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Tom
and Jerry's Greatest Chases, Vol. 4
Black
Dynamite
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Tom and Jerry’s Greatest Chases,
Volume 4
puts 14 of the classic cartoons and
over an hour of material on one DVD.
These 14 cartoons were all directed
by William Hannah and Joseph Barbera.
The majority of these short cartoons
were produced by Fred Quimby with
Hannah-Barbera taking over
production for the last few cartoons
on the disc.
There’s a quick glance at what’s on
the disc, but what about the content
itself? Especially in the 1940’s
cartoons the material is definitely
in the era before political
correctness. A lot of the cartoons
feature a stereotypical black woman
named ‘Mammy’ who is either a maid
and Tom and Jerry live with her
employer, or they live with her and
she’s a poor black woman. Many
approaches have been taken to fixing
this over the years including
tracing over her to make her white
and Irish and using a new voiceover
for her that’s not as stereotypical.
The depiction of that character
isn’t the only offensive part of the
series; a few of the episodes also
picture smoking. Just like Mammy,
that’s not edited out of these
cartoons. Tom smokes a cigar and
cigarettes in “The Mouse Comes to
Dinner” and Butch the Cat smokes a
cigar in “Springtime for Thomas”. In
the broadcasting of these cartoons
it’s important to edit and fix this
offensive material but for a DVD
release such as this one it’s more
important to put the cartoons on
disc as is so they can be
historically accurate. Surely some
stuff was edited out but for the
most part they kept the political
correct approach away from this
release. It’s important in that
sense so people won’t forget how
African Americans and smoking were
portrayed in the world in the 20th
century. It doesn’t really matter if
it’s a cartoon or not, everything
holds significance. Especially when
it’s been watched by millions.
The cartoons themselves are
hysterical. If you’re just worried
about a good laugh you won’t be
disappointed here. Somebody is
always getting the crap kicked out
of them, whether that be Tom, Jerry,
or Butch. You’ve got to admire the
creative minds of Hannah and Barbera
because they must have thought of
about a thousand ways for a mouse
and a cat to get injured.
So Tom and Jerry probably isn’t
something I’m going to let my two
young sons watch until they get
older. Not just because of the
violence and because they can’t
always understand the thoughts of
pain and mortality but because
they’re not going to understand that
it’s not healthy to smoke and it’s
not acceptable for people of one
race to be depicted and described in
only one way. So it’s not right for
kids under the age of eight, or
probably ten. But after that, when
you can explain things better, it
won’t be a bad idea to watch some
Tom and Jerry with your kids. I’ve
spent many hours watching and
laughing and I’m sure they will too.
(Recommended for ages 10 and up.)
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