Tom And Jerry: The Movie
This latest attempt to revive the nostalgia of the infamous cat and mouse cartoon from the 40’s and 50’s, does its best to follow the formula of the original Tom and Jerry cartoons, but is that enough to make a full-length movie work?
Tom and Jerry, wordless mimes of prat falls, slapstick buffoonery, and endless violent humor, were originally doled out in small doses of short five-to-eight-minute mini-features to be shown before newsreels and major motion pictures back in the golden era of movie theaters. Later, their cartoons would be strung together into half-hour long television shows for afterschool entertainment. Eventually, Warner Bros. would add other cartoons into the mix for an hour-long Saturday morning show. In whatever format, Tom and Jerry have had staying power and have entertained the masses for generations in small portions. They’ve never had huge success in the long feature film format. There is a reason for that. Their schtick gets monotonous and repetitive after a while and audiences get bored with it.
In this latest iteration of the classic cartoon, Tim Story (Fantastic Four, Shag, Barbershop) heads up a reboot that pays homage to what made Tom and Jerry successful in the first place. In fact, much of the tomfoolery between the characters is lifted directly out of their original cartoons. This time, no voices were given to the title characters as they were in the unfortunate 1992 attempted reboot. The animation in this version skips the ultra-realistic CGI treatment and stays more in line with the original animation style allowing audiences to relax with familiar looking friends instead of meeting new realistic images that somewhat resemble the original. It’s as if Hollywood has learned something from Sonic the Hedgehog “teethgate” and Cats: The Musical, both fiascos. 3D Realism isn’t always better.
This latest film does its best to capture the classic Tom and Jerry and mixes up the story so that we don’t get too bored with the cat and mouse shenanigans. They accomplish this by bringing in human actors and B and C story plots. Chloe Grace Moret, as the street-smart con woman, Kayla, heads up the human cast and does an admirable job of holding up a subpar script full of glaring potholes, thinly funny jokes, and characters so convoluted that Tom and Jerry are the most fleshed out roles in the film. The always funny, Michael Pena, works hard to make his role as the over-bearing boss entertaining. Colin Jost and Pallavi Sharda are charming and witty as the high society couple whose massive wedding create the high stakes back drop of the story. And funnyman, Ken Jeong is completely wasted in a role that is neither funny nor useful to the story in any way. The story takes mindless turns that will keep you guessing why the characters have to twist themselves into pretzels in order to make the plot work. But the human story is needed to fill up the hour and forty-one minutes of screen time. We can only watch Tom and Jerry hit each other so many times before we stop caring. In one particularly interesting human story, Joy, a female bellhop who is often ignored for her plain looks and quiet demeanor, saves the day on numerous occasions with her keen attention to detail and her attentive customer service. The movie leads you to believe she might be promoted or get positive attention for her solid performance which often benefits Kayla. However, she is forgotten by the end of the story as if her wrap-up was left on the cutting room floor. It probably was.
Tom and Jerry are at their best in the hotel room fight sequence, in which we see glimpses of the glory days of their slapstick comedy as Tom tries to cross a power line to get into the hotel window and Jerry playfully thwarts him in every way conceivable. The subsequent trashing of the hotel room had most of the kids in the theater giggling aloud. This is what T&J do best.
Admittedly, the colorful 3D perspective animation works and is enjoyable to watch. There are funny moments from both the animated characters and the real-life characters as well. The story is a hodge-podge mess. The stakes are not remarkably interesting or important and the problems resolve in uninteresting ways. The storyline feels like three or four mini stories loosely strung together trying desperately to keep audiences interested. There are echoes of classic T&J comedy in this film that will fill the itch should anyone have it to see the essence of the classic cartoon series in 2021.
Is it a must-see movie? No, missing this one won’t leave anyone out of the water-cooler conversations. This one will be forgotten as soon as it leaves the theaters. It is family friendly and silly, but never achieves any real emotions beyond a giggle here and there. And if that is all that’s needed, the movie is safe enough for that. But please don’t attend this film expecting high quality entertainment. It simply isn’t there.
Content Overview
Language: a few people say gosh and oh my god
Violence: Tom and Jerry adventures are full of prat falls, slapstick buffoonery, and endless violent humor, But without blood and gore.
Sexual Content: None
Objectionable Content: Some potty humor involving a dog. Jerry photocopies his rear end on a copier. Kayla steals, lies, and cheats in order to get and keep a job. The audience is supposed to find it all endearing and hope she gets to keep the job when everything goes bad. Tom and Jerry drink what looks like champagne out of glasses from the bar. It is possibly sparkling cider. It’s honestly hard to tell.
