Tom & Jerry
Warner BrosBeastly, ghastly monsters have presented audiences with the chance to chastise and mock the attempts to revitalise Tom & Jerry once again. A call to ‘bring out the dead’ has presumably echoed through the halls of MGM and left producers with a solid checklist of flagging IPs. The cash cow that William Hanna and Joseph Barbera brought audiences is still milked a mere eighty years after its initial conception. Proud of this they may be, new creatives do not show the respect this nostalgia project deserves, hence the release of Tom & Jerry. Another miserable attempt to shunt the cat and mouse duo into the public gaze as they rummage through the pockets of mildly interested audience members, looking to cash-in once more on name value.
Taking the famed characters to the bustling streets of New York, Director, Tim Story tries his best to capture the clownish antics of the titular enemies. Such a premise should not be hard, so long as the budget is there and the story is simple. Chloë Grace Moretz, Michael Peña and Rob Delaney all appear in an unnecessary capacity, giving depth to a story that, for decades, has survived and thrived without the inclusion of human relationships and romantic subplots. Of course, a film this size must have a story. It is impossible, really, to get a big-budget piece to the screen without so much as alluding to the concept of a story. The traditional route of enemies turning into begrudging friends is a passing notion hinted at in the series, but it is a clear, expected goal for Tom & Jerry.
What business does A Tribe Called Quest and a Lou Reed sample have opening a Tom & Jerry film? Still, the poor blend of real-world cities and pitiful, charmless animation are at least begrudgingly acceptable so long as the slapstick humour is intact. Which it is, to an extent. With the comic nature of the television series available, it is reassuring to see Story grasp at the concepts that made the previous encounters between predator and prey work. William Hanna and Mel Blanc return, which is truly surprising, but also the singular positive aspect of Tom & Jerry. Their archive footage is utilised in vain. At least they don’t speak as they did last time. They do sing, though, which will be a joyous throwback for those three out there that enjoyed the Fred Astaire tap-dancing routine found in their first titular break to the big screen.
A blend between animated animals and human characters will always look odd, like the old Dolmio adverts that had puppets chowing down on spaghetti. Animation no longer has the blockbuster draw, granted, but considering Tom & Jerry as a brand has always thrived on the slapstick, hand-drawn charms, it is a shame to see the latter lost here. Breaking the very few rules the series has had up to this point, Strong and company break the fourth wall and try adding depth to the simple tale of ‘cat chases mouse’. All the best bits of the classic cartoons are rehashed and paired with all the jaunty modern filmmaking opportunities that look to crush nostalgia into neatly packaged parcels for audience consumption. Tom & Jerry is fine in small, poorly paced pockets, but comes nowhere close to the charms of the cartoon classics.