TOM & JERRY: FUR FLYING ADVENTURES VOLUME 2
(not rated)
MOVIE: *** (out of 5)
DVD EXPERIENCE: * (out of 5)
BY KEVIN CARR
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
Warner Bros. continues a roll-out of vintage Tom & Jerry cartoons. This single-disc set includes 14 episodes from the 50s and 60s, as well as some more recent selections from “Tom & Jerry Tales.”
WHAT I LIKED
When I was in grade school, I’d come home each day and watch a batch of Tom & Jerry cartoons that aired on one of the independent stations in town. From this grew my love for the series. When I first had kids, I would watch Boomerang and Cartoon Network with them, enjoying the Tom & Jerry cartoons whenever they came on the air. It is the way these cartoons transcend generations that make me love them.
Along with the “Greatest Chases” series that Warner Bros. has been releasing over the years, this new “Fur Flying Adventures” offers a home video option for this. Fourteen episodes is a nice number, running just north of 90 minutes and allowing a sampling of the cat and mouse team through the years. In fact, the only eras not represented at all in this set are the bizarre Gene Dietch episodes and the earlier shows from the 40s.
Like the “Greatest Chases,” the “Fur Flying Adventures” series is nothing more than an assortment of episode. They offer no specific tie-in that holds them all together, aside from the presence of furry creatures. And since it’s a Tom & Jerry disc, they all have this.
Cartoons included in this release are the 50s-era “Tops with Pops,” “Tom and Jerry in the Hollywood Bowl” and “Saturday Evening Puss”; the “Tom & Jerry Tales” selections “Monster Con,” “The Declaration of Independence,” “Kitty Hawked” and “Which Witch!”; and the Chuck Jones selections “Of Feline Bondage,” “The A-Tom-inable Snowman,” “Surf-Bored Cat,” “Snowbody Loves Me, “Duel Personality,” “Is There a Doctor In the Mouse?” and “Haunted Mouse.”
For the casual Tom & Jerry fan, or the kid who just wants to see a bunch of old episodes, this is a nice choice.
WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE
I’m not wild about the “Tom & Jerry Tales” selections, even though they are more in the spirit of the old cartoons than those featured in the mid-80s. Still, I could have done without them. And the older episodes from the 50s have been re-edited for political correctness sake. At least they’re not changed too much.
Finally, my only disappointment with this is the large number of cartoons that are repeated from other collections. A few years back, Warner Bros. released the entire Chuck Jones collection, and that’s a fantastic DVD set to pick up. But if you have that, you’ve already got half of the shows in this disc.
DVD FEATURES
Aside from a slate of trailers for other Warner Bros. kids videos, there’s no special features.
WHO’S GOING TO LIKE THIS MOVIE
Tom & Jerry fans who want a sampling through the years.