TOM & JERRY: THE MOVIE
***
Director: Tim Story
Screenplay: Kevin Costello, based on characters by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
Principal cast:
Tom
Jerry
Chloë Grace Moretz
Michael Anthony Peña
Jordan Bolger
Rob Delaney
Country: UK/USA
Classification: PG
Runtime: 101 mins.
Australian release date: 1 April 2021.
Successfully combining traditional Hollywood cartoon animation with live action can be a difficult exercise - getting it right ain’t easy. Films that do, like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Space Jam, are few and far between (we’ll see how soon-to-be-released Space Jam: A New Legacy does in the coming months). Others that use computer generated animated creatures in live action dramas seem to fare better. Here’s looking at you Babe, Peter Rabbit, Paddington and, never to be forgotten, ted. In those films, the animals (or stuffed bears) resemble their real-life counterparts - well, physically at least - while in the former the clash between human and ‘toon is more pronounced, making their existence harder to accept when placed next to living, breathing human beings. Now, along comes Tom & Jerry: The Movie, which has a go at putting the famed Hanna Barbera cat and mouse duo up against real people.
When Kayla (Chloë Grace Moretz) inveigles her way into a position at the exclusive Royal Gate Hotel in New York City, she is given the job of making sure that the ‘wedding of the year’ between Ben (Colin Jost) and Preeta (Australian actress Pallavi Sharda) goes smoothly, whatever the young couple may demand. Terence, her immediate boss (Michael Peña), has misgivings about the new recruit but the hotel manager Mr. Dubros (Rob Delaney) is impressed by her can-do attitude. All goes well until Jerry decides to movie in to the swank premises, taking up residence on one of the hotel’s upper floors. Naturally, as day follows night, it’s not long before Tom shows up too. When Jerry is spotted by the staff, Kayla volunteers to deal with ‘the mouse problem’ and convinces Mr. Dubros to let Tom become the Royal Gate’s official rodent remover. What could possibly go wrong?
If you’re a fan of Tom & Jerry’s violent mayhem (Tom certainly has many more than nine lives), you’ll enjoy this film. Of course, the pesky pair are 80-years-old now, so modern-day younger viewers will probably regard them quite differently to their elders. The ‘frenemies’ are definitely in their usual element, though, in Tom & Jerry: The Movie, totally at war with each other until events cause them to join forces… at least briefly. The old gags still get a laugh from adults but the littlies at the preview were less impressed, judging by the activity in the aisles. Chlöe Grace Moretz carries off her scenes with aplomb (it can’t have been easy acting against not one, but two, invisible characters) but Kevin Costello’s script tries to do too much, throwing everything into the mix except the kitchen sink, and the addition of the wedding sub-plot doesn’t add much to the story. Tom & Jerry are chaotic enough on their own.
Screenplay: Kevin Costello, based on characters by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
Principal cast:
Tom
Jerry
Chloë Grace Moretz
Michael Anthony Peña
Jordan Bolger
Rob Delaney
Country: UK/USA
Classification: PG
Runtime: 101 mins.
Australian release date: 1 April 2021.
Successfully combining traditional Hollywood cartoon animation with live action can be a difficult exercise - getting it right ain’t easy. Films that do, like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and Space Jam, are few and far between (we’ll see how soon-to-be-released Space Jam: A New Legacy does in the coming months). Others that use computer generated animated creatures in live action dramas seem to fare better. Here’s looking at you Babe, Peter Rabbit, Paddington and, never to be forgotten, ted. In those films, the animals (or stuffed bears) resemble their real-life counterparts - well, physically at least - while in the former the clash between human and ‘toon is more pronounced, making their existence harder to accept when placed next to living, breathing human beings. Now, along comes Tom & Jerry: The Movie, which has a go at putting the famed Hanna Barbera cat and mouse duo up against real people.
When Kayla (Chloë Grace Moretz) inveigles her way into a position at the exclusive Royal Gate Hotel in New York City, she is given the job of making sure that the ‘wedding of the year’ between Ben (Colin Jost) and Preeta (Australian actress Pallavi Sharda) goes smoothly, whatever the young couple may demand. Terence, her immediate boss (Michael Peña), has misgivings about the new recruit but the hotel manager Mr. Dubros (Rob Delaney) is impressed by her can-do attitude. All goes well until Jerry decides to movie in to the swank premises, taking up residence on one of the hotel’s upper floors. Naturally, as day follows night, it’s not long before Tom shows up too. When Jerry is spotted by the staff, Kayla volunteers to deal with ‘the mouse problem’ and convinces Mr. Dubros to let Tom become the Royal Gate’s official rodent remover. What could possibly go wrong?
If you’re a fan of Tom & Jerry’s violent mayhem (Tom certainly has many more than nine lives), you’ll enjoy this film. Of course, the pesky pair are 80-years-old now, so modern-day younger viewers will probably regard them quite differently to their elders. The ‘frenemies’ are definitely in their usual element, though, in Tom & Jerry: The Movie, totally at war with each other until events cause them to join forces… at least briefly. The old gags still get a laugh from adults but the littlies at the preview were less impressed, judging by the activity in the aisles. Chlöe Grace Moretz carries off her scenes with aplomb (it can’t have been easy acting against not one, but two, invisible characters) but Kevin Costello’s script tries to do too much, throwing everything into the mix except the kitchen sink, and the addition of the wedding sub-plot doesn’t add much to the story. Tom & Jerry are chaotic enough on their own.