In the mid 1950s, the US studios decided to remove ethnic stereotypes from their Tom and Jerry cartoons. Most scenes showing Blackface, Chinese and Red Indian impressions were simply cut out. Later in the 1960s Chuck Jones was working on some new Tom and Jerry cartoons and he was asked to redraw some of the scenes and change Mammy two shoes into a white maid. June Foray replaced the Lillian Randolph “Mammy two shoes” voice. They didn’t always match up the correct voice with the correct cartoon version (film stores keep picture and sound reels separately) so you can hear the white maid with Mammy’s voice and vice versa on many transfers and broadcasts.
The UK wasn’t really bothered about this sort of “political correctness” so the versions of the cartoons that we received seems to depend entirely on the date they were originally shipped to the UK. If we got them uncut before they changed the masters, that’s the way they stayed, both for TV transmissions and for DVD/VHS sales.
“Tom” appeared as “Jasper” in the first cartoon “Puss gets the Boot” and this is the only episode that does not have the title “Tom and Jerry” at the front.
The cuts and changes
"Puss Gets the Boot" (10 Feb 1940)
Mammy's voice was redubbed fairly early on (before they started using the white maid voice), in the original, Mammy says "O-W-T...Out!" & later in the cartoon “O-U-W-T…Out! In the edited version, she spells it correctly ("O-U-T").
"Fraidy Cat" (17 Jan 1942)
After Jerry climbs the washboard, Mammy looks for a burgler and is attacked by Tom, all these shots get removed.
"Dog Trouble" (18 Apr 1942)
Mammy's voice is redubbed, or sometimes Mammy's appearance at the end was removed.
"Puss N' Toots" (30 May 1942)
The scene on the record player has a section removed from the middle. The part where Jerry gets a tail full of record needles and a record lands on Tom's head making him look Chinese, followed by Jerry mocking Tom is hacked out.
This cartoon has an alternate cut where a whole chunk featuring Mammy was removed from the start along with a filing cabinet gag.
"Yankee Doodle Mouse" (26 June 1943)
Tom as a “blackface flower” after an exploding teapot is often removed.
"Mouse Trouble" (23 Nov 1944)
Tom hides in a package addressed to Jerry. Jerry begins to stick hat pins into the box and saws it in half. Jerry finally takes a look at what is inside and holds up a sign: "Is there a doctor in the house?" this was sometimes edited out.
"The Mouse Comes to Dinner" (2 May 1945)
The original opening showing Mammy singing and setting the dinner table and Jerry sneaking across the table pretending to be a Red Indian is removed. The cut cartoon begins as Tom pops out of the potted plant.
"Mouse in Manhattan" (7 July 1945)
The scene in which Jerry's head gets stuck in a bottle of shoe polish is shortened to remove the blackface gag.
"Flirty Birdy" (22 Sept 1945)
The bird tosses Tom out of a tree into a garden path then Tom gets pulled back up the tree and thrown down the hollow trunk into the laundry on the washing line where Tom does an Indian chief impression (there is no laundry basket). The edited version ends the scene after he hits the path.
An alternate cut to this cartoon is to leave all the visuals intact and remove some words, originally the bird says "Going Down" just before he throws Tom down the inside of the tree trunk, and "She loves me" when they play around the brick chimney but these get muted.
* "The Milky Waif" (18 May 1946)
Missing is a scene where Jerry and Nibbles try to fool Tom by disguising themselves as "slave stereotypes" with some shoe polish. In the cut version you see Nibbles, held up by Jerry, spitting milk into Tom's face, then you see them run away from Tom into another room where Tom gets a frying pan in the face.
"Trap Happy" (29 June 1946)
Jerry is being divided in two by the "Exterminator cat" Jerry slips Toms tail in his place. Tom's tail being chopped with an axe was shortened to remove the axe fall.
(I have never seen this scene cut though)
"Part-Time Pal" (15 Mar 1947)
Mammy's voice is redubbed & some of the words were changed. Originally, she says "Well slap my face if this ain't a mess!", but in the new version, she says "Well I'll be darned this is such a mess!" Also Tom's "One for the money, two for the show..." where he is about to throw water over the sleeping mammy is muted leaving only the drunken "HICS", but his lips still move.
"A Mouse in the House" (30 Aug 1947)
Originally the two cats look in the gas oven and Jerry throws a match in to cause an explosion, both cats ended up blackface. This was shortened and the scene ends with the explosion to remove the blackface joke.
"Kitty Foiled" (1 Jun 1948)
Shortly after the "floorboard on the tail" Jerry and the canary hide themselves behind a curtain that looks like a wigwam. The pair emerge disguised as a Red Indian and papoose, this scene is removed.
"The Truce Hurts" (17 July 1948)
A passing meat truck splashes mud on Tom, Jerry, and Spike leaving them all in blackface and is shortened in the recut to end at the splash.
"Old Rockin' Chair Tom" (18 Sept 1948)
Mammy's voice is redubbed and changed. Originally, she said "Take care of old old Uncle Tom," this was changed to "Take care of old Tom.
* "Mouse Cleaning" (11 Dec 1948)
After the coal spill at the end of the cartoon, Tom originally comes out of the pile of coal in blackface. Mammy asks black Tom, if he has seen a cat. Tom replies "No ma'am, I ain't seen no cat, nowhere, nohow!". On the new version this was shortened and she just yells and starts throwing coal.
"The Little Orphan" (30 April 1949)
A candle fired by Nibbles lands on Tom's tail was cut (50s) or reanimated (60s). Originally after the candle set Tom on fire, he appeared in blackface.
In the 50s version the candle lands on Tom's tail but nothing happens. Also gone was the part directly following the candle scene, in which some airborne Champagne bottles hit the blackened Tom in the back of the head causing him to fly into the cabinet of dishes. The 60s version was redrawn to have Tom retain his Indian headdress which was absent in the original version.
Original 50s version
60s version redrawn by the Chuck Jones team
"Jerry's Diary" (22 Oct 1949)
The exploding teapot scene taken from "Yankee Doodle Mouse" fades out early to remove a “blackface flower” gag.
"Saturday Evening Puss" (14 Jan 1950)
The new version has redrawn footage of a young white teenager who goes to a party which replaces the original footage of a rather sexy looking Mammy who went out to play cards. Jerry's rant to Tom about the noisy music that Tom and his friends are making is muted for some reason. In the original, Jerry starts yelling "I'm trying to sleep and youse guys are out here goin' BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!" in a Bronx accent.
Original 50s version
60s version redrawn by Chuck Jones team
"Safety Second" (1 July 1950)
Near the end of the cartoon Jerry blew on a noisemaker containing a hidden firecracker and was left as a blackface flower. This scene was shortened to end at the explosion.
"The Framed Cat" (21 Oct 1950)
Mammy has been replaced with a white maid on some versions (or just her voice)
"Casanova Cat" (6 Jan 1951)
Tom breaths cigar smoke in Jerry's face causing Jerry to have a blackface then heats a tray under his feet to make him dance. The new version cuts from Jerry as a wind up mouse to the mouse throwing a note to Butch in a paper airplane.
"His Mouse Friday" (7 July 1951)
The cut version has all the cannibal dialogue edited out. All the natives and Jerry's native talk were muted, even though you see all the characters' lips moving. In the original Jerry talks nonsense words and the cannibals say
“Hmmmmm barbecued cat ........... Hmmmmm barbecued mouse"
Some versions are zoomed in to remove this small cannibal.
"Nit-witty Kitty" (6 Oct 1951)
At the end of the cartoon Mammy creeps up on Tom with a baseball bat and reads from the book "It says here, a sharp blow on the head is a sure cure for amnesia, and that's what you're gonna get" These lines are supposedly removed on the original R1 spotlight collection 2, but is back in the later corrected disk.
"The Two Mouseketeers" (15 Mar 1952)
The original ending showed that the king beheaded Tom with a guillotine, but you only ever saw the blade fall, this was removed.
"Little Runaway" (14 June 1952)
The scene where the seal throws Tom against a bird bath results in a Chinese gag and has been shortened to end on the third screenshot. (there is no trash can, it is a bird bath)
"Life With Tom" (21 Nov 1953)
In a scene identical to “The Little Orphan” the candle burns Tom and the scene was shortened to end here, before a blackface gag and a hit in the back of the head with a champagne bottle.
Where to buy the uncut versions?
China 140 cartoon boxset (leisurejoys 10 DVDs R0 NTSC) This is not a BOOTLEG under China copyright law, China considers movies in the public domain after a much shorter period (25 years) than the USA and Europe (70 years). The packaging gives its' true status away, nice on the outside, cheap in the inside. It also contains the redrawn version of "Saturday Night Puss" (white teenager) and the muted version of "His Mouse Friday". "Puss 'n' Toots has Mammy removed, "The Framed Cat" has Mammy with an Irish voice. Video quality is better than VHS but worse than "real" DVDs (the source is clearly magnetic tape of some kind). Some of the cartoons are overexposed. All CinemaScope cartoons are cropped.
Missing Hanna Barbera cartoons:- Just Ducky, The Egg and Jerry, Busy Buddies, Top with Pops, Feeding the Kiddy, Toms’ Photo Finish, Happy go Ducky, Royal Cat Nap.
Missing ALL Gene Deitch cartoons:- Switchin' Kitten, Down and Outing, It's Greek To Me-ow!, High Steaks, Mouse Into Space, Landing Stripling, Calypso Cat, Dicky Moe, The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit, Tall In the Trap, Sorry Safari, Sorry Safari, Carmen Get It!
UK Tom And Jerry Complete Classic Collection (HMV Exclusive 6 flipper disks PAL R2, 159 cartoon boxset)
Not all that exclusive as it is the 3 Digipaks previously released, sold in a big outer slipcase.
Milky Waif, A Mouse in the House, The Truce Hurts, Little Orphan & Life With Tom are all censored. His mouse Friday has the reframed pygmy, Flirty Birdy has the "Going down" & "She loves me" muted. Mammy has been revoiced by an unknown actress on most (if not all) of the cartoons up to and including "Old Rocking Chair Tom"
This is the most complete boxset available and is only missing "The Million Dollar Cat" & "Busy Buddies". Picture quality is very variable, there has been no attempt to restore any of the cartoons, some are very dirty and scratched, others look great. Most of the CinemaScope cartoons are cropped.
The US Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collections
Can be either cut or uncut depending on when you purchased the disks. If you buy the disks today (Apr 08, 2007) , Collection 2 will most likely be uncut but Collection 1 only has the cut version on sale. Check which version you have. There are interlacing problems on some of the cartoons (I can confirm "The Milky Waif has both of these problems). The quality of the prints is very variable, some like "Puss gets the Boot" have been remastered and look very good (still plenty of marks), others like "Puss 'n' Toots" are dirty and marked. The colour is strong on all of them though. My Vol 1 disk 1 is the cut version (purchased from Amazon.com in April 2007) so beware. All the widescreen cartoons are shown in their original AR.
TOM AND JERRY SPOTLIGHT COLLECTION: VOLUME 1 (Disk 1)
Video Cut: 8/25/04 - 6:57PM - 6.77GB (The Milky Waif, The Truce Hurts, The Little Orphan all have video cuts))
Uncut: 12/30/06 - 4:13AM - 6.79GB
TOM AND JERRY SPOTLIGHT COLLECTION: VOLUME 2 (Disk 1)
Audio Change: 9/12/05 - 7:33PM - 7.61GB (The Lonesome Mouse, Mammys voice is redubbed, UK voice)
Original: 12/7/05 - 6:31PM - 7.61GB
TOM AND JERRY SPOTLIGHT COLLECTION: VOLUME 2 (Disk 2)
Audio Change: 9/13/05 - 3:22PM - 5.81GB (Saturday Evening Puss, Nit-Witty Kitty Mammys voice redubbed, UK voice)
Original: 12/8/05 - 5:39PM - 5.81GB
Notes
The original "Saturday Evening Puss" is the only cartoon to show Mammys' face
Nobody ever mentions the Hitler gag in "Lonesome Mouse"
"The Truce Hurts" made by Hanna Barbera in 1948 seems to have ripped off the treaty document from "The Blitz Wolf" made by Tex Avery in 1942.
The Truce Hurts 1948, The Blitz Wolf 1942
Quality Comparisons
"Puss Gets the Boot"
USA R1: Wow, this beats the pants off every other release
Korea R3: surprisingly good
UK off air:- over compressed, blocky
China:- overexposed
UK boxset:- background noise and artifacting is very bad
"Puss 'n' Toots"
USA R1: Worse than the UK version, very dirty print but the colour is good.
Korea
UK off air
China
UK Boxset
Conclusion
The UK boxset has the moving noise on the backgrounds that produced a screen full of artifacts I find very distracting. "Digitally Remastered" it says on the box ....... I wonder.
The US Spotlight collections are also varied in content, lots of dirt and scratches, the interlacing probvlems look really bad and there are still some cuts, but the colour is generally strong.
The China bootleg has the cartoons overexposed and washed out.
The off air recordings would win every time except for that blocky mpeg look.
Buy whichever version you can get for the best price, they all have their faults.
* "Mouse Cleaning" and "The Milky Waif" went way beyond the normal blackface gags, and may well have justified their censorship edits.
Thanks to Randy, Jon and Rome whose sites all helped me research this article.
