MGM Cartoons version differences discussion

[Phobicpanda]

Per the CinemaScope shorts. What exactly do you call the format where the opening is CinemaScope but the actual episode is normal WideScreen? For instance Southbound Duckling is like this for the HD print.

 

[Daffyrocks]

So this week I found something quite rare. These are the original end titles from the 1942 cartoon "Chips Off The Old Block", which are slighly different from the other WW2-styled titles from other shorts (since this cartoon has the 1942-1946 Sunburst MGM opening, while all the other ones available today with the WW2 end titles have the normal black background Tanner logo from 1935-1942). It's interesting especially to see how the "An MGM Cartoon" secondary title screen is included in this special variation of the end title, and also the different "The End" script and the soldier shillouete inbetween..

This end title was also most probably featured on the cartoons "The Early Bird Dood It" and "Fine Feathered Friend", which were also released during the War days.

I posted it on Google Drive and shared it here because this end title variation was never available online until now (all the prints of "Chips Off The Old Block" online are TV ones which replace this end title with the regular blue background one from 1943-1946), and screenshots were put on the old Internet Animation Database forums before that got shut down and moved to a new server.

So enjoy them!



Credit goes to web.archive.org, where I found these end titles, as well as the full USA Turner print of "Chips Off The Old Block", on those many full VHS recordings of old Boomerang USA continuities and broadcasts from 2006 and so.

 

[MTGM]

I constructed a short video demonstrating a peculiar audio difference between three versions of Jerry and Jumbo. Have a watch:

 

[Daffyrocks]

I constructed a short video demonstrating a peculiar audio difference between three versions of Jerry and Jumbo. Have a watch:

I..... I..... really don't know

Maybe there was someone in the video editing section who screwed up at the audio part of the timeline from the respective video editor software, by trimming out that part of the song or something like that. Or... they used a different audio source, and that had this respective part of the music spliced out (presumably since the soundtrack print they used was a bit to old, like a 16mm one)

 

[Cool_Cat]

It's a glitch from Boomerang, because in the JP DVD set it sounds fine.

 

[MTGM]

It's a glitch from Boomerang, because in the JP DVD set it sounds fine.

The thing is, every time they reran the Turner print, this error would occur. Maybe it was just a studio edit or something.

 

[MTGM]

I painstakingly tried color correcting the Flying Cat. These are my results (The first one is the original)

 

[Cool_Cat]

@MTGM What software did you use? I’ve been trying to learn Resolve lately.

 

[MTGM]

@MTGM What software did you use? I’ve been trying to learn Resolve lately.

I used Sony Vegas for the most part and edited some stills through Instagram.

 

[NewBogus :)]

Credits goes to @cartoon98100 from Youtube:

 

[Daffyrocks]

Yesterday I saw this video uploaded by the "WB Kids" channel, which showcases clips from theatrical Tom and Jerry shorts involving food



One of the clips used was from "Pup On a Picnic", and very surprisingly, it's in full Cinemascope aspect ratio! Which proves that unlike what we initially thought, this cartoon was INDEED released in widescreen.

The picture seen on the Spotlight DVD set is slightly different, as WB cropped the Cinemascope print for this DVD (it comes from the third disc, which as we know has a lot of mistakes and glitches). They probably didn't want to make us think it's a Cinemascope short, as neither them knew it (it was MGM who made the shorts, not WB), so they tried to make a Acamedy ratio print from the remastered widescreen copy, which they obviously failed to do so (they could have cropped the image more until they reached and covered the black bars, but no...)

So, we can say that "Pup On a Picnic" is another cartoon that was released in both Cinemascope and 4:3 screen. But I guess Turner hadn't any access to the widescreen copy, as it wasn't available in the vaults, and so they had to resort to what they had at the time. The same was when Turner released "Southbound Duckling", "Touche, Pussy Cat" and "Pet Peeve" on their Laserdiscs set in the 90s, where they could only access the Academy prints of these three shorts from their vault (but things changed when they started showing the shorts on TV, as they finally found the widescreen prints at that moment; but they still couldn't for "Pup on a Picnic", unfortunately). But it seems that WB themselves has more acces to more things than Turner has as a whole.

 

[MTGM]

Here's a list of the restored Tom and Jerry cartoons aired by Boomerang since September 2017, more or less. ALL UNCENSORED.

 

[Phobicpanda]

All but maybe 10 or so shorts actually have been fully restored. At least going by the HD ones from the Boomerang VOD site.

 

[Cool_Cat]

No ? Big disappointment...

By the way, Pup on a Picnic was in Cinemascope on many streaming services. I got the one from Amazon Germany when I knew how to get around DRM (the compression is horrible anyway...).

When they remastered the Cinemascope shorts they made both a 4:3 and a 16:9 copy, mostly for broadcast, and they put the 16:9 version of Pup on a Picnic by accident on the DVD.

As for Pet Peeve, I’ll look at the Turner version shot by shot, but I think it was actually mastered off one of those early stretched copies made for broadcast (like the Italian print of The Vanishing Duck) and it’s not Pan & Scan at all.

 

[MTGM]

No ? Big disappointment...

For some reason, Boomerang U.S. still wants to pretend that Mammy (and on a related note, Speedy Gonzales) doesn't exist, despite the WB Kids YouTube channel uploaded clips and international Boomerang feeds airing cartoons with the respectively character(s).

 

[Phobicpanda]

I noticed Amazon US and Boomerang site have the CinemaScope shorts cropped to 16:9 for whatever reason while on Amazon Germany and Amazon UK they are in CinemaScope.

 

[Daffyrocks]

I noticed Amazon US and Boomerang site have the CinemaScope shorts cropped to 16:9 for whatever reason while on Amazon Germany and Amazon UK they are in CinemaScope.

Wow....

 

[Cool_Cat]

If anyone is interested, RSI La 1 airs all the Cinemascope shorts in the original aspect ratio and in HD.

And due to the fact Cinemascope adds black bars on a 16:9 screen, the TV logo is off the screen.

 

[Phobicpanda]

I'm interested in those and possibly any other HD shorts that aren't on Blu-ray.

 

[Phobicpanda]

Has anyone ever done comparisons of MGM Shorts DVD vs LD?

I'm curious if some are a lot better on LD.