Tom & Jerry review

TOM & JERRY: 

TOM AND JERRY SCENES ARE GREAT, EVERYTHING ELSE IS PRETTY STANDARD! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** ½ out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

The beloved classic cartoon cat and mouse duo is back on the big screen in Tom & Jerry

 

            Good news, they don’t talk, become friends, or sing throughout the entire film… now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, on with the review! The beloved classic cartoon cat and mouse duo who have been the bitterest of enemies and graced the silver screen and televisions for decades with their mastery of the art of cartoon violence is back on the big screen in Tom & Jerry, the latest film adaptation of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon and Tom and Jerry’s second theatrical feature film after the disastrous, Tom and Jerry: The Movie in 1992. 

            While I never owned much Tom and Jerry merchandise as a kid, I loved the original cartoons whenever I caught them in syndication on Cartoon Network. I still remember when I first watched a Tom and Jerry cartoon one night at age 6 or 7 and I was laughing my tail off (Pun intended) all the way through the short and quickly became just as essential to watch as something like Ed, Edd n Eddy whether I’ve already seen the short they’re showing that night or not. 

             A lot of people seem to agree that Tom and Jerry’s antics and comedic timing are absolute perfection. With their appealing animation, flawlessly timed slapstick, and hilarious sound effects, it’s no wonder why these cat and mouse frenemies have stood the test of time for so many years…but then Hollywood realized “We’ve got to have money!” so they decided to give them their own movie in 1992…it didn’t go over well. 

            Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992) completely missed the mark of what made the original cartoons so great and committed the heinous crime of having Tom and Jerry speak, sing, and work together as friends to save an orphan girl from an evil aunt. It was a huge disservice to such a wonderful cartoon that was unanimously hated by critics, audiences, and fans, but at the same time it is also an incredibly fascinating train-wreck to watch that I can recommend it as a so bad it’s good movie, plus it leads to one of the craziest chase sequences ever in an animated film since The Thief and the Cobbler. 

            Now we have this new live-action/animated hybrid film directed by Tim Story (Barbershop, Taxi, Fantastic 4/Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer) because it’s now required by law that every Hanna-Barbera cartoon must be adapted to live-action cinema at some point, just like The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, and Yogi Bear. However, unlike those movies, this film makes the interesting choice of having it be a mix of live-action and animation that’s closer in spirit to films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, or The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle and the original characters retain their cartoony natures, but they just happen to co-exist with real-life humans. 

            The trailer looked like a generic kids’ movie, but I was at least interested in seeing how the world of this film works. Is it like Toontown from Roger Rabbit where the cartoon characters live in a different part of the city, is it the recycled plot of the animated characters finding a magic portal that sends them to the real world (*cough* Smurfs!), or is everyone in this movie just tripping on LSD? After seeing the movie for myself, I think it might be the latter if I’m being serious. 

            I was also a bit scared that they would play it too safe because ever since that 1992 movie a lot of recent Tom and Jerry media often lacked the kinetic energy, cartoon violence, and comedic timing of its source material and would go the Scooby-Doo route and just throw them into random situations or movies like The Wizard of Oz and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Would this movie be a faithful interpretation of its source material that remembers Tom and Jerry’s roots, or would this once genius comedic duo become “Friends to the End” again? Thankfully, this film understands Tom and Jerry a lot better than the 1992 movie but the plot surrounding them is very standard and tiring. 

            The film follows Tom the Cat and Jerry Mouse (Both voiced by William Hanna and Mel Blanc via archive footage) who wind up in New York City’s finest hotel on the evening of the wedding of the century. When news that the hotel has a mouse problem, the new employee and desperate event manager Kayla (Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass 1 and 2, Let Me In, Hugo) recruits Tom to get rid of Jerry before the wedding. 

            However, as their chaotic mayhem ensues, the escalating cat-and-mouse chase soon threatens Kayla’s job, the wedding, and possibly the hotel itself. 

            The film also stars Michael Peña (End of Watch, Ant-Man 1 and 2, Dora and the Lost City of Gold) as Terrence Mendoza, Colin Jost (Saturday Night Live, Staten Island Summer, How to Be Single) as Ben, Rob Delaney (Catastrophe, Deadpool 2, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw) as Henry DuBois, Ken Jeong (Community, The Hangover trilogy, Scoob!) as Jackie, Pallavi Sharda (My Name is Khan, Lion, Retrograde) as Preeta, Patsy Ferran (Jamestown, Tulip Fever, God’s Own Country) as Joy, Christina Chong (W.E., Johnny English Reborn, Monroe) as Lola, Ajay Chhabra (Bend it Like Beckham, Anita and Me) as Mr. Mehta, and Camilla Arfwedson (Holby City, The Duchess, The Little Stranger) as Linda Perrybottom, and features the voices of Nicky Jam as Butch, Bobby Cannavale (Mr. Robot, Ant-Man 1 and 2, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) as Spike, and Lil Rel Howery (The Carmichael Show, Get Out, Judas and the Black Messiah) as Tom’s shoulder devil and shoulder angel. 

            Overall, Tom & Jerry is…fine, and a lot closer in spirit to the original cartoons than the 1992 film. The film is very well animated and it’s fun to see the cartoon characters interact with live-action environments and objects, the slapstick is well timed and often quite funny, and using archive footage of William Hanna and Mel Blanc’s voices for Tom and Jerry is a huge plus, but why don’t I love this movie? It’s infinitely better than Tom and Jerry: The Movie but what is keeping it from being great? The recycled and predictable plot!

            The plot is literally the same as Dunston Checks In except replace Jason Alexander and the ape with Hit-Girl and a cartoon cat and mouse, and it’s just not interesting. Plot is literally the last thing I care about when I’m watching Tom and Jerry, I just want to see some hilarious slapstick and over-the-top situations and we get that for a good half of this movie, but it feels like it grinds to a halt whenever it tries to be a real movie with the wedding and hotel plot. 

            Had the film taken the Mad Max: Fury Road approach and focused mostly on a cinematic Tom and Jerry chase with the human characters, hotel, and wedding being subplots I think we would have gotten a great Tom and Jerrymovie, but as is it feels like 2 completely different films stitched together. Tom & Jerry is a perfectly serviceable adaptation that kids may enjoy, and longtime fans will appreciate the efforts of staying true to the source material, you just have to get through some filler to get to those moments.