TOM & JERRY (2021)

TOM & JERRY (2021)

Tagline:  Best of Enemies. Worst of Friends.

(Animation, Adventure, Comedy) [PG]

I am guessing that there are some people with a crapload of money that just really believe in TOM & JERRY as a property and can’t stop making movies with them involved. This is the 2nd theatrical TOM & JERRY movie release. The first was in 1992 and that thing lost $5 million at the box office. These two have also been in TOM & JERRY: BLAST OFF TO MARS, TOM & JERRY: THE FAST AND THE FURRY, and TOM & JERRY: THE MAGIC RING to name a few all within the past 2 decades. So naturally, this movie came with some challenges. How do you draw in a new audience and keep older fans of these two misfits happy while making this thing worthy of a big release? 

In this one, a resourceful Kayla (played by Chloë Grace Moretz who I have told you before took a really long break from making good movies before finally appearing in SHADOW IN THE CLOUD) decides to steal a resume from a would-be employee at a fancy hotel. She gets the job, and it faced with the challenge of finding the notorious Jerry ”The Mouse” before he alarms the guests. To do this, Kayla eventually realizes she will need the help of Jerry’s long-time reluctant friend and oft nemesis, a cat named Tom. 

Some strong points in this thing are the animation overall. I love that they used basically a WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT type setup, but did the animation in such a way that it gave a sense of depth without using a ton of forced perspective. I also loved most of the cast. Chloë Grace Moretz takes on this role with a great amount of enthusiasm and her ability to interact with not only Tom and Jerry, but the rest of the cast is pretty great. Jordan Bolger as Cameron and Patsy Ferran as "Joy the Bell Girl" stood out as strong supporting cast. Tom and Jerry themselves end up pretty likable overall (especially Tom), which honestly I don’t really find happened back when the show was out.  I am not a fan of the older shows, and to be honest, I watched them because they were on. It was cool seeing Michael Peña in this playing the character he does. Story-wise I thought the fact that they made every animal in the movie animated was a really smart choice, it makes the fact that Tom & Jerry are animated seem not as “out of place”. Everyone just kind of accepts that all the animals are animated. 

Where this thing is a bit rough is the few opening songs in the soundtrack seem to not fit the rest of the entire soundtrack. As this movie gets along it seems to hit its stride regarding the song choices. I get that they are going for a younger audience here. This is a kid's movie, but I think even kids can appreciate solid musical accompaniment. I also sadly thought that Colin Jost who plays Ben (the idiot would-be husband in the movie's central couple) was about as badly cast as he could have possibly been. He not only seemed like he was mailing in the role but whoever was in charge of his hair, just bombed it on that. This dude is more annoying than anyone else in this damn movie. We really don’t have a villain per se, just a bunch of people doing things they will probably regret later, but man, this dude. I just can’t stand him. Ben, you have to freakin listen to your fiance…what the heck is wrong with you? Okay, I’m calm now. 

In the final assessment, I would love to watch this thing again, but don't feel the need to buy it. It is directed at kids and most kids should have a blast with this. The comedic timing is pretty good and when you have someone like  Ken Jeong (who plays Chef Jackie) making the most of his screen time, it doesn’t hurt at all. TOM & JERRY is successful in a lot of ways and to be honest, this is a really welcome reprieve from all the more serious stuff going on right now. For me, this is a 4 out of 7 due to some overly cheesy relationship implausibility’s and most of the humor being slapstick (which really isn’t my thing). For most kids, it will likely under up a 5 or 6.

 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF WARNER ANIMATION GROUP AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Because no one should die buttonless.