'Tom and Jerry' Review: A Familiar Family-Friendly Cat & Mouse Game
The 80-year-old cartoon comedic duo gets a modern makeover in a magical mix of animation and live-action.
Tom & Jerry as a concept is as simple as it gets; a mouse (Jerry) causes trouble, and a cat (Tom) has to hunt him down. You can add the Hollywood writing trope of ‘chaos ensues’ to this simplistic animated exercise in Darwinism, as the two animals destroy everything in their path, and with that simple formula, an Animation dynasty was created.
In their 80-year history, the encyclopedia of Tom & Jerry is a must read for any animation fan. They were once directed by the equally iconic pairing of William Hanna and Joseph Barbara, at the time young gods who had yet to realize the full scope of powers they would one day have over the industry. Tom & Jerry also had the elder deity Chuck Jones take the helm fresh off his tenure creating the perennial characters at Warner Brothers. In fact the history of Tom & Jerry is like reading the roster of the Travelling Wilburys, it’s unbelievable that this many legends came together on the same project (albeit not always at the same time).
In that time, Tom & Jerry perfected the animated sight gag. The cartoons had the legends of the silent film era like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin influencing what we now take for granted, but took it to a new level of chaos and violence. It was Tex Avery and the Roadrunner and Coyote thrown into a blender with added animated-animosity and edge.
So how does one expand this simple idea into a feature film? One that presumably, some audience members (depending on local safety measures and health considerations) will see in a theatre on the large screen? Director Tim Story (Ride Along, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) is up to the task. Story’s filmography is the perfect resume for this film; he’s no stranger to the ‘frenemy’ dynamic where the two main characters at first hate one another, but come together in the end. Story is also used to large productions with a mixture of animation and live action (see the aforementioned Fantastic Four film). Story has also claimed he has been a fan of Tom & Jerry ever since watching reruns of the classic shorts on the small screen in the 80s.
This ‘Story-ed’ history created the perfect individual for what most audience members are going to look for in this film. The animated sequences, the classic characters and the familiar dynamic is rock-solid. The treatment of these classic characters will make anyone, of any age who considers themselves a Tom & Jerry classicist content. Granted, the formula for what makes the dynamic between the two is simple enough, but the nicest touches come in the style of the animation. There was a lot of attention paid to how to bring the classic hand-drawn style of the 1940’s into the 21st century, and it begins with the character design.
Story and his animation team didn’t mess with the classic look at all, and bringing them into the live-action world worked for the most part in terms of perspective, but for the trained eye, there seemed to be some incongruity. The movement of the characters when attempting to move fluidly was anything but. There were several sequences when some characters were merely trying to walk, and the amalgamation of 2-D style with 3-D rendering made those characters seem robotic. Simple movements like characters laughing or reacting that were intended to be subtle, really stood out to this former animation student.
The strength of the style was in the chaotic action sequences, which is really the most appealing part of Tom & Jerry, any way. When the animated animals were caught up in a dust-storm of cartoon savagery, it never looked like a computer created it, and once again the nostalgia of the 40’s artistic style came back strong. It was also a brilliant touch to make all animals in this fictional New York, animated. The pigeons that would usually flood the New York streets like rats with wings, instead sing to the audience and invite you into a colorful, pristine world.
If this was a series of vignettes or shorts, then perhaps that appeal of the cartoon chaos would have shined and created a great tribute to the classics. Unfortunately though, much like the rest of the world, human beings had to show up and ruin everything. The main storyline is extremely tough to get through, as it is predictable and dry even for family film fare. It could be a case of screenwriter Kevin Costello simply not trying to detract from the staple plot dynamic of the original shorts, but with the other subplots in this film, there was nothing of any real value for audience members to get behind or latch onto.
Chloë Grace Moretz plays Kayla, a young woman who wants to make it big in the Big Apple. This is a common character thread, as both Tom and Jerry spend most of the film trying to ‘make something of themselves’, yet, this is the crux of the problem with the main characters. There was always something inherently ‘selfish’ or malevolent about this Tom & Jerry. Jerry could never really be seen as the sweet innocent hero, as he was often the intruder, the troublemaker, the causative incident for the chaos. Tom would then take his role (which was much more sympathetic, as who doesn’t want an unwanted pest our of their house) and went too far. Neither one of them had redeemable qualities. Comparatively, they always lacked the charm or wit of their Looney Tunes brethren.
With this cinematic incarnation, all three main characters, be it animated or flesh and bone aren’t characters you can cheer for. They’re all liars, they’re all selfish, they’re all devious, and even if you can predict how the film will end (and that will not be a far reach for most audience members) the moral is not a large enough payoff to have to endure the lesser parts of the film. This storyline is compounded by a cartoonishly-stern Manager, Terence (played by Michael Peña), and a bland subplot regarding ‘power couple’ Preeta (Pallavi Sharda) and Ben (SNL star Colin Jost) who are trying to pull off the New York wedding of the century. The only redeeming quality was Jost playing one half of a power couple, with the real-life subtext of recently marrying Scarlet Johansson, and ironically thrusting himself into ‘power couple’ territory. Again, there is just too much disconnect between these ‘human’ subplots and what audiences want to see; the battle between a cartoon mouse and a cartoon cat as they pummel each other into exaggerated comically painful full body contortions. Even with Moretz’s story allegedly ‘mirroring’ the title duo, it was not enough. The story is that rare mix of being too dry for children to enjoy, but being too simplistic and formulaic for the adults to be invested.
It really depends on why audiences may want to go see the film, because, as mentioned, the treatment of these timeless characters will make any Tom & Jerry classicist happy. Tim Story and his team should be praised for giving fans of Tom & Jerry what they want, albeit not enough. The film isn’t overly deep or groundbreaking, which it seemingly isn’t trying to do, but it works on the level of a nostalgia-filled respite for those looking for an innocent family film.
Grade: [C+]
You can also check out FilmSpeak’s interview with Director Tim Story here:
