DVD Review "Tom and Jerry" Boying (China) - Region 0 - NTSC Tom and Jerry Tom and Jerry

Tom and Jerry Collection

DVD Review: Boying (China) - Region 0 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Boying (China) Region 0 - NTSC
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 4-5 mb/s NTSC 704x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: (Disc 1)
Audio	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (mono) & Chinese DD5.1
Subtitles	Chinese or None.
Features	Release Information: Studio: Boying Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • 10-DVD Set 2 Keep Cases One chapter for each movie

Comments

A lot of the Tom & Jerry shorts has been shown edited for television, video and DVD releases (recently the Warner releases in Europe - See the DVD Times review) but this Chinese boxset with 140 short is all unedited versions in both sound and picture. A few of the movies were made equally in CinemaScope and Academy ratio but none of the shorts here are widescreen, "Pet Peeve" seems to be the original fullscreen version while most of the other CinemaScope additions opens with MGM logo and title in widescreen and then goes to fullscreen.
The source seems to come from video, but most is in an acceptable condition - there is some print damage, some is a little washed out, faded colors etc. Some of the movies also have some visible compression artifacts, but I'm quite satisfied even it's not "Walt Disney Treasures" standard. The sound is good and clear, the audio is 5.1 but the same sound is distributed to all speakers (no seperation). Minor audio comes from the rear channels and it didn't distract me.
All the shorts on the 6 first DVD's open with a "Buddha video" logo instead of the MGM, while on the last 4 discs the original MGM logo appears.

I think this Chinese release is official and legit, all the major Chinese stores stocks it, for example the largest: Dangdang.com (China's "Amazon").
No doubt that Warner will release these movies in USA with a better picture quality - lets hope it also is the unedited versions out of.

- Ole Kofoed

Update:

I was a little to quick to judge all the shorts unedited, according to a post at The DVD Forums http://www.thedvdforums.com/ there is 3 edited shorts:

- The aforementioned removal of Mammy in Puss 'n' Toots:

- The version of Saturday Evening Puss presented is the one that has been re-animated to replace Mammy with a skinny white woman, and the voice has been dubbed over with an extremely bad performance by the usually good June Foray - In His Mouse Friday, the visuals are intact but the cannibals' voices have all been muted out (their lips still move though)"

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