REVIEW: "Tom & Jerry" (2021)


WRITER'S NOTE: The following was originally posted on my Facebook page on October 24, 2024. 

The same year that the Looney Tunes were brought back to the big screen, Warner Bros also decided to bring back William Hanna & Joseph Barbera’s ever-popular cat-and-mouse duo in a live-action/animated comedy. The good news is that, unlike the pair’s 1993 feature film debut (which had them speaking and singing), director Tim Story and company take the characters back to their pantomime, slapstick roots. The recent theatrical movie’s fun and eye-popping 2D/3D animation style had me convinced from the first trailer, “That’s it! They got it!” (Every animal character you see on screen is a cartoon. Talk about consistency.) 

That being said, the backdrop that Tom & Jerry is set against leaves little else to be desired. Ditto its lazy writing. The story begins as the duo, unbeknownst to each other, move to New York City for fresh starts. Jerry sneaks into a five-star hotel, where a young woman (Chloe Grace Moretz) cons her way into a staff job and soon hires Tom for a mouse-catching mission before a big wedding ceremony that same week. 

Okay, so the plot is a little contrived and convoluted, especially when the duo is forced to work together so the aforementioned wedding doesn’t end up a disaster. Ironically, the bride-to-be worries that her fiancé is overdoing the preparations and losing track of what really matters. Moretz (a good actress) starts out as unlikeable, with Michael Peña’s hotel staff labeling her as “one of those millennials who thinks they can get whatever they want without working for it.” He’s not wrong. The same could be said for Jerry—usually the victim in the classic cartoons—who comes across as a little pushy at times here. All things considered (including a few bathroom jokes for kids), while this is mostly a fun-filled popcorn muncher, Tom & Jerry does highlight the importance of hard work and making things right. 

But where the movie really works are its set pieces filled with the iconic, wall-to-wall mayhem that the cartoons are synonymous with. There are even some clever homages to shorts like 1947’s The Cat Concerto and 1948’s The Truce Hurts. And unlike Space Jam: A New Legacy, which sidelined its Looney Tunes stars in favor of endless company IP appearances, Tom & Jerry knows what it’s supposed to be—even with a soundtrack that includes contemporary hip-hop artists like A Tribe Called Quest, Eric B. & Rakim, and Flo Rida. The rest of the cast (including Rob Delaney, Colin Jost, and Ken Jeong) seems to be having a good time as well. If anything, Tom & Jerry is a fun, entertaining, and contemporary spin for one of our favorite cartoon duos. 

#filmfreeq #bekerianreviews #21stcenturycinema #warnerbros #warneranimationgroup #timstory #tomandjerry2021

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