Hello everyone and welcome to a new 2021 movie review! I know it has been a while since I’ve done one of these, but I’m excited to be back talking about the films of this year! Today I am going to be talking about the big screen return of one of the most iconic cartoon duos in animation history, Tom & Jerry. This is actually not the first theatrical feature length outing for them as they got a fully animated one in 1993, but that one has gone on to garner a rather infamous reputation. Despite that there were still many attempts to get a live action Tom & Jerry hybrid off the ground throughout the 2000s, but it didn’t take until this year for it to finally be released. I of course am a big fan of Tom & Jerry and their many iterations, but admittedly I was a little unsure of what to make of a live action hybrid film as I was worried it would end up being like the Smurfs or Alvin and the Chipmunks films, but then I found out that it was going to utilize a mix of 2D and 3D animation to bring the characters to life and that got me interested. Plus the trailers made the film look like a lot of fun and I became more optimistic about it. So now that I have seen it I can say that it is the very definition of a mixed bag as it succeeds in some places, but underwhelms in others. Let’s see what made me so conflicted about this one as we get involved in the mayhem that unfolds with the best of enemies!
Taking place in the big city of New York, the titular duo are each trying to find their way in this environment with Tom wanting to be a pianist and Jerry trying to find a new home. However The focus quickly changes to a young woman named Kayla who just lost her job and is looking for options. She seizes an opportunity to prove herself at The Royal Gate, the fanciest hotel in all of the city and manages to get a position using a resume she stole and is entrusted to over look what is set to be a very high profile wedding between celebrities Preeta Mehta and her fiancée, Ben, despite the concerns of the hotel’s event manager, Terence. Everything seems to be going according to plan until Jerry is found to be living somewhere in the hotel up to some shenanigan’s which puts everything at risk. So realizing that she needs to stop him, she recruits Tom to hunt him down and save the wedding, but she is about to realize just how much mayhem these two are going to cause which could put everything in jeopardy.
I will give the movie that despite my issues with certain aspects, I think it nails one crucial element and that is the parts involving Tom & Jerry, which many would consider the most important part of any movie starring them. For the most part when the focus is on them it can be really entertaining as the manic energy of the cartoons is captured nicely and there are plenty of fun situations that they get in. This is also where funniest moments tend to be as well with plenty of fun jokes and visual gags that got some good laughs out of me (I especially liked whenever Tom’s shoulder angel and devil, voiced by Lil Rel Howery, popped up). All of that is well and good and I’ll go into some of the other things I them later, but like many other movies like this, the focus is mainly on the human characters. Now putting humans in a story with iconic cartoon characters can be done well (I’d argue Sonic the Hedgehog succeeded in that regard) and heck plenty of the direct to DVD Tom & Jerry films are able to have some solid supporting players that are not the main duo, but in this case I didn’t find the main plotline concerning the wedding to be all that compelling or interesting. That is a pretty big problem considering that it takes up a lot of the movie’s focus to the point where it feels less like a Tom & Jerry film and more like a random wedding movie that just so happens to have Tom & Jerry pop in every so often to create destruction. While in hindsight that could be fun, but every time it would cut to anything to do with the humans, the film just stops dead in it’s tracks as I didn’t find much of the comedy funny and there were few characters I was invested in. I guess there were some lines that made me chuckle here and there (one exchange involving why Tom should be allowed to have a job at the hotel was especially pretty funny) but most of the time it’s mostly just awkward dialogue and unfunny bathroom jokes. The movie also tries to have a message regarding accepting yourself and your strengths and not trying to compare yourself to others, especially on social media which is a good message, but the movie just brings it up without really developing it making it feel shoehorned in for the sake of Kayla’s arc. It is unfortunate because the stuff with the title characters is very entertaining, I just wish there was a better throughline connecting it all together.
As mentioned the Tom and Jerry stuff is fun to watch unfold and a large part of that is due to the animation techniques that were used here. While it’s not a full on 2D hybrid the way the animators are able to use 3D animation in way that makes the characters maintain their classic designs while having a 2D look to them is quite impressive. The models blend well with the live action environment, the designs translate nicely into 3D and the movements are full of energy. Plus the designs themselves are appropriately cartoony and feel like they came right out of the Tom and Jerry cartoons and I like how every single animal (alive or dead) is animated like this as it just adds a little bit more to this setting. The only thing that is a bit off is whenever the human actors have to interact with them in the same shot as it looks awkward and it feels as if the performers are having a hard time interacting alongside something that doesn’t exist, which is not an easy feat of course, but it can be/has been done to great success before in the past. However when it’s that animals together it is done very well and this most apparent in the scenes where Tom and Jerry beat each other up like there is not tomorrow. These are easily the highlights of the feature as they are cleverly constructed and Tim Story greatly succeeds in giving them the needed energy with his direction with the highlights being a confrontation between the two in a hotel room (where a bit is done in one take) and a surprisingly exciting climactic chase on the streets where the two actually have to work together. Even the music done by Christopher Lennertz captures that energy in these scenes and fits the vibe perfectly (although like other modern family films there are times where it goes a bit overboard on the needle drops which don’t always mesh). I also appreciate that they retain the gleefully violent nature and anarchic spirit of what makes these characters so much fun to watch.
Speaking of those characters despite their simplicity Tom and Jerry are characters that can delight those of any generation and that continues here. Tom is as stubborn as ever while also having some motivations that he wants to accomplish (in this case playing the piano and winning over a female cat), while Jerry is his usual mischievous and joyful self with the two at odds constantly throughout. They even try to be friendly to one another in the third act but that naturally doesn’t go as planned. Not much to say about them other than that they are entertaining to watch and it was also nice seeing some other familiar faces from the show such as Spike the bulldog (Bobby Cannavale, perfectly cast in the role) and Butch the alley cat (Nicky Jam). Still like I mentioned it is the human cast that gets the most attention story wise and it is a shame that I didn’t care for many of them as I do like these actors. I’ve enjoyed many of Chloe Grace Moretz performances as she is very talented, but unfortunately she comes off awkward like she is seeing her lines for the first time and trying to make the best of it. She doesn’t do much to make Kayla into a sympathetic character and really the way they wrote her as someone who cheats to get a job she clearly has no experience on and she is constantly rewarded throughout the movie is just strange and sends a weird message (intentional or not) to kids. She also just doesn’t have much to her as a character and they try to give her a love interest in the form of the hotel’s bartender (Jordan Bogler) but that doesn’t really end up as much. Heck I ended up almost rooting for Terence as he is the one getting punished for her mistakes but he of course is portrayed as the villain here. I will admit Michael Pena does try to give the proceedings a bit more energy, even though this isn’t his best work or material. As for the celebrity couple, well Pallavi Sharda is pretty good as Preeta and Colin Jost has a couple of funny scenes (even though his performance lacks much emotions) as Ben, but I can’t say I was all that invested in their relationship or chemistry since it was pretty underdeveloped, but I will say Ben trying to go too far to impress his true love even though he doesn’t need to could have been a nice arc and have a good commentary on how bigger isn’t always what one truly needs. Everyone else, like Patsy Ferran as a strange bell hop girl named Joy or Ken Jeong cast to type as an angry food chef (who does have his moments) just serve to fill comedic roles that don’t manage to stand out too much although I did really like Rob Delaney as the general manager of the hotel since he seemed to be having the most fun and has some of the funnier lines of dialogue. Still everyone here I’ve seen done better and it’s not so much their fault as the material doesn’t give them much to work with.
On the whole, the newest theatrical outing for Tom & Jerry is a frustrating mixed bag of both hits and misses. It gets the title characters right, is fun when the focus is on them, has plenty of energy in certain scenes, and has really solid animation that presents a new kind of visual style. Yet the main plot regarding the wedding is just not that interesting, many of the non Tom & Jerry jokes don’t land, the messages aren’t developed, and I didn’t care about most of the human characters despite the best efforts of most of the cast. While I certainly don’t think it is awful as I can see it being a mostly harmless watch for young kids and I can tell there was clearly effort put into making the film, it just fell pretty flat for me which is a shame because I was genuinely hoping to enjoy it more. Still I can see people liking it more than me (if only for the Tom & Jerry stuff if that’s all that anyone wants) and it’s not my least favorite live action hybrid adaptation of a popular cartoon, but I have to wonder if the studios will ever have the confidence to make a Tom & Jerry movie… that actually has them as the leads.
Rating: C
Please leave your thoughts down below in the comments and see you guys later!
Review Time 