Post by BX-02BLODIA on Mar 10, 2018 0:50:02 GMT
The versions of the old Tom And Jerry cartoons we see nowadays (specifically from 1941-1952) is actually not the ones that people saw long ago
The reason is due to the fact that the original nitrate elements were destroyed in a vault fire, my research has pointed to either the 1967 MGM vault fire or the 1978 George Eastman House fire as being the place were it occurred.
After they were destroyed, all that remained were re-release prints of the cartoons from latter on that were presumably stored somewhere else, and where now being used as the main prints for future releases.
Sometimes, however, the re-release title cards were just not as good as the original, a prime example of this is the 1950 short "Tom And Jerry In The Hollywood Bowl", were in the original, the title cards were set across a starry night sky while panning down to reveal the opening scene, whereas in the re-release had just the title cards in a blue background.
However, there is one severe case of the original being lost.
The 1943 short "The Yankee Doodle Mouse" has a lost scene, which was removed when the short was re-released in 1951, and due to the original being lost, there is no current way of viewing it.
The evidence pointing to it's existence lies in mostly 2 important pieces.
Ages ago, on the Cartoon Network website(back when they did give a damn about their cartoon library) they posted a very interesting picture that was said to belong in said short. It was a background layout of the lost scene.
The other piece of evidence is a document that detailed everything that happened in the short. The scene in question occurred in scenes in 31-33.
And if you watched the short, you realize that there is a rather ugly and abrupt cut after Jerry hits tom with the plank, that is where it occurred.
Fortunately some original prints have resurfaced however the original print of Yankee Doodle Mouse has yet to be found.
Just thought I'd like to share that with you people