As part of the 85th anniversary celebration of Hanna-Barbera’s Tom and Jerry franchise, Warner Bros. Entertainment has released Tom and Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology (1940-1958), marking the first home-video release of all the cartoons uncut and in chronological order, starting with their first cartoon, Puss Gets the Boot, concluding with their 114th, Tot Watchers.
Buy Tom and Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology (1940-1958)Completists will be happy to learn Mouse Cleaning and Casanova Cat, previously unavailable on DVD or Blu-ray in the United States, and His Mouse Friday, making its home-video debut, are included with their blackface gags intact. However, those who bought Tom and Jerry: The Complete CinemaScope Collection earlier in 2025 might be disappointed about the double-dip of the last 23 theatrical cartoons released between 1954 and 1958, which were previously reviewed.
In Puss Gets the Boot, the animated pair’s trademark slapstick violence is on full display, but Jerry is unnamed and Tom is called “Jasper” by the unnamed housekeeper, unofficially known as Mammy Two Shoes in part because she was usually seen from waist down. She appeared in 19 cartoons, mostly voiced by Lillian Randolph, until Push-Button Kitty (1952). The character was retired after pressure from the NAACP due to the character being a racist stereotype. On broadcast on TV, the character was either edited out, dubbed, or re-animated in the cartoons.
While their antagonism causes imaginative abuse toward one another and mayhem for all in the vicinity, they can also be kind to each on occasion. By the third cartoon, The Night Before Christmas (1941), Tom rescues an appreciative Jerry from freezing to death in the snow. Luckily, it’s rare. Even rarer is the characters speaking, as in The Lonesome Mouse (1943). After Jerry frames Tom and gets him kicked out of the house, the narrator suggests there’s a way for lonely Jerry to bring Tom back. They characters speak to each other, which is rather odd. Even rarer is Tom and Chérie (1955), which is the answer to the trivia question, what cartoon from this Golden Era do Tom and Jerry not encounter each other?
Over an 11-year period, the series won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Cartoon seven times. The winners are The Yankee Doodle Mouse (1943), Mouse Trouble (1944), Quiet Please! (1945), The Cat Concerto (1947), The Little Orphan (1949), The Two Mouseketeers (1952), and Johann Mouse (1953), and throughout this Golden Era, it was nominated six additional times. They didn’t put the same effort into the four compilation cartoons: Jerry’s Diary (1949), Smitten Kitten (1951), Life with Tom (1953), and Smarty Cat (1955).
Restored from the best available elements, the A/V qualities can vary from short to short. The video has been given a 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer with an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 except for the final 23 CinemaScope shorts which are 2.35:1. For the most part, the colors appear in bold hues with blacks inky and whites accurate. Some scenes in Heavenly Puss look a bit dark. Film grain is apparent and the image looks free from dirt or defect. The audio is available in DTS-HD MA 2.0. The limited dialogue sounds clear. The sound effects and the scores balance well together in the mix. Some cartoons exhibit hiss.
The Special Features are:
Audio Commentaries on Disc One
- Puss Gets the Boot by Mark Kausler, and by Nicole Parker and Earl Kress
- The Night Before Christmas by Michael Mallory, and by Parker and Kress
- The Yankee Doodle Mouse and Mouse Trouble by Mallory
- The Zoot Cat by Jerry Beck
- Quiet Please by Kausler
Audio Commentaries on Disc Two
- The Cat Concerto by Eric Goldberg
- Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Mouse by Mallory, and by Parker and Kress
- Kitty Foiled and Heavenly Puss by Beck
- The Little Orphan and Hatch Up Your Troubles by Mallory
Audio Commentaries on Disc Three
- Saturday Evening Puss by Parker and Kress
- Jerry’s Cousin and The Two Mouseketeers by Beck
- Push-Button Kitty by Kausler
Audio Commentaries on Disc Four
- Johann Mouse by Kausler
The Special Features Disc contains:
- Lady of the House: The Story of Mammy Two Shoes (New, 28 min) – An overview of the character, who was voiced by Lillian Randolph, from historians and animators.
- Animal Hijinks: The Friends and Foes of Tom and Jerry (New, 31 min) – A look at the supporting characters from the cartoon series, such as Spike the bulldog and Quacker the duck.
- The Midnight Snack Pencil Test – Side by Side (9 min) – A side by side comparison
- Cat and Mouse: The Tale of Tom and Jerry (32 min) – The history of the cartoon series, starting with how William Hanna and Joseph Barbera met at MGM and the eventual move to television.
- Tom and Jerry: Behind the Tunes (17 min) – The work of composer Scott Bradley is highlighted.
- Animators as Actors (7 min) – A great spotlight on the artists.
- Excerpt from Dangerous When Wet (8 min) – A sequence where Tom and Jerry swim with Esther Williams.
- How Bill and Joe Met Tom and Jerry (27 min) – Another history of the cartoon series
- Vaudeville, Slapstick, and Tom and Jerry (22 min) – Delves into how film comedies and comedians influenced the cartoons.
- The Comedy Stylings of Tom and Jerry (6 min) – MadTV‘s Ike Barinhotlz and Nicole Parker join the conversation about the comedy of the cartoons.
- “The Worry Song” from Anchors Aweigh (9 min) – A sequence where a talking Jerry dances with Gene Kelly.
- Three Bonus Cartoons:
- Good Will to Men is a CinemaScope remake of Peace on Earth (1939). On Christmas Eve, mice sing “Peace on Earth” in a bombed-out church. The preacher mouse explains what men are, creatures now extinct due to war. No explanation why the mice believe in the Bible rather than have their own mythology. Spike and Tyke have to deal with a dog who keeps stealing their licenses and the dogcatcher who wants to catch unlicensed dogs in Give and Tyke , and a group of cats who try to sneak into their masters’ home for a party in Scat Cats.
Tom and Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology (1940-1958) is what fans have long wanted and now their wishes have been granted with the ability to have the entire Hanna-Barbera run, chronological and uncut, in their home-video library. The high-definition presentation is quite good and the extras are informative and engaging. One of the best animation sets to date and that there will ever be.
