MGM reissues

[Vdubdavid]

Now that I know that MGM cartoons weren't immune from reissuing, and that they have new credit sequences instead of just the title (like WB Blue Ribbons), I got a question. Has anyone ever seen a MGM cartoon, normally shown on T.V. with redone credits, with the original ones? Like those who have the Columbia House LT tapes have the original credits "Scaredy Cat"?

[Thad Komorowski]

I doubt there are different MGM prints. All of the MGM cartoons on laserdisc/video are the same prints CN uses. Well, CN edits and dubs some of their prints.




-Thad

[BobChief]

Can't remember ever seeing different opening titles on any MGM 'toon, since the mid-70s when they were on Philadelphia's channel 29. Just like with the dubbing of Mammy's voice et al., MGM likely saw to this before the merger with United Artists, never mind the Turner deal.

[J Lee]

MGM was verythorough in redoing their credits for re-release. Other than "Ventrilquist Cat" and "Wags to Riches," which were not re-released because they were remade in CinemaScope, virtually none of the original opening and titles from between 1946 and 1951 remain (even the T&J cartoons that were redone in CinemaScope apparently got new titles).

Some of the MGM titles from the early 1940s survive, mostly on the Avery and Ising unit cartoons, because MGM did not re-release those, sometimes due to WWII refrences. They later sold them to TV syndication around 1959, six years before the Tom and Jerry Show debuted on CBS (yes, just like Warners, Metro had a pre-48 and post-48 sydication package, except it only was for the non-Tom and Jerry cartoons). Some of the post-48 Averys that were re-released after the studio closed didn't get new title sequences, except for getting the standard MGM feature film title card opening, instead of the MGM Cartoon title.

As for the cat and mouse, "Puss Gets the Boot" didn't go into re-release presumably because Tom is called Jasper in the cartoon (didn't stop WB from re-releasing "Tweety Pie" around 1954 with Sylvester being called Thomas), while I never have figured out why Metro never re-released "The Night Before Christmas." If I were guessing -- and I'd have to go back and look at all the late-40s, early-50s cartoons to be sure -- I'd say 1951's "Nit-Witty Kitty" is probably the oldest T&J that still has its original title credits other than those two early cartoons.

[Vdubdavid]

Well, that brings up another question. If AOL Time-Warner wanted too (since they now own all the MGM cartoons), could they restore the cartoons from original negatives, or have they been altered with new titles too? By the way, don't "Mouse Cleaning" and "Old Rockin' Chair Tom" have original credits? The way I think I can tell is that they have the "Western Electric" sound system label on the credit title. (I read at Cartoon Research that if a cartoon has a "Perspecta Westrex" label, it's probably a reissue)

[J Lee]

Jerry Beck's mention of the Perspecta Sound on his website is one way to tell some of the cartoons have been re-released, but not all. Some of the early T&Js, like "Sufferin Cats!" and "Fine Feathered Friend" and Avery's "The Early Worm Gets The Bird" were re-released around 1949-50, before the Perspecta Sound was introduced, and others re-released in the early 1950s also won't have the perspecta sound label.

One way to kind of tell is to look at the title credit type style -- an original title card tends to have block lettering with a wider type style and usually a little shadowing behind the letters. On a re-released cartoon, the graphics for the lettering on the title pages is more modern-looking, with the letters themselves being less rounded and having sharper edges.

[Vdubdavid]

That still leaves my other question of whether or not the cartoons could have their original titles restored if Warner's got it into their head to.