Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

It has become something of a full-time job tracking DVDs, not because of the sheer number of discs being released, but because of the editing done to our favorite TV shows, movies, and cartoons on the format. One of the more spectacular examples in recent memory was the first Tom & Jerry Spotlight Collection, which featured 3 edited shorts and was quickly followed up with promises from both Warner Bros. and animation historian Jerry Beck that this error would be rectified. Fast forward a year, and Volume 2 is announced with renewed claims that the shorts contained are uncut. While some of the shorts featuring the now-controversial character Mammy Two-Shoes have the original voice (which belies a reference to Hattie McDaniel of Gone With the Wind fame), others feature the redubbed "politically correct" voice that Turner created in the '90s. The bottom line here is that Warner Bros.' (or at least their children's video division) can't be trusted to produce an uncut DVD set (or even a restored set, as most of the prints here are the same ones seen on Cartoon Network and Boomerang), much less to be honest with their intentions. Of course, with a growing list of edited, time-compressed, and music-replaced cartoons on DVD, the average viewer quickly gets the idea that most studios view classic animation as disposable entertainment not worthy of a correct, well cared for release. And until we stop buying such shoddily-produced DVDs, that view will continue to prevail.