| Tom and Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Produced by | Hanna-Barbera M-G-M Cartoon Studio Fred Quimby William Hanna Joseph Barbera Rudolf Ising |
| Starring | Tom Cat Jerry Mouse |
| Music by | Scott Bradley Edward H. Plumb ("The Missing Mouse") |
| Distributed by | Warner Archive (Blu-ray release) Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment (DVD release) |
Release date |
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Tom and Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology is a six-discDVD andBlu-ray set produced by theWarner Archive Collection andWarner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment that collects the entirety of the original 114 theatricalTom and Jerry cartoon shorts directed byWilliam Hanna andJoseph Barbera and released byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1940 to 1958.
In contrast to the previousSpotlight Collections andGolden Collections, this set is the firstTom and Jerry collection to present all 114 original shorts in chronological order, uncut, and restored from the best available elements. The set includesMouse Cleaning andCasanova Cat – the first time they've ever been released on DVD or Blu-ray in theUnited States – as well asHis Mouse Friday, which (for the very first time on any home media format), is presented completely uncut.
The set contains all 114Tom and Jerry cartoons on the first five discs (with 20 audio commentaries), while the Blu-ray version contains an exclusive sixth bonus disc with 3 hours ofspecial features (including two newly released featurettes:Lady of the House: The Story ofMammy Two-Shoes andAnimal Hijinks: The Friends and Foes of Tom and Jerry) and a packaged collectible 32-page booklet with artwork and essays.[1]
Tom and Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology was released on December 2, 2025 to commemorate the 85th anniversary of the franchise.[2][3][4][5] It is similar to theTom and Jerry Spotlight andGolden Collections, two previous DVD series that focused on the Hanna-Barbera era shorts,[6] and supersedes the scrappedGolden Collection series.[7][8][9][10][11]
In the past,Tom and Jerry has had problematic DVD and Blu-ray releases, mostly because the majority of thefilm negatives for the original pre-1951 MGM cartoons were destroyed in theGeorge Eastman House fire of 1978, leaving only inferior duplicate copies.
Between 2004 and 2007,Warner Home Video released three volumes of theTom and Jerry Spotlight Collection DVD sets, which collected 112 of the original 114 Hanna-Barbera-directed shorts. However, two cartoons –Mouse Cleaning andCasanova Cat – were omitted due to briefblackface gags. While some cartoons were restored (including all theCinemaScope cartoons) – the majority of the shorts used unrestored 1990sTurner prints made forTNT andCartoon Network. Several cartoons on Volumes 1 & 2 contained edits, however this was corrected through a disc replacement program, and modern pressings have the shorts unedited. Volume 3 however contained an edited copy ofHis Mouse Friday (which was never corrected), and the CinemaScope cartoonPup on a Picnic was copped to 16:9.
In 2011, Warner Home Video released theTom and Jerry Golden Collection: Volume 1Blu-ray set - which contained the first 37Tom and Jerry cartoons uncut and in chronological order. This time the 27 cartoons were restored usingColor Reversal Intermedites (CRIs), which restulted in more pristine image quality. However 10 of these cartoons (Puss N' Toots,The Bowling Alley Cat,Sufferin' Cats!,Lonesome Mouse,The Zoot Cat,The Million Dollar Cat,Puttin' on the Dog,Mouse Trouble,Quiet Please! andThe Milky Waif) were sourced from washed out 1960sMetrocolor prints, resulting in an inferior image quality and criticism from fans and collectors.[12][13]
A second volume of theGolden Collection series was scheduled to be released in June 2013. However, in February 2013, it was announced that –Mouse Cleaning andCasanova Cat would once again not be included. The product received negative reviews onAmazon and various other websites, which eventually led Warner Home Video to cancel Volume 2 and theGolden Collection series.[14] The transfers made for Volume 2 (excludingMouse Cleaning andCasanova Cat) were eventually made available on theITunes Store andYouTube Movies. All of these cartoons were presented uncut and all of them were restored from CRIs with two exceptions:Heavenly Puss andJerry's Diary – which were restored from the 1960s Metrocolor prints.
In February 2025, to coincide withTom and Jerry's 85th Anniversary,Warner Archive Collection releasedTom and Jerry: The Complete CinemaScope Collection, a single-disc Blu-ray set which contained all 23 CinemaScopeTom and Jerry cartoons presented in their correct aspect ratios – includingPup on a Picnic. The set also included three non-Tom and Jerry CinemaScope cartoons by Hanna and Barbera –Good Will to Men (1955),Give and Tyke andScat Cats (both 1957) – which were included as extras. This set received mostly positive feedback from fans and collectors.[15][16]
In September 2025, Warner Archive announcedTom and Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology, a multi-disc Blu-ray set collecting the entirety of the original 114 Hanna-Barbera era shorts.[17][18][19] Released on December 2, 2025 and presented all 114 shorts in chronological order and uncut – includingMouse Cleaning andCasanova Cat – as well as (for the first time on any home media format) an unedited version ofHis Mouse Friday.
The set also features brand new transfers of 11 cartoons (includingMouse Cleaning, which was restored from one of the few surviving nitrate negatives[20]), as well as quality improvements made to many others.[21][22] In addition, 5 out of the 12 cartoons originally restored from the '60sMetrocolor prints (The Bowling Alley-Cat,Sufferin' Cats!,The Zoot Cat,The Million Dollar Cat andPuttin' on the Dog) – received new transfers from CRIs resulting in a more pristine image quality. The remaining 103 cartoons were the same high-definition transfers made for theGolden Collection andCinemaScope Collection Blu-rays – as well asHBO Max andMeTV. This includes the remaining 7 cartoons (Puss n' Toots,The Lonesome Mouse,Mouse Trouble,Quiet Please!,The Milky Waif,Heavenly Puss andJerry's Diary) restored from the inferior Metrocolor prints – which drew some criticism from fans and collectors.
According to Warner Archive President George Feltenstein, he gave specific instructions to re-restore all 12 of the "Metrocolor" cartoons from CRIs – however the mastering team informed him that the CRIs to 7 of them had either been lost or suffered severe damage over the past several decades, and the Metrocolor prints were currently the best surviving source (whereas the older Turner Prints were taken from the CRIs when they were still available). Feltenstein acknowledged: "...there are just a small handful of shorts [on this set] that don’t look as great as I wish they did. But our team did the best that we could with the best elements we have…"[20]
The set included two featurettes, originally created for the cancelledTom and Jerry Golden Collection Blu-rays, but only released with this set:Lady of the House: The Story ofMammy Two-Shoes andAnimal Hijinks: The Friends and Foes of Tom and Jerry (originally scheduled for Volume 2). The majority of the extras from the previousSpotlight,Golden andCinemaScope collections were carried over to this release – including 20audio commentaries (6 of which were made for abortedGolden Collection: Vol. 2 finally released on this set).[20]
The set was released on December 2, 2025 in the US. All of the shorts are shown in their original aspect ratios.
An asterisk (*) indicates that the cartoon is restored from a washed-outMetrocolor print.
Two asterisks (**) indicates that the cartoon is re-restored using new transfers.
Tom and Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology received a positive reception from fans and collectors.[23][24]
Film preservationist and animation historian, Thad Komorowski, wrote a lukewarm review of the set,[25] writing "...the picture and audio ranges from excellent to serviceable on most titles (the newly unleashedMouse Cleaning in particular looks fantastic)..." However, he criticized the seven cartoons still sourced from 1960s Metrocolor prints, which he described as "[looking] as rotten as ever here, though technicians tried to 'hide it' by getting rid of the '60s MGM lion, as if no one could tell the difference by what the actual cartoon looks like... (InLonesome Mouse's case, they forgot and left the '60s lion on!)..."[26] In particular, he criticized the transfer onHeavenly Puss, describing it as: "...the biggest disappointment of the whole set, an utter embarrassment that all but obliterates any of this unique cartoon's detail and art direction."[27] He also criticized the color grading on the cartoons originally restored for theGolden Collection Vol. 2 set, saying "[the colors were] just too crushed and dark... They're acceptable and better than not having them in HD, but it would have been nice to see these get some reworking (with actual whites) done, if not a complete reprieve. (Fit to Be Tied andJerry and Jumbo are two that got new restorations, and they show what all of these cartoons should look like.)"[25] Still, he ultimately recommended the set, saying "... there has never been any kind of comprehensive home video collection [ofTom and Jerry] where errors didn't get through... By far: this is the best comprehensive presentationTom & Jerry has ever received on home video. It took over thirty years to improve upon the scope of the Beck/FeltensteinArt of Tom & JerryLaserDisc collections, and to upgrade the middling jobs previously done on DVD and Blu-ray. We all expected most of these would end up on Blu-ray, never all of them with how much the characters remain an evergreen kids and family property. Everyone involved clearly went the extra mile with next to no time to do it, and we've all been rewarded with an unprecedented complete and uncensored collection."[26]
