Tom & Jerry & Cuts and Corrections

One more note about the Tom and Jerry DVD set I wrote about below: turns out that three of the cartoons in the set are in cut versions that eliminate "blackface" gags (you know, the kind where an explosion turns Tom into a feline equivalent of Al Jolson): "The Milky Waif," "The Little Orphan," and "The Truce Hurts." All three of those cartoons are on the first disc of the set.

According to a post on the Golden Age Cartoons forum, because WB advertised this set as "uncut," they're going to go back and create a new version of the first disc with those three cartoons uncut, and you can then exchange your "censored" copy for an "uncensored" copy. According to the post, Jerry Beck will announce details on his site within the next few days.

As to how this happened, these cartoons and most of the others in the set were originally released on some cheap kids' DVDs a few years ago, and the above-mentioned cartoons were censored for the DVD releases. It seems that for the new set, WB mostly just used the DVD masterings they'd prepared before -- and somebody didn't realize or care that those three cartoons had been cut. Hopefully this will get fixed.