Tom and Jerry Movie Review
Nathan Swank
March 5th, 2021
Ugh! What did they do to our beloved Tom and Jerry? Okay, looking back at it, perhaps Tom and Jerry aren’t the best role models as they promote a lot of trickery and beating on one another in a pro-violence sort of way. However, I contend that TOM AND JERRY the movie is far worse.
As I’m sure you are aware, Tom and Jerry are a children’s cartoon cat and mouse created in 1940 who try to get the best of one another in increasingly and creatively violent ways. The massive amount of under 10-minute cartoon shorts has been poorly stretched into a PG (questionable) 101 minute (way too long) feature film (is that what it’s called?) currently available in theaters and HBO Max.
TOM AND JERRY remain cartoony but are placed in live-action surroundings. However, unlike WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT, they are not acknowelged as cartoons, but still accepted as understanding animals. In fact, all the animals are cartoon in this world. I’m fine with all of that. Jerry has made a home in the Royal Gate Hotel and Tom is hired to get rid of Jerry before the big day of a very important and expensive wedding. However, Tom and Jerry are more of a supporting or side characters to the bigger and boring story. Kayla (Chloe Grace Moretz) is a bit of a con artist who sneaks her way into the hotel, then lies to get an important job as the hotel coordinator for the wedding. Terence (Michael Pena) is in another leadership roll at the hotel, who is on to her deceitful ways in a bit of their own cat and mouse relationship. The wedding couple (Colin Jost and Pahlavi Sharda) are having some marital issues. The groom is over-eager about making the wedding the biggest extravanza for his wife without even asking her. And the bride is bothered by all his choices but won’t speak up. You’d think a couple about to get married would have a slightly better understanding that communication is a key to any healthy relationship. Maybe that’s why Tom and Jerry can’t talk. So to break it down, lies, deceit, and violence run rampant creating perfect hijinks humor for children.
I’ve always disliked poor communication as a catalyst for movie plots. When a simple conversation can fix all the problems, then the screenplay has problems. But the worst thing I believe is that our lead character, Kayla, is lying or not telling the truth to either save her own behind or get ahead through the entire kid’s movie. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I’d prefer my children not to look up to a character who doesn’t play well with others and succeeds by lying.
But lets turn our focus to Tom and Jerry. My kids recently discovered the two at both sets of grandparents. They laugh and laugh at the old cartoon antics. And you know what? So do I. And here is the fundamental difference. There antics are in cartoon world and are obviously cartoony keeping the conflict between them. In TOM AND JERRY the movie, the world is real, making their antics real with real consequence, which isn’t funny. Plus the antics aren’t as silly as getting banged in the head, then a tall bump appears, but rather pretending to be blind to hustle money as a musician. This really happens! Tom is pretending to be blind and Jerry tries to steal his money as an unseen dancing act. Jerry also believes Tom to be blind and is trying to take money from what he believes to be a blind cat. I would make a bet that none of the filmmakers are actually parents. However as a parent, it would be easy to be outraged over the lack of kindness and stupidity, but TOM AND JERRY is so boring that it drains any energy to care right out of you.
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