Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
I’ve seen the brand-new ‘Tom & Jerry’ movie on Google Play! I greatly enjoyed watching it! I made some movie predictions based on the trailer back in November 2020. It seems most of my predictions were correct and I’m glad I came away feeling pretty satisfied from watching this movie.
Over the years, I’ve reviewed quite a number of Tom and Jerry-related films and cartoon collections on ‘Bradley’s Basement’, especially in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic which we’re still currently going through – please keep safe. I’m glad that I’ve checked out those films and cartoon collections.
This 2021 film of ‘Tom & Jerry’ is a hybrid of live-action and cartoon animation. I’m impressed with how the cartoon animation blends in nicely with the live-action aspects of the film. The cartoon animation aspects mainly relate to the animals like cats, dogs, birds and elephants being animated. 🙂
This was interesting to see and it did put me in mind of films like ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ and ‘Space Jam’ where most of the cartoon characters were animated alongside their live-action co-stars. I know many people won’t rate this film highly as I do, but I found it really impressive to watch.
It helps that the film’s director Tim Story had some experience with producing effects-films like the ‘Fantastic Four’ films from 2005 and 2007. I also feel the movie harkens to the spirit of the original Tom and Jerry cartoons, especially when the characters don’t speak and are doing cartoon antics. 😀
If there’s one thing I would complain about the movie is that it’s too noisy in terms of its music soundtrack. I would prefer it if the film had a quieter music soundtrack and fewer songs whether they’d be jazzy or hip-hop. It would help with getting the film’s emotionally-fuelled moments across.
The film follows Jerry the mouse taking refuge in the Royal Gate Hotel in New York. Tom the cat is hired by Chloë Grace Moretz as Kayla to get rid of Jerry before an important wedding occurs. Soon, Tom and Jerry must put aside their differences to save the hotel, the wedding and Kayla’s career. 😀
I enjoyed the comedic slapstick featured in the film between Tom and Jerry, reminding me of the slapstick they had in previous cartoons and films. It’s also fun how Tom and Jerry can be understood by the human characters, especially when they can’t speak, making the film thoroughly entertaining.
The human cast is fun is to watch, including Chloë Grace Moretz as Kayla Forester, a young, confident woman who ‘lies’ her way to become an employee of the Royal Gate Hotel as well as the wedding planner. It was good fun watching her journey, especially in interacting with Tom and Jerry.
Michael Peña (who’s been in the first two ‘Ant-Man’ films of the ‘MCU’) stars as Terence Mendoza. He turns out to be a scheming event manager at the Royal Gate Hotel and becomes Kayla’s boss. It was quite funny how Michael Peña’s character ended up not liking animals, especially Tom and Jerry.
Colin Jost stars as Ben, the wedding groom at the Royal Gate Hotel, with Pallavi Sharda as Preeta, the wedding bride and Ben’s fiancée. It was intriguing to see how Ben and Preeta clashed in terms of wedding arrangements. It was fun that they owned Spike the dog (voiced by Bobby Cannavale) and Toodles ‘Toots’ Galore the cat.
Rob Delaney stars as Henry Dubros, the wealthy general manager and owner of the Royal Gate Hotel. I don’t know what it is, but from watching the film, he put me in mind of Jim Carrey for some reason. 😀 Mr. Dubros takes Kayla’s viewpoint more seriously than Terence’s who’s always sceptical.
Ken Jeong stars as Chef Jackie, who is a chef and baker at the Royal Gate Hotel. I don’t think we see enough of Ken Joeng’s character in the film and most of the time he comes across as an angry chef. It was funny when he saw Jerry the mouse on his prepared wedding cake and he soon smashes it up.
The cast also includes Jordan Bolger as Cameron the hotel bartender, Patsy Ferran as Joy the bell girl, Daniel Adegboyega (Hey, I’ve seen him in the ‘Doctor Who’ episode ‘Resolution’) as Gavin the hotel doorman, and Christina Chong as Lola the hotel receptionist. There are also appearances of Butch, Lightning, Topsy, Meathead and Ash, who are the alley cats from the Tom and Jerry cartoons.
I’m pretty sure I saw a Droopy cameo in the movie. A shame Tyke wasn’t in the movie with Spike. Apparently, the director Tim Story did the voice of the pigeon announcer in the film. Utkarsh Ambudkar (who I’ve seen lately in ‘The Muppets’ 2015-16 series) voiced a ‘real estate’ rat in the film.
Overall, the 2021 ‘Tom & Jerry’ film was worth watching. I enjoyed director Tim Story’s take on the cartoon duo. The result was a satisfying blend of computer-generated 2D cartoon animation and live-action featuring Tom and Jerry. It might not be for everyone, but I felt pleased watching the flm.
I’m sure by the time you read this review; I will have seen ‘Tom & Jerry’ (2021) a second time via Google Play. And yes, I did like that 1989 ‘Batman’ reference in the film as I did in the trailer. 😀
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
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