THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Tom and Jerry have been an iconic duo in cartoon history since first appearing one everyone's television screen in 1940 and decades later, they still hit everyone's funny bone. Since their last theatrical film came out in 1992, fans wondered when they would return to the big screen again. The wait ended when they returned in 2021. Was it worth it after all this time? No, not really.
PLOT
The film takes place in New York and follows a new story of this infamous rivalry. Tom the Cat aspires to be a pianist. When he attempts to make money by performing at Central Park, Jerry the Mouse ruins his performance by having his keyboard destroyed after noticing he was pretending to be blind in front of the small crowd. During the chase, Tom accidentally bumps into Kayla Forrester, a woman who has been doing odd jobs. When entering the Royal Hotel, she steals someone's resume to apply for a job there. The owner and manager Henry Dubros (Rob Delaney) is so impressed of it he decides to hire her as assistant to event manager Terrence Mendoza, as the hotel is hosting a wedding for the famous couple of Ben and Preeta (Pallavi Sharda). Just as Kayla is hired, Jerry takes secret residence in the hotel to continue the usual shenanigans of stealing food and other items. When the mouse gets spotted, she volunteers to capture it without any resident knowing, impressing Henry again but Terrence grows jealous of her quickly. Tom eventually finds Jerry at the hotel as well but has a hard time getting the drop on him due to encountering Ben's dog Spike (Bobby Cannavale). When he does get to him, he trashes one of the hotel rooms. Kayla discovers the destruction caused by both characters but befriends with the cat to get the mouse together. She convinces DuBrois to allow the feline to help. At one point, Jerry seems to be kicked out but finds a way back in. Kayla ends up befriending with Preeta by helping keep her cover that she lost the engagement ring. She finds Jerry with it but only offers to return it if allowed to stay in the hotel. Before she can agree, Terrence comes back from walking Spike. The dog, cat and mouse destroy the lobby in another act of conflict. But Terrence ends up getting blamed for it and is put on leave. This leads to Kayla taking over as event manager. After returning the ring to Preeta, she tells Tom & Jerry to stay away from the wedding and get along for at least this one day, They agree to it but it is short lived when both are taken to the pound for inadvertently interrupting a baseball game. When Terrence discovers this on the news, this becomes his chance to intervene. He bails them out separately and convinces them to attack each other during the wedding, which will ruin the event and get Kayla fired. This ultimately works as not only did those things happen, but it has Preeta decide to call off getting married to Ben. Tom & Jerry put their differences aside and try to make try to make things right by helping Kayla ensure the wedding to happen. Kayla convinces Ben and company to go to Central Park while Tom & Jerry convince Preeta to do the same by abducting her cat Toodles. It works because as both sides arrive, the couple open up to each other before officially marrying. As Terrence and Kayla keep their jobs, the woman with the stolen resume also gets hired to work at the hotel. While a newlywed couple lives happily ever after, the film ends with the titular duo continue their bickering.
THOUGHTS
I am someone who spent a fair amount of my childhood watching this animated franchise and enjoyed every second of it. Sadly, I can’t say the same with this movie. In all honesty, I knew it was gonna be bad in the first minute after seeing pigeons sing ‘Can I Kick It?’ by A Tribe Called Quest. I don’t think director Tim Story or writer Kevin Costello knew which direction to take it because this was all over the place. I like the idea of a hybrid film, where we see real life actors interact with animated actors. The problem is that I don’t think the visuals are good. The titular leads are fine but the same will never be said with the other animal characters. It felt that they were trying way too hard to present this as a modern Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and it gets obvious the longer the movie goes. At this point, Mary Poppins Returns is easily the better modern hybrid film in comparison to this one. While seeing the titular characters together putting each other through hell remains timeless, I admit that the live action actors did their best on keeping the pace going. I’m not crazy about Chloë Grace Moretz but I really liked her as Kayla as she mainly presents her as one who wants to show her worth, that she can be a hard worker and was willing to do anything to show it. Michael Peña was funnier than I thought when playing Terrence. He got me off guard portraying this character to be extremely jealous of others stealing his shine and believes no one works as hard as him. Seeing him freak out on how things go awry sells the performance for me. I did not like Colin Jost at all as Ben. I don’t think he puts any effort with the fictional interaction. I also didn’t like the character at all because he is so annoying being obsessed on going out in style for this wedding and not even thinking about what Preeta wants. Add that with how he opens his wedding gift before the ceremony so selfishly, just shows how he doesn’t deserve this woman. He claims to be concerned of the wedding, yet he plays with one of his gifts before he even gets dressed. I know he apologizes of his ways but it was a hard pill to swallow seeing it unfold. I know it was wrong for Tom to fake being blind, but I feel like Jerry shouldve gotten heat too for stealing his thunder. Since the crowd didn’t know yet that the cat was faking it, they should’ve been booing the mouse instead of going along with his dancing act. The weirdest thing for me was how Tom had two different voice actors: Lil Rel Howery was his shadow Angel/devil, and T-Pain was his singing voice. I know that this character doesn’t talk like Jerry but if you got two actors providing a voice for him, you might as well give him speaking lines while you’re at it. Again, this script goes in so many directions that it was hard for me to enjoy the story that was in display. I have a hard time believing Kayla was unaware of the wedding. She may not read magazines, which is how she finds out, but she has a phone. And I’m certain she would know from there. I also cannot believe that the receptionist allowed her to get an insta-called for the interview when the woman she stole the resume from had to wait. Also, how is Terrance late on the news of the couple’s arrival? If he is event manager, he should’ve been on top of this. If someone else was supposed to tell him in advance, than that guy should be fired. And if Jerry stole a phone, where is the charger? I don’t imagine him stealing a dozen phones so if he’s gonna have a phone at his disposal, he should have a charger. Also, why did he have a window open during a rainstorm? If you want to fall out a window on accident, that’s how it’s done for a mouse and I can’t believe that didn’t happen when he encountered Tom. I know there are hotels that would use cats to take down mice and rats, but I don’t believe that an upscale one like Royal Gate would allow Tom to do it after the damage he made with just one room. Dubros should’ve bought/hired a trained cat to deal with this problem. And I can’t buy that Kayla saw potential in the car when he destroyed a room and failed to get his rival. I saw it coming when Jerry escaped the crate because he found his way back after getting thrown out of a window. My problem with his return was how he had a ‘Fragile’ sticker on him when Tom didn’t put one on in the first place. I mean talk about continuity errors. I don’t hesitate to scream ‘bullshit’ during a film, so believe me when I say that I screamed it pretty loud to the fact that elephants get sent to NY within a day and the hotel staff remained unaware & prepared until they arrived. I even screamed it again when Cameron figured out that Tom was trying to talk about Preeta & Ben when only drawing circles. He wasn’t even halfway done with the drawing. I don’t care if you think it’s luck, I would never guess an actual couple off of two fucking circles. Also, how come Joy is the only to spot Jerry’s door? I can buy that Kayla didn’t see it but I feel like the guests should have because it’s not like they don’t leave their rooms. I didn’t like how the museum was animated because that was about as unnecessary as the other animals. Ken Jeong normally makes me laugh but his character Chef Jackie was too much for me. I mean he was just dumb destroying the wedding cake he worked so hard on. Yes he spotted Jerry but he could’ve thought it through. Another weird thing was how there is an Instagram account for Tom & Jerry. This does mean that Jerry is likely managing it but is it the same phone? I really can’t get over this until there is a legit answer. I do wonder what the back up plan be if Toodles didn’t get the rope because they’d be screwed if they didn’t pull off snatching her. And lastly, why the hell is Droopy in a pound and why does the character even exist in this movie? This cameo felt as forced as the paused Easter egg scene from 2017’s The Mummy. To wrap up, 2021’s Tom & Jerry tries way too hard to be relevant in this modern time of pop culture. If you really love this franchise, I’d rather avoid it if I were you and watch their classics.
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