even to the point where when all the
studios were selling theircartoons to television, MGM held
Tom and Jerry back for almost adecade.
Yeah.
Uh, because they were stillmaking money with them in
theaters all over the world uhwith the gold medal reprints, as
(16:31):
they called them.
Warner Brothers had the blueribbon reissues, MGM had the
gold medal reprints, but theywere releasing a schedule of
classic Hannah and Barbera madeTom and Jerry cartoons right up
through 1970, 71, I think.
And that that also is one ofthe factors in what creates
(16:58):
problems for us in the survivingfilm elements, because the
cartoons were so popular, theelements were used a great deal,
and that has caused someproblems in trying to do the
work we can do, which issomething we can talk about as
we get down the pike.
(17:18):
But a lot of love went intocreating this set, and I do,
I've mentioned this before whenwe announced it, but uh a
colleague of mine here at WarnerBrothers Home Entertainment,
this colleague was dedicated toseeing that all the cartoons got
(17:43):
released uncut and as acelebration of their 85th
anniversary.
And the tenacity and passion ofthis colleague is chiefly
responsible for this getting allof the blockades pushed down.
So the cartoons are complete,uncensored.
(18:06):
I think Jerry mentioned thatone cartoon, Yankee Doodle's
Mouse, had something on it thatwas uh tied to the titles during
the war, that was cut forreissue, that doesn't exist
anymore.
But that's the only thing I canthink of that is not part of
the original cartoon.
That I mean, they're allostensibly uncut and certainly
(18:31):
uncensored.
And that the Blu-ray has awhole bonus disc with hours and
hours of special features,including there's a whole story
behind two of the specialfeatures, which we can we can
talk about in a moment if youlike.
But um I mean I that's Jim.
(18:52):
I have to ask you.
Um, I assume you've watched theset, and I would love to know
what you think.
Tim Millard (18:59):
Well, uh, I I love it.
I mean, just the quality ofeach short film is fantastic.
I love the startingchronologically from the very
first one, which is you know,which was nominated for an
Academy Award, and seeing theprogression of these, seeing the
(19:23):
introduction of the charactersas you go, the transfers, I
think looked fantastic.
You just mentioned the music,sounds terrific.
And I'm not a nitpicker.
I've mentioned this on some ofour other uh podcasts, looking
at the classic cartoons.
I'm enjoying these in HD,hearing them, watching them.
(19:44):
They're fantastic, and it'sterrific.
They're introducing theseclassics, 80-year-old cartoons
or or you know, whatever agethey are, and they feel current,
they feel very much because ofhow good they look and sound.
And so you're gonna have awhole new audience of young
(20:08):
people, I think, in addition tothe collectors, of course, who
now have this wonderful treat intheir hands.
But you also have now thesecartoons looking and sounding so
good that a whole newgeneration, a whole new audience
of people who know Tom andJerry, they of course remember a
little bit about them, but youput this in, and from the
(20:28):
get-go, you just see and arereminded why these are classics,
why they're so good.
And I just really, really amenjoying going through this set.
I haven't watched them all yet.
I'm I'm what two, three discsin.
Uh, and I watched all theextras, of course, because we
want to talk about that.
But they are great, and I'mloving it, and I think this is
(20:51):
just a treat for both thecollector and of course just any
animation fan.
And I did want to talk aboutone of the great parts you just
mentioned, of course, and that'sthe return of Mammy Two Shoes,
um, because that's a big part ofthe uncensored part.
And we won't get into all thedetails of why the censorship.
(21:12):
Many people understand uh andknow that story, but it's so
great to see and hear LillianRandolph's voice, to see the
slippers, the skirt, everythingin there, and to know that
you're watching it the way itwas originally made.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah.
George Feltenstein (21:28):
Well, I I think that we don't want to
avoid the elephant in the room,which is what happened
subsequent to, let's say, 2010.
2011 was the first release onBlu ray of Tom and Jerry Golden
Collection Volume 1.
And this was handled by ourkids' marketing team.
(21:56):
Lovely people, some of whom arestill here, some of whom are
not.
But a lot of love went intothat set.
Uh, some of the cartoons lookedamazing, some of them not so,
but the entertainment value wasthere, and more importantly, the
cartoons were complete anduncut.
(22:18):
When it came to volume two,there were two cartoons that it
was deemed by a legal reviewcommittee that existed at the
time that they could not bereleased due to objectionable
content, despite the fact thatwe had introduced using
(22:39):
disclaimers and putting thingsinto historical context.
And ironically, the problemdidn't come from the home
entertainment area.
It came from a veryhigh-powered executive who was
(23:00):
involved in television, not evenhome entertainment, not legal
home entertainment.
It wasn't anything like that.
But this person had a lot ofpower here at the company at the
time, and there was going to bea new Tom and Jerry series
launched on Cartoon Network, Ithink.
And she blew a gasket and said,you cannot put those cartoons
(23:26):
in this collection.
So it was announced.
I think a lot of people who arelistening or watching uh this
uh discussion uh know that itwas announced, Golden Collection
Volume 2, and uh the negativeresponse due to the omission of
(23:46):
those two cartoons led the headof that business unit.
At the time, our division wasuh theatrical catalog, new
theatrical features, and thentelevision and family.
And the person who was the headof television and family got
(24:08):
together with the head of thefamily unit and said, if people
are going to be so upset aboutthis, uh, we're just not gonna
release it at all.
And the release was canceled.
I don't think all the peoplethat were doing their
complaining realized that itwould result in a release like
(24:28):
that getting pulled, but that'swhat happened.
That was 13 years ago, Ibelieve.
If my if my internal calendarwas correct, certainly 12 years
ago, if not 13.
So everything just kind of sat.
And what was particularlyupsetting is a good friend of
(24:49):
ours, uh, Constantine Nazar, whois a wonderful filmmaker, and
who had worked with us on theLooney Tunes special features,
which Jerry and I were much moreinvolved with the Looney Tunes
Golden Collections than at leastI was on what had happened with
(25:11):
Tom and Jerry.
But Constantine worked at NewWave Entertainment, and that was
what, 22 years ago, you know,started making special features
for the Looney Tunes.
They eventually approached Tomand Jerry as well, and he was
working on two new documentariesfor Golden Collection Volume 2
(25:31):
that no one ever got to see, andfrankly, they weren't finished.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Yeah.
George Feltenstein (25:37):
And here we are now 12 or 13 years later,
since the debacle of GoldenCollection Volume 2 that never
came out.
Constantine got to go back andfinish the two documentaries,
and it's a mixture on the Ladyof the House documentary, which
(26:00):
is about the character of Dinah,aka Mammy Two Shoes.
Mammy Two Shoes was neverreally an official name for the
character.
Is that correct, Jerry?
Jerry Beck (26:10):
Yes, it was never.
Yeah, you're correct aboutthat.
George Feltenstein (26:13):
So what I love about the piece is it goes
into the artistry of developingthe character, and so many radio
performers provided the voicesfor great classic animated
cartoons, but Lillian Randolphwas one of those people.
And instead of hiding thecharacter and burying cartoons
(26:37):
that may have gags that arepolitically incorrect and a
product of their time,everything is presented uncut,
uncensored, and celebrating thetalented people that
collaborated on making thesethings.
And I'm hoping that that willspread to other films that we
have in the library,particularly animated ones that
(27:00):
have been suppressed, that itwould be maybe time to open up
those doors because we're allgrown-ups.
And that's more important tosay that these collections are
made for adults.
It says so on the packaging.
There is a disclaimer at thebeginning, but they were made
for adults in theaters.
(27:21):
And if kids were in the theaterat the time, they were to be
entertained as well.
But these are not sillysymphonies, these are not
beautiful little animatedcartoons.
These are funny, funnycartoons.
The beauty of MGM's cartoonsand Warner Brothers cartoons is
they have great artistry, theyhave great writing, great
(27:46):
animation, and they're so funny.
And I don't think any othercompany has the monopoly, shall
we say, of funny, great classicAmerican animation than we do.
And to be blessed with LooneyTunes, Tom and Jerry, Tech
(28:08):
Savory, Popeye, we've gotbasically the best.
And now Tom and Jerry, you canfinally own all 114 theatrical
cartoons that Bill, Hannah, andJoe Barbera made at the MGM
Cartoon Department without anyrepression or censorship.
(28:30):
And that's quite anachievement.
And it would not be possiblewithout the passion and
persistence of my colleague, whoI will not name, to avoid the
amount of uh telegrams if theystill had such things that uh
this person would get thankingthem.
(28:52):
I'm very glad that everybodypulled together to make this
happen because they saw that itmade tremendous sense.
And uh the net result will be,I hope, thousands and thousands
of people being properlyentertained and their days
brightened by the joys that areto be had watching the cartoons
(29:17):
in this collection.
Tim Millard (29:19):
Let me ask a just a funny question.
But Jerry, have you seen thesecartoons the way they're
presented now in HD?
No.
No, even you are seeingsomething fantastically new.
Jerry Beck (29:36):
There were many times where I had the disc on.
I was sort of reviewing it.
I do other things while I haveit on.
I listen to the sound, but I'mand I'll look up at the picture,
and more than I can everremember, maybe except for the
Looney Tunes, George.
George knows this, but I lookedup and I couldn't look down.
I couldn't look down becausethe crystal clarity of some of
(30:00):
the cartoons on here that I'dnever seen that way before was
killing me.
I it's so clear.
You can to me, I I I call ityou can see the cells in the
background.
You know what I mean?
You can see the that it looksbrand new.
I I I I don't I I I don't know.
That's an experience I lovebecause it's the way people saw
it when when they when thesecartoons first came out, when
(30:23):
they were first on the bigscreen.
The colors.
I mean, it's it's amazing.
You know, we've we've had Tomand Jerry on um Blu-ray before,
but this time around, the wayit's done and uh in order, you
know, as a historian, withwhatever that means, as an
educator, a teacher, teach thehistory of animation.
(30:44):
This is a great way to learnanimation and learn what you
know, what happened, how thesecharacters evolved, and they
did.
You know, the Tom and Jerry ofPuss Gets the Boot is completely
different in style and lookfrom Tot Watchers, the last one.
And yet they're Tom and Jerry.
They're Tom and Jerry all theway through.
You know, the personalities arethere and it's just it's great.
unknown (31:09):
Yeah.
Tim Millard (31:09):
Yeah, I I enjoyed that part when when you're
watching those first five, youjust see jumps between of the
character design and and justthe confidence that that the uh
creators had even in, oh, weknow where we're going with this
and what making this work.
Jerry Beck (31:28):
We live in a world today where if somebody was
pitching a cartoon, they have topitch it uh completely formed,
whether it's SpongeBob orScooby-Doo, even uh had to be
here's the characters, here'swhat they look like, here's the
stories, here's the backgrounds.
They didn't do that back then.
Nobody came in and pitched BugsBunny or Tom and Jerry.
(31:48):
They developed the characterson screen.
And we get we get to see thatin the first five, 10 cartoons.
We get to see the characterscome to be, you know, and um,
and then they hit their stride,you know, by the by the war
years, by the mid-40s, and it'syou know, it's the Tom and Jerry
(32:09):
we love.
Tim Millard (32:10):
Yeah, yeah.
And and then you see theintroduction of each of the
other characters, um, which isfantastic.
And to know, oh, this is thefirst time that this character
is is on, it's really fun.
George, uh, I just wanted toclarify the the cinema scope you
mentioned, you know, that was agreat release that was planned,
was not known then at thatpoint that this release was
(32:34):
going to come out.
Um, but I just want to clarifyif some people did just want to
know, are all of them includedhere?
Obviously the answer is yes.
And that includes also thethree bonus cartoons that were
on that release.
George Feltenstein (32:48):
That's correct.
Tim Millard (32:49):
Yeah, yeah.
I just want to clarify that ifyou purchase the Cinema Scope,
it's a great collection.
They are repeated in this set.
If you didn't buy it, ofcourse, you'll have them on this
set as well.
So those are all in there, uh,and that's fantastic.
Also wanted to talk about thisbooklet, which I'm holding up
here.
And it's got original sketchesfrom the Golden Era.
(33:11):
It also has kind of a timelinein it uh of some of the films.
It doesn't have them all inthere.
Uh, that's a nice bonus that isexclusive to the Blu-ray, as
well as that extras uh disc,which has the bonus disc is only
on the Blu-ray from whereyou're exactly and it has the
(33:32):
two new featurettes, sevenarchival featurettes, I believe,
and then it's got excerpts fromthe movies.
Jerry Beck (33:41):
Um Anchors Away and Angers One Away, right?
Tim Millard (33:45):
So it's got those in there, and they look
terrific.
I watch those, they look uhfantastic.
And then you have, I believe,20 commentaries in this set as
well.
So a lot of great extras thatare included in this set.
George Feltenstein (33:58):
It's also not out of reach from a
financial standpoint.
I think it's a very reasonablypriced release.
It's basically six discs for aretail price of $60.
Thankfully, I think some majorretailers are discounting it a
(34:20):
little bit.
But, you know, we're very proudof it.
A lot of work went into this.
When we first announced it, youknow, I said what our approach
was, which was uh we looked atall the masters, we made
improvements, our masteringteam, I should say specifically.
(34:40):
The mastering team madeimprovements to 60 of the
cartoons that already existed ashigh definition masters with
additional color correction thatneeded to be helped, some audio
issues that needed to beaddressed.
They also did additional dirtand scratch removal, anything
(35:01):
that would be film damage, butthey did not remove cell dust or
anything that would have beeninherent in the original
animation.
So there were 60 cartoons thatgot cleaned up.
There was not any uh digitalnoise reduction or grain
(35:24):
management done.
There seem to be assertionsfrom some people who've already
seen it that uh that was used.
I have been told by mycolleagues who oversee these
things that that was not done.
But what they did do was they,based on the quality levels that
(35:44):
we, you know, demand basically,they clean them up to 2025
standards so there isn't a youknow uh a black speck on a
negative is going to be a whitespot on the film, and we like
our films to be cleaned up.
And uh there were 11 where weneeded to go back to film, and
(36:09):
that included the 23 that werein the Cinema Scope collection,
you know, they already had beenuh given an upgrade.
So, all in all, uh the qualityis is uh I think quite good.
It's good to excellent.
And uh one of the things thatis potentially not known is that
(36:35):
unlike the Warner Brotherscartoons, all the Tom and Jerry
cartoons that were made onnitrate stock, very flammable,
uh, up through 1951, with theexception of six cartoons from
that huge group, all theoriginal negatives were lost in
(36:58):
a tragic fire on the East Coastat an archive where they had
been sent for safekeeping.
Uh, we lost hundreds of MGMfeature films.
The whole cartoon library wentup in smoke, as did the Short
Subjects Library.
There were six that somehow gotuh they must not have been in
(37:24):
the right box to go to the EastCoast uh that we discovered
around 2007.
And some of those where theoriginal negative is still
extant are on this set as partof a new presentation, most
notably the infamous mousecleaning, which was one of the
(37:45):
two cartoons that precluded therelease of Golden Collection
Volume 2.
So not only does mouse cleaninguh make people happy because
it's uncut and it's a greatcartoon and it's funny, but also
it looks amazing, and thereason is it's one of the six
nitrate-era cartoons where wehad the original to go back to.
(38:10):
What MGM did, for those whodon't know, is there were only
two companies in the 1960s thatsaw the danger that lay ahead uh
with nitrate film, and it wasDisney and MGM, both Disney and
(38:31):
MGM, and Disney was basicallyjust an animation and family
movie company.
They were in a big studio atthat time, but they saw to it
that they preserved all of theirnitrate onto safety film.
Similarly, MGM started anitrate to safety conversion
program in the early 1960s.
(38:52):
And for the cartoons, uh theypreserved them by making what is
called a color reversalinternegative, a CRI, not a
great film stock.
It's a reversal film stock thatcould be used to make prints.
It could be used also to makeanother internegative.
(39:14):
And they made a printing CRIand archival CRI on each
cartoon, but after the big fire,those CRIs or elements made
from them were all we had towork with.
And uh that has caused uh someproblems along the way,
(39:38):
including for the creation ofthis set.
But overall, um, I think theresults speak for themselves.
Uh almost everything looksabsolutely spectacular.
And for those that don't lookquite as good as we had hoped,
uh, everybody did the best theycould given the film elements
(40:01):
that exist here at this studio.
That doesn't mean that thereisn't possibly a perfect nitrate
technicolor print in someone'sbasement in Bucharest.
That may be.
But also when you transfer, wenever transfer now, and
certainly not in my time.
Uh, you don't transfer from aprint unless there's nothing
(40:25):
else.
And transferring from a dyetransfer technicolor print uh
has also the danger of even moresoftness.
Uh the beauty of a night of atechnicolor print, especially
nitrate, is that the colordoesn't fade.
Um but uh MGM did not save itsnitrate print library when they
(40:50):
converted things over to safety.
I don't know what they did withtheir nitrate prints.
There is nothing in ourpaperwork which goes back to the
1960s uh that indicates whatwas done with the nitrate studio
prints.
But my assumption is that whenthey made a new safety studio
(41:12):
print, they may have justpitched the nitrate print
because it was old and beat upor whatever.
But MGM was one of thosecompanies that made sure they
had a prime proper print ofevery short cartoon and feature.
Um and uh on these cartoons,theoretically, we should have
(41:39):
two CRIs as they intended.
But over time, some of thoseelements have been subject to
Vinegar syndrome and uh or somekind of destruction.
Uh, and there wasn't an addedlayer as there was for feature
(42:00):
films.
For the Technicolor featurefilms, they made safety
separation master positives,which are basically fine grains,
black and white, each onedesigned to reflect going
through the prism of the cameraand so forth and so on.
They didn't do that extra levelof protection, unfortunately,
(42:22):
on the cartoons.
So it's either CRIs or elementsmade from the CRIs, and that's
where sometimes we get into alittle trouble.
But we did the best that wecould with all that we had.
So uh for the 114 cartoons, 60were given additional color, uh
(42:47):
cleanup, and 11 were remasteredfrom film.
And uh one of those 11 happensto be the aforementioned mouse
cleaning.
Tim Millard (42:59):
Well, maybe this is a good time for us, uh Jerry.
I think some people sent yousome questions.
Jerry Beck (43:06):
Um people sent me some questions.
Some people I I asked them todirect their questions to the
extras.
Tim Millard (43:14):
Let me let me start that over then.
But uh Well, let me start thatover then, Jerry.
Jerry.
George Feltenstein (43:19):
Let me start that over again, Jerry.
Tim Millard (43:21):
Start that over, Jerry, so that I'm sorry.
Well, maybe this is a goodtransition then, uh uh George.
Some people sent questions uhto the extras who have uh
received a copy and had a chanceto look at it.
Maybe now's the good time, uhJerry, that we could answer or
go through a few of thosequestions.
Jerry Beck (43:42):
Some of those questions came in.
I don't know if these peopleactually saw the set.
I think they're just uhspeculating on the question.
Tim Millard (43:49):
Maybe a combination, yeah, possibly.
Jerry Beck (43:51):
Let me see what we've got here.
Okay.
I don't know the names of thepeople.
I'm just gonna read uh the fewquestions.
First one is uh and and George,you may have answered these
already.
So let's let's just see what wegot here.
We know for certain I don'tknow where the Lindbergh baby
is.
No, that wasn't the question,but uh we know for certain that
the original nitrate negativesof MGM cartoons produced up to
(44:14):
1951 were lost in a vault firein the 70s.
Recently, however, it wasinitially thought that the
original nitrate negative ofmouse cleaning, uh, but which
George later claimed uh was asafety copy of the negative, has
been discovered.
Was this a safety copy uhobtained directly from the
original camera neg or uh fromthe extensive exposure negative?
(44:38):
Furthermore, are there similarcopies of other MGM cartoons?
I guess they meant to say thisway.
Uh and are these the absolutebest copies to use for MGM
cartoons up to 1951 in absenceof the original negatives?
So, George, what would you sayabout that?
You've already answered that uhuh mouse cleaning was from the
(45:02):
original Cameron egg.
It's one of the few that exist.
Um I'm not sure what the restof that question would be, but
uh uh what what after anoriginal Cameron egg, what's the
best for cartoons?
What's the best uh master filmelements that one could use if
(45:26):
you didn't have the originalcameron egg?
That's the question.
George Feltenstein (45:29):
Well, this kind of relates to what I was
talking about before.
Uh it turns out that there area total of 13 MGM cartoons where
the nitrate survives.
Six of those are Tom and Jerrycartoons, the other seven are
(45:54):
not.
And they uh there are a bunchof there there are a few Tex
Averies in there.
Speaker 2 (46:00):
Yeah.
George Feltenstein (46:01):
Um, and some of them uh have already
surfaced in the Tex Avery setthat we did.
Um but that is when you look atthe scope of several hundred
cartoons uh and that sixsurvive, that's uh a
heartbreaking uh reality.
(46:25):
Uh I had thought that bylooking in our inventory, I had
thought that what was initiallya discovery in 2007 of you know
these 13 nitrate originalnegatives, uh I had thought that
(46:49):
uh they weren't because theysaid they were out, and I didn't
have the detail.
Uh when we started working onthis set and the subject of
mouse cleaning came up, I didfurther research and found that
yes, what had happened was whenthese 13 were discovered by
(47:15):
yours truly in the inventory,the listings.
I had mentioned this to thepeople who were overseeing
preservation at the time.
They made what MGM should havemade before the fire, they made
successive exposure positivesthat were basically a backup to
(47:38):
the negative.
That's what you do.
You don't not CRI is not thebest way to go forward.
So, for example, on a lot ofthe Technicolor restorations
we've been releasing on Blu-ray,uh, where we've been
recombining the originalnegative, some of those original
negatives aren't completebecause of the big fire in 1978.
(48:03):
So we've had to go toseparation positives for those
burnt reels.
Some films burnt entirely, likeall but one reel of Singing in
the Rain burnt.
Oh my God.
So the reason why Singing inthe Rain looks as good as it
does is because of theSeparation Master positives.
They did not make SeparationMaster positives when they were
(48:27):
doing the nitrate to safetyconversion in the 60s and 70s.
Instead, they made CRIs.
For these 13 cartoons, wherethe original negative somehow
stayed on this coast, um therewere successive exposure safety
(48:48):
positive protection mastersmade.
That's what I saw subsequentlyin the inventory.
And that was when we actuallylooked for what we had on mouse
cleaning, we found out thatthere are six Tom and Jerry's,
some of which had been alreadyused, and one or two of the tech
(49:09):
savories were already used onuh I think volume three.
Um so that's basically thestory.
Now, when we talked about Tomand Jerry on an earlier podcast
to announce this, I had giventhe instructions to the
mastering department.
(49:29):
If you see a 1960s MGM Lion,because I know that the Golden
Collection volume one was filledwith them, uh I said, you know,
there's got to be somethingbetter.
You should have this CRI.
And it turns out thatspecifically, I know one, I'm
(49:52):
trying to remember which one itis, but uh there's uh an early
cartoon where I I saw that, Ichecked it out, and it turned
out that the best survivingelement was an internegative
that had been made in the 60s,and it was another generation
(50:16):
away, but it also uh it was thebest available element because
CRI had been damaged in such away or or had warpage that
couldn't be uh fixed.
So the best unifiedpresentation, because you know,
(50:40):
I was looking at these discsbefore they were replicated.
I saw the lion from the 60s,and I called the mastering team
and said, What's going on?
I said, We're not supposed touse that.
Well, it turns out that onseveral of them, the best
element we had was a lessergeneration, another generation
(51:06):
away, which was uh adisappointment.
Um, and there are just a smallhandful of shorts that don't
look as great as I wish theydid, but our team did the best
that they could with the bestelements that we have.
And uh, you know, when youstart getting into, well, we
(51:29):
found a print, uh, you're stillanother generation away, maybe
that would help, you know.
So I'm not saying that this isthe definitive be all end all.
There could be things in inarchives, you know, there could
be something in people'sbasements, but there's not going
to be our original negativesand uh separation positives.
(51:53):
Um, but if you want to see whatperfection looks like, and it
just so happens it's a greatcartoon that everybody's been
asking for, mouse cleaning is anexample of when you have uh,
and it's noted, it says secondcutting on the original
negative, and that means thatthey change the titles for the
(52:18):
theatrical reissue.
Whenever I see second cuttingor third cutting, each time, you
know, my heart drops a littlebit.
Because, of course, we wanteverything to be as original as
it was, but uh like the cartoonYankee Doodled Mouse that has a
wartime reference that was cutout of it that we probably will
(52:40):
never see again unless someone'sgot a print from the early 40s.
So um that kind of answers thatquestion in a long way, but it
also explains the great amountof detail and research my
colleagues went through inputting all this together.
Speaker 2 (52:59):
Yeah.
Jerry Beck (53:00):
The uh there's a couple of other questions just
again, these are, you know, yousort of answered them, but but
but people ask.
And so they uh you alreadyasked a you you already answered
the question about YankeeDoodle Mouse.
Somebody asked that.
We don't have the originalnegatives or any earlier version
than than a later reissue.
(53:21):
So no, that the originalversion wasn't used.
Um uh here's the question aboutthe were were all the
problematic metro colorrestorations from the 1960s.
I don't think they maderestorations in the 1960s.
Uh were they so were all theproblematic metro color
(53:42):
restorations from the 1960s madein the previous years redone
for this set using technicolorcopies?
You know, that's a this guy's aquestion, but I don't think he
understands right exactly whatwe're talking about, actually.
George Feltenstein (53:58):
But you know, so yeah, for
clarification, yeah.
Uh when MGM reissued thecartoons that were made in the
40s and 50s in Technicolor, uhto use their own lab and to save
money, they made Metro Colorreissue prints, hence the
(54:22):
internegative I was referencingbefore.
Uh in some cases, the bestsurviving element on a
particular cartoon, speakingfrom 2025, uh in certain cases
is a third generationinternegative, which is a
(54:47):
disappointment.
And it is very possible that,you know, long before you or I
were involved in this process,or maybe you were when you were
at MGM before I was, um theoriginal transfers of these
cartoons to one-inch analogvideotape could have been made
(55:12):
from elements that no longerexist, safety elements that
could have gotten lost, stolen,destroyed, water damaged, thrown
out.
I mean, now if we have anelement that has warpage or some
kind of damage, uh, we canhandle that because our scanners
(55:32):
are so smart, you know, thatthey can adjust for that.
But um, and I hate to say this,but Jerry, you'll you'll you'll
understand what I mean.
There was, and unfortunately tosome degree, still is an
attitude among people handlingfilm that cartoons are a lesser
(55:58):
important ilk.
And I think you should respecta cartoon the same way you
respect any classic uh piece offilm history.
Yeah.
I mean, even if it's a badcartoon, yeah.
I mean, you regardless of whatis it, you want to protect it in
(56:23):
the best way.
Yeah, because this is thelegacy of people who are no
longer here, and we want toprotect their legacy and be a
champion of their legacy andmake everything available with
the best possible quality.
I had the experience, I'll say,of working people when I first
(56:45):
got into the industry of peoplewho had the absolute they they
were not bad people, they werenice people, and they really
cared about what they did, butthey made some incredibly
short-sighted decisions.
A perfect example of this iswhen all the pre-48 uh color uh
(57:17):
uh cartoons and the black andwhite Mary Melodies, when which
were part of the MGM slashTurner library, when they were
put onto videotape, uh 35millimeter nitrate prints were
(57:38):
captured onto the one-inchvideotape.
And to protect those cartoons,you should go back to the
original negative, all of whichon the Warner Brothers cartoons
we have, I think, you know, 99%of the original negatives.
Um, instead of going back tothe original negative, they took
(58:01):
these prints, madeinternegatives from the prints,
and then interpositives from theinternegatives.
So four generations away,spending uh seven figures to
make these protection elements,which are totally worthless.
But these people thought theywere doing the right thing.
(58:22):
It might have been somewhat ofa ill-thought-out process.
Thankfully, when those cartoonscame back to Warner Brothers,
uh proper thought processes wentinto getting the original
negatives, going back to them.
And uh we don't have thatluxury on the MGM cartoons, with
(58:48):
the exception of these 13,including the six Tom and
Jerry's.
So uh we're just grateful forwhat we have.
And I should also add that eventhough CRIs, color reversal
internegatives, are really anabysmal kind of element, we've
been able to yield great resultsworking with them because of
(59:12):
the tools that exist now inscanning and color correction um
without tampering with theinherent organic nature of the
animation.
Jerry Beck (59:27):
Um, I want to ask, make sure I get one more
question.
I also want to just quicklyclarify.
Everybody who writes in is gotsome vilification, which I uh is
not unwarranted, towards metrocolor prints.
Now, what they mean, what Ibelieve the the the writers mean
(59:47):
is reissues.
That's what they mean.
They mean if they're saying ametro color print of a of a Tom
and Jerry cartoon, they'retalking about a reissue,
obviously.
And because those in the 60s inparticular, I believe, it'll
say metro color right underneaththe MGM line, right?
At the on the opening logo.
And um what was this?
Is a simple answer.
(01:00:08):
I think I know the answer, butwhat was Metro Color?
It wasn't an Eastern color, butit was Micro Lab.
George Feltenstein (01:00:16):
It was like yeah, the whole industry in
1954, you know, started in asearly as 52.
That's when we got WarnerColor.
Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
Right.
George Feltenstein (01:00:31):
Uh the E the single strand Eastman color
process made filmmaking in colorcheaper, and also the cameras
were not bulky, and they could,you know, have much more
flexibility in the filmmaking.
So the net result was thatMGM's lab could process Eastman
(01:00:59):
Color.
They eventually put the MetroColor name on what they printed.
20th Century Fox put deluxecolor by deluxe.
Deluxe on theirs.
Technicolor was still printingdye transfer, 35 millimeter in
the United States until 1974.
(01:01:20):
So even though the three stripsweren't going through the
Technicolor camera, they werestill doing the inhibition
process of making dye transferprints.
In 35 millimeter as late as1974 here in the US, 16
millimeter, they stopped in1970.
And the UK stopped in 77 andRome in 79.
(01:01:42):
And I could go on and on aboutTechnicolor, but I won't.
But the point is that the MetroColor reissues have the more
1960s lion on the head.
And that's why, specifically,when I saw one of those when I
(01:02:05):
was looking at the disc replicasright before they were about to
replicate, I questioned,because I said we need to fix
all those.
But uh it had a 1960s logo, uhlion logo, and I went and
(01:03:08):
inquired and then found out thatwe didn't have anything better
to go back to.
That's not to say that 20 yearsago that CRI might have been
around for a one-inch standarddefinition master.
So that explains it.
If you see the MGM cartoons instandard definition, and you've
(01:03:31):
got you know a blue line and ablue square around it because
they were trying to stay withinTV safe, you know.
So there's there's uh you know,basically it's in a box.
Um those are usually the early,early transfers that were done
(01:03:52):
off of CRIs or even off metrocolor prints.
Jerry Beck (01:03:59):
Yes.
George, um the last question,just because I've a lot of
people have asked me this, and Ithink you should answer it, is
the rationale or the thinkingwith the bonus cartoons that you
put on to Warner uh archivecollection feature film
releases.
(01:04:20):
For example, uh somebodypointed out um uh the Marx
Brothers at the Circus featuresa really rare MGM cartoon called
Jitterbug Follies.
And uh, but they were a little,they they didn't they didn't
think the quality was as good assome of the other bonus
cartoons that they've beengetting from other features.
(01:04:40):
So, George, explain the wholethinking there and what you do
about it.
George Feltenstein (01:04:43):
When we put bonus cartoons on a feature or
short subjects, it kind of takesus off the Tom and Jerry
subject for a minute, but it's aperfectly appropriate question
because we have used many Tomand Jerry cartoons as bonus
material because we want tocreate that going to a night at
(01:05:05):
the movies experience.
And um with very rareexception, and nothing comes to
mind where we actually did this,we use whatever is on hand.
Um the Jitterbug Follies andWanted No Master.
I would love to see remasteredin HD, those two milk gross
(01:05:27):
cartoons.
Yep, you know.
Yeah, we want um this is whatwas available.
We use the same extras on theDVD of at the circus, so we
wanted to port them over.
We don't have uh, we don't havea lot of budget to work with on
(01:05:47):
providing extras.
I wish we could createdocumentaries and all sorts of
things for our, you know.
Um, we do often being able touse these cartoons and sometimes
shorts, uh, we do provide a wayfor people to own in HD certain
(01:06:08):
things they've never been ableto own before.
A lot of the cartoons that weresupposed to be in Golden
Collection Volume 2, uh, theywere mastered in HD.
Now they've either been keptthe way they were or improved
upon for this set.
unknown (01:06:24):
Right.
George Feltenstein (01:06:24):
But we did put those on several releases
that date from 1948 to 1956 orseven, you know.
Um, but that explains it thatwhen we put a cartoon on a
short, that is no guarantee thatit's been remastered.
It's just there as a bonus.
(01:06:45):
People are buying the movie,they get something else besides
that.
It's a nice extra.
Jerry Beck (01:06:51):
Right.
George Feltenstein (01:06:52):
Well, there you go.
There's the answer.
Right.
Tim Millard (01:12:58):
Well, George Jerry, this is a great day, a great
celebration of uh of a fantasticrelease.
It's gonna make so much peopleit's gonna make so many people
happy this Christmas to havethis.
I'm just loving going throughit.
And uh there's a lot ofcartoons on here.
It takes some time.
George Feltenstein (01:13:19):
And it's a lot of a lot of special material
because all the specialfeatures from all the previous
collections, including the new,the two new ones, which are
quite substantial, buteverything from the past was
repurposed here.
So it's really a uh acelebration to honor William
(01:13:43):
Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
Long may they reign.
Tim Millard (01:13:47):
Yes, yes.
Well, as always, George, Jerry,thank you for coming on and
explaining to the fans all thework and all of the people who
should be thanked andcelebrating uh as fans.
You say this all the time,George, how Jerry, you guys are
fans too.
You're not just animationstars, you're fans of these.
(01:14:08):
You've been working on thesesince the 80s, you know, in one
various form or another.
And the joy to bring them outnow in HD in one set, uncut,
uncensored, and now availablefor everyone.
Uh, it's fantastic and a greatcelebration.
So thank you for coming on theextras as always to share that
(01:14:30):
with the fans.
George Feltenstein (01:14:31):
You're welcome.
Thank you, Tim.
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