Tom & Jerry (2021)

[Mike Blakesley]

I have a very vague memory of Tom & Jerry "shorts" when I was a kid -- they just didn't seem to be around that much, so I was as surprised as anyone to find that this new movie is actually in great demand.

Unfortunately, the movie is about exactly what I expected, which is a few slapstick "commotion and chaos" scenes wrapped around a boring story involving people. The story aside though, it is a hoot to watch the animation and try to figure out how they integrated it with the live action. It was also fun to see traditional hand-drawn-style animation again. A lot of work was put into the visuals here -- just not much into the writing.

There are a few major inconsistencies that boggle the mind as to how they got in there:

- Tom and Jerry can't talk, but some of the animals (including other cats) can.

- Tom can play the piano and CAN SING. Didn't anybody notice this didn't make sense considering he uhhhhh, can't talk??

We never really learn anything resembling a back-story about anybody in the movie. The main character (Kayla, played by Chloe Grace Moretz) is basically homeless and scams her way into being hired as the catering manager at this super-exclusive hotel. Super-exclusive, that is, except in their HR department which seems to hire people (and cats) without so much as checking their qualifications. The other human characters are pretty much cardboard cut-outs from a bad 1970s kids' movie.

Whatever though, this movie isn't about good writing or character development. It's about pitting the two title characters against each other, and that it does in some very imaginative ways. Too bad such scenes only occupy about a fifth of the running time of the movie. But then on the other hand, if it was nothing but nonstop chaos, that wouldn't be good either.

Bottom line, Tom and Jerry should stick to 7-minute shorts. And lose the people, they drag the proceedings down.

2 out of 5 stars from me.

[Allan Young]

I have a very vague memory of Tom & Jerry "shorts" when I was a kid -- they just didn't seem to be around that much

It was only very recently I found out that Tom and Jerry isn't a cultural phenomenon in the States like it is in the UK. As I understand it, the shorts haven't been broadcast on terrestrial network television much in the USA, whereas they they were a regular feature on BBC1 for decades. Ten minute gap in the schedule? Invariably filled with a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

A fairly recent poll found it was Britain's favourite cartoon, beating the likes of The Simpsons and The Flintstones.

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/lifestyl...ourite-cartoon

There are a few major inconsistencies that boggle the mind as to how they got in there:

- Tom and Jerry can't talk, but some of the animals (including other cats) can.

- Tom can play the piano and CAN SING. Didn't anybody notice this didn't make sense considering he uhhhhh, can't talk??

That's how the Tom and Jerry universe works, as established back in the 1940s. Other animals such as cats, dogs and mice can talk; neither Tom nor Jerry can.

Tom can sing though. And not only can he play the piano, he's a dab hand at the double bass too...

[Van Dalton]

I have a very vague memory of Tom & Jerry "shorts" when I was a kid -- they just didn't seem to be around that much, so I was as surprised as anyone to find that this new movie is actually in great demand.

Dude, you should have been in Portland in the late 80s-mid 90s. KPTV aired a long-running, locally-produced anthology program called "The Rambling Rod Cartoon Show" weekday mornings from sometime in the early 1960s until Rod Anders' semi-retirement in 1995. (He continued in some capacity as KPTV's announcer until his death from a major stroke in the early 2000s.) Anyways, the cartoons they ran were primarily Loony Tunes and Tom and Jerry with a Popeye short here and there, all complete with opening themes and credits. Their TJ library went from the 40s to the late 60s, along with segments from the "Tom and Jerry Show" from the 70s. Yes, they even aired the ones with MAMMY which probably wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of escaping Turner's vault today! It seemed that at least half of RR's cartoon library was Tom & Jerry. As I understand most of their cartoons were library content. They had telecine equipment at the station and one of their producers was an avid cartoon film collector, so some were transfers of 16mm and 35mm cinema prints to high-band Umatic and were of very high quality. The show aired in a 90-minute block (maybe it was 2 hours?) and in its last several years there were at least 2 or 3 Tom and Jerry shorts per broadcast.

But, that was all local to the Portland market and ended when Paramount soaked up Chris Craft United in 1994, and they became the local UPN affiliates the following year.

Nationally there was at least until a few years ago a half hour, computer-animated Tom & Jerry show on Cartoon Network but I don't have cable myself so I wouldn't know if they still do. (I only observed it a few times staying in hotels that had CN.) Fox also aired a now mostly-forgotten "Tom and Jerry Kids" cartoon in the early 90s. The premise was they were a kitten and a pup. I guess it was fairly popular 30 years ago but I usually didn't watch it.

- Tom and Jerry can't talk, but some of the animals (including other cats) can.

- Tom can play the piano and CAN SING. Didn't anybody notice this didn't make sense considering he uhhhhh, can't talk??

That's not entirely correct. Not counting an occaional scream, Tom and Jerry did talk (at least Tom, anyways) but VERY rarely. If they did it was maybe one or two brief lines for an entire short. AFAIC, MGM really blew it with the 1992 film, where they talked for the whole 90-minute affair! Somebody apparently missed the point of silent-film slapstick which was what T&J essentially were. But hey, Hank Mancini did the music so at least it had that going for it.

[David Ferguson]

That's how the Tom and Jerry universe works, as established back in the 1940s. Other animals such as cats, dogs and mice can talk; neither Tom nor Jerry can.

Tom can sing though. And not only can he play the piano, he's a dab hand at the double bass too...

Ha - I was about to post that clip too! We never hear him talk, but we do hear him sing. (that's also one of my favourite Tom and Jerry films - along with Mouse Cleaning and Saturday Evening Puss.)

I've only seen the trailer so far, but one thing that really disappointed me was that they haven't reused the original scream sound for Tom. His scream (provided by creator William Hanna) is so distinctive, and it would have been really neat if they had worked it in this film, but alas, it was not to be...