{"id":34612,"date":"2021-02-26T15:34:48","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T20:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=34612"},"modified":"2021-03-07T20:38:11","modified_gmt":"2021-03-08T01:38:11","slug":"tom-and-jerry-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/26\/tom-and-jerry-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom and Jerry (2021)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Warner Animation props up the long rotted corpse of \u201cTom and Jerry\u201d long enough to produce what I\u2019m sure they hoped would be a blockbuster big screen adaptation. For a series that\u2019s been languishing on video store shelves with cheaply made, watered down animated movies for years<\/a>, it\u2019s not a surprise that \u201cTom and Jerry\u201d is about as bland as ever. It\u2019s also not at all surprising that Tim Story is the man called on to deliver such an inoffensive, forgettable, mishmash of weird ideas and concepts.<\/p>\n

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Tom and Jerry make it New York City for\u2026 reasons<\/strong><\/em>. Tom is a piano player hoping to play alongside John Legend for\u2026 reasons<\/strong><\/em>, while Jerry is hoping to pursue dancing (?). After duking it out, they end up at a posh hotel where young Kayla schemes her way in to a job as a hostess. Bonding with a young affluent couple (Colin Jost, Pallavi Sharda) planning to marry, Kayla has to enlist Tom to help catch Jerry before the wedding. Also there\u2019s singing pigeons and a middle Eastern rat for\u2026 reasons<\/strong><\/em>?<\/p>\n

\u201cTom and Jerry\u201d would be awful if it weren\u2019t so painfully milquetoast. That\u2019s not totally unexpected as a lot of the original shorts prominently featured the mammy trope as one of the central antagonists of the pairing. But Tim Story and the script don\u2019t even seem to try, instead tossing in concepts that feel ripped out of 2005. There\u2019s a heavy hip hop soundtrack, the titular pair plays second fiddle in their own movie, and Tom even does a celebratory Floss dance in one instance. Worse, the movie wastes an ensemble cast of very talented, funny performers like Colin Jost, Ken Jeong, Michael Pe\u0148a, and Rob Delaney.<\/p>\n

At the very least Chloe Moretz is absolutely adorable in the lead role, and I hope we can see more of Pallavi Sharda soon. It just takes a special kind of incompetence to waste the aforementioned cast. What\u2019s bizarre about the movie is the universe it\u2019s set in. The movie makes a point of establishing that there are no real animals but animated animals, and they\u2019re treated like regular animals. And no one ever really pays mind to the fact that they can act independently and occasionally even talk (Spike the dog is voiced by Bobby Cannavale for\u2026 reasons). It\u2019s very bizarre how they just lay the groundwork for this concept. Meanwhile the writers never really do much to integrate the characters save for Tom and Jerry.<\/p>\n

And their plot becomes nothing more than a series of side gags as Kayla spends her time trying to bring the rich couple together, and whatever else is going on around her. \u201cTom and Jerry\u201d fails to invigorate the property for a new generation, instead feeling like someone stapled the characters on to a rejected Gary Marshall romcom. I think it\u2019s safe to say that even kids might have a hard time finding any entertainment value here. At least we have the original shorts<\/a> from Hanna Barbera.<\/p>\n

Now In Theaters and Streaming Exclusively on HBO Max.<\/strong><\/p>\n