By Aaron Dwyer Well… another day, another reboot of a beloved childhood property. And yet somehow, I never saw this coming. Didn’t they already try making a Tom & Jerry movie back in 1992? And wasn’t it a widely-panned disaster that failed to make its money back, relegating Tom and Jerry’s “cinematic” presence to direct-to-TV specials on Cartoon Network? Yes, to all of the above. And yet, apparently, someone thought they could do it better this time. Luckily, this one doesn’t make the mistake of having Tom and Jerry talk, but it does make the mistake of writing in human characters that we’re supposed to care about. In this family comedy, Tom and Jerry find themselves stranded in New York with nowhere to sleep - apparently, the cost of living there is so high now that even street animals have to pay rent - and Jerry finds the perfect solution: sneaking into a ritzy hotel to live a life of luxury and resume his usual trouble-causing ways. Meanwhile, a young lady named Kayla (Chloë Grace Moretz) has lied her way into getting a job at the Royal Gate Hotel right as it's preparing to host a wedding for one of New York society’s hottest couples. The last thing she needs is a mouse sneaking around, so she enlists Tom to hunt down Jerry through various slapstick routines. Throw in an uptight manager that’s onto Kayla’s scheme, some oddball hotel workers, the bumbling high society guests, and you’ve got… well, kind of a mess, to be honest.
Too many cooks
Heard it all before
For those familiar with the Tom and Jerry cartoons, it might be enjoyable to play a round of “Hey, they did the thing!” while watching this movie. In fact, several of the slapstick gags were taken directly from the old cartoons. Whether this was intended as an homage or the filmmakers just ran out of original ideas is unclear. Generally, Tom and Jerry give the sense that it’s ticking off boxes. Yes, they worked in an underdog protagonist and a tacked-on moral about not comparing yourself to others - which is a bold stance coming from a movie that is impossible NOT to compare to the work it's based on - but as far as actual heart or truly meaningful lessons, there’s little to be found. It’s not quite as bad as, say, The Smurfs or the Alvin and the Chipmunks movies. That seems like the kind of movie they were going for, and sadly there is more than one out-of-place hip hop number in here, but at least they’re short. In the end, Tom and Jerry are not about to become as big an internet sensation as Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory did, as it’s not nearly bizarre enough to warrant that amount of confusion and mockery. It’s just kind of… lame. It manages genuine laughs and charm, but the extra story you have to sit to get through them is hardly worth it. Unless you’re such a die-hard Tom and Jerry fan that you’ll watch this for the sake of completionism, you’re far better off sticking to the cartoons, or waiting for the compilations to come on YouTube.Sources: IMDB (Tom and Jerry 1992) IMDB (Tom and Jerry 2021) Images: CNN What's After The Credits? Featured Image: Cartoon Network