TOM AND JERRY DVD/VHS

Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring

Available on: DVD
Availabity: In Stores Now!
Release Date: 2002
Release Location: US

Contents:

The Cartoon is 62 minutes long 2 Vintage Tom and Jerry 'toons: The Flying Sroceress and The Haunted Mouse Behind-The-Sences stuff Some History/trivia stuff Games for the kids English, Spanish, French language options No widescreen, presented in Standard fromat :-[

My Opinion:

The Casual Viewer
Ok, first off, I was a little worried about this toon. After the Tom and Jerry Movie I was leary about another attempt at a new cartoon. My apprehension was thrown out the window when I started watching this. I laughed! There were some really hysterical parts in it that I couldn't help but laugh out loud. The animation was smooth. You can kinda get into the show and have fun watching it. I think the kids would love this cartoon. All the major players from Tom and Jerry's earlier cartoons show up. I was wondering if they were going to throw some characters in and sure enough they did. I enjoyed watching cartoon and it was only an hour long. A big bonus is that Tom and Jerry DID NOT TALK!!!

The Purist Review
Ok, this is where I will rip the toon to shreds from the perspective of one who has grown up with the classics and has a certain level of expectations for new Tom and Jerry cartoons. Spoiler Warnings, I will reveal certain aspects of the story and the characters that show up. Note that these are my opinions. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed watching the Magic Ring but I have a few problems with it and most of it is nitpicky stuff. So take this review with a grain of salt.

The chases seemed a little forced. Usually with the classics the was a reason a chase started. Most of the time it felt as if they were chasing for the sake of chasing each other. I think that the creators of this cartoon needed to study the classics a little more for reference on the chases. I did feel that the chases had the later Hanna-Barbera Tom and Jerry flavor to them. The interaction between Tom and Jerry was a little stiff. In the classics the relied on the characters body language to convey a wide range of emotions and expressions. In The Magic Ring the relied on more vocal expressions, though they didn't talk per say, they still used vocal sounds (when you see it you'll understand by what I mean).

The Cameos...great! I was happy to see that the classic characters showed up, those being: Spike and Tyke, Butch, Nibbles and Muscles. However, Butch didn't look like butch or sound like Butch at all. Muscles was not portrayed as Jerry's cousin and his name was Freddie. Both Muscles/Freddie and Spike and Tyke acted more like thugs than what they were normal portrayed as in the classics. Another shocking cameo was that of Droopy and the Irish-accented Bulldog (Droopy's nemesis in a few of the Droopy cartoons, his name is Spike as well). WHY? Why are these two in this movie. I thought is was kinda cool, but Droopy and the Bulldog were never in any Tom and Jerry Cartoon. One, they may have been done at MGM but Droopy was all Tex Avery. Now, there may be those that mention Droopy being in the later Hanna-Barbera cartoons, but from those later ones that I've seen, Tom and Jerry and Droopy never share screen time.

I am stoked that they released 2 Vintage Tom and Jerry, however, The Flying Sorceress was released in widescreen when it was first released. They showed the opening and closing credits in widescreen, but the cartoon was presented in standard. I was not happy about that...I want it in widescreen dagnabit! But beggers can't be chosers and I'm glad that they release a couple more classics. I can only hope that they will release the rest of the Classics on DVD. Hopefully, UNCUT!

So this is my rant, don't let my few gripes prevent you from watching this new Cartoon, it was fun and entertaining.

TomAndJerryOnline.com Rating: