VIDEO
Tom and Jerry
Volume 9

Starring: Tom and Jerry
Warner Home Video
RRP: £9.99
S054586
Certificate: U
Available now


Tom and Jerry have been capturing the laughter and hearts of children and adults alike around the world for decades. Now the unstoppable duo are back, this time with brand new compilations of their fun filled with frolics that start from the very beginning...

Tom and Jerry: Volume 9 contains 10 animated shorts - that's over one hour of fun filled cartoons.

There are some classic episodes included here, as well as some well known characters (including Butch and his son, the cute duckling, Jerry's French nephew and Tom's cousin who is scared of mice.) Tops with Pops, Tot Watching and Tom's Photo Finish are episodes worthy of note, but the rest of the episodes are pretty average.

The only real problem I had with this collection - and this is quite a thing to moan about - was that the aspect ratio on two of the episodes was extremely questionable.

The first episode, the classic Tops with Pops, has been given a really shoddy widescreen conversion. I say conversion, but actually all that the producers of the video have done is take a normal pan and scan episode and add black borders to the top and bottom (so you are missing huge chunks of the picture). Every now and then, as the action takes place at the top or bottom of the screen the image is moved so that the viewer can see what is going on.

The other badly transferred episode is Robin Hoodwinked. Here the producers have squashed the image. This means that while widescreen TV owners can flick to their 16:9 mode and see the full image, 4:3 TV owners get a very squashed image.

Why all the episodes in this collection weren't converted to the same aspect ratio is a mystery, as is why these episodes are not being released in chronological order.

Still, this is a collection for everyone and is well worth the asking price.

Nick Smithson

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£8.99 (Amazon.co.uk)
   
£9.99 (Blackstar.co.uk)
   
£7.79 (Streetsonline.co.uk)

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