Line #46 WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryANutcrackerTale


1	[[quoteright:258:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tom_and_jerry_a_nutcracker_tale_cover_6.jpg]]
2	''Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker's Tale'' is DirectToDVD film starring ''Franchise/TomAndJerry'' in a retelling of ''Theatre/TheNutcracker''.
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4	The movie begins with Jerry and his little nephew Tuffy watching the Christmas ballet in New York City, while a group of cats, including Tom, in an alley overlooking the Empire State Building, sing a song for the Cat King. Later, Jerry goes to the empty stage floor, where magic begins to happen. Toys come alive including Nelly the pony and Paulie the Christmas Ornament. A Music Box ballerina named La Petite Ballerina also comes to life thanks to the magic, and Jerry dances with her.
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6	The stage is then transformed into a wintry wonderland, where the toys are enjoying a dinner. Tom hears this and he and the other cats raid the feast, trapping the toys and taking over the wonderland. Jerry, Paulie, and Nelly try to stop this but are stuffed into a can and shot out of a cannon, ending up worlds away. Now Jerry and his companions must venture to reclaim their kingdom from the cats before the sun rises and the wonderland becomes the cats's domain forever.
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8	This is one of the few direct to video movies to be dubbed in Vancouver (the same dubbing team as ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTales'') instead of the US.
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11	!''Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker's Tale'' contains examples of:
12	* AccidentalMisnaming: The King of the Cats mistakenly calls Tom "Tim" when he calls for him to go after Jerry.
13	* AdaptationalHeroism: PlayedWith. Jerry in this version is called the "Mouse King", but he is on the side of the toys. Instead, the role of the Mouse King in the original play is filled by the King of the Cats.
14	* AdaptationalVillainy: In most ''Franchise/TomAndJerry'' cartoons, Tom isn't villainous beyond chasing after Jerry, yet here he's shown partaking in the entrapment and enslavement of the toys. He's even been promoted to TheCaptain of the cat Guard.
15	* AdaptedOut: Despite it being an adaption of ''Theatre/TheNutcracker'' titled "A ''Nutcracker'''s Tale", the Nutcracker doesn't appear at all in this movie and his role is instead filled by Jerry.
16	* BigBad: The Cat King, who leads the cats' takeover and enslavement of the toys.
17	* BigGood: The Toymaker, who made each of the toys and supplies Jerry with an army of toy soldiers to take back the kingdom.
18	* CatsAreMean: Here they enslave a bunch of toys who have just recently been brought to life by magic.
19	* DamselInDistress: La Petite Ballerina is captured early on....
20	* DamselOutOfDistress: ''But'', she manages to escape after Tuffy sneaks her the keys.
21	* TheDragon: Tom who acts as TheCaptain of the Cat King's guards.
22	* FatBastard: The King of the Cats is noticeably more portly than most of the other cats in the movie.
23	* GoodAngelBadAngel: [[ParodiedTrope Parodied]]. Tuffy dresses up as an angel on Tom's shoulder to convince Tom not to go after Jerry and co., but after Tom glances at his other shoulder and becomes suspicious of Tuffy noticing there isn't a bad angel on it, Tuffy switches to a demon costume and begins arguing with ''himself'' to convince Tom to go after them.
24	* TheGoodChancellor: Lackey tries to act as this for the King of the Cats, protesting the King's treatment of the Toys, but after the King refuses to listen, Lackey gives up.
25	* TheGoodKing: Jerry's first action upon being crowned king by the magic is to host a feast for the now brought-to-life toys. Unfortunately, the cats show up to attack soon after.
26	* HeroicBSOD: Nelly leaves Jerry, Tuffy and Paulie out of guilt after telling the Cat Guards where they were heading, the Toymaker.
27	* HeroicSecondWind: But she returns during the FinalBattle to save Jerry and assist the toys in driving out the cats.
28	* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Nelly sacrifices herself to push Jerry and La Petite Ballerina out of the way of collapsing rubble, causing her to get crushed under it. Luckily, she gets brought back to life by the magic soon after.]]
29	* HyperCompetentSidekick: Tom, surprisingly enough. The King of the Cats is ultimately a fat, lazy, and whiny simpleton, with Tom being the bigger threat to Jerry and the Toys. In fact, it was Tom who captured all the Toys in the beginning and he becomes TheCaptain of the cat Guard.
30	* JerkassToOne: Nelly towards Paulie, particularly noting she likes him without his head, going out of her way to have her string pulled to repeat as much. This is despite Paulie not doing much, if anything to warrant such mean-spirited behaviour. (And also having his head gone, yet somehow able to hear her.)
31	* KingMook: The King of the Cats, obviously.
32	* LosingYourHead: Paulie's head comes loose quite often, though he later gets it tightened on by the Toymaker.
33	* MadDoctor: A cat named Dr. Malevolent appears as the Cat Guards are interrogating Nelly and states he can get Nelly to tell the Cat Guards where Jerry and his friends are heading to but, [[ParodiedTrope instead of torturing her]] as Tom feared, he just uses the pliers to pull her string to get her to talk.
34	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: [[spoiler:The ending suggests the whole film might have been a play put on by Jerry for the ballerina of the Christmas play.]]
35	* MeaningfulName:
36	** Want to take any guesses as to who the King of the Cats is the king of?
37	** Also, the King of the Cats's Prime Minister is named "Lackey" and as his name suggests, he's little more than a henchman and attendant of the King.
38	* MythologyGag: Multiple background cats are various cats from the Tom and Jerry shorts such as Butch, Fluff, Puff and Muff.
39	* OurDragonsAreDifferent: One of the worlds Jerry and friends travel through is a fiery cave home to several dragons, with rattlesnake tails.
40	* ThePollyanna: Paulie, who keeps an upbeat and cheerful attitude throughout most of the movie. He's a real ''[[IncrediblyLamePun Paulie]]''[[IncrediblyLamePun anna]].
41	* SantaClaus: The Toymaker is hinted to be him, as the calendar behind him has December 24th circled.
42	* ShoutOut:
43	** The King of the Cats' song is [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong a lot like]] [[Theatre/LesMiserables Les Miserables]]' "Master of the House."
44	** A stuffed bear in early scene eats honey out of a jar in a similar fashion to ''Literature/WinnieThePooh''.
45	** At the amusement park, the penultimate level of the hammer game is labeled "[[WesternAnimation/HeManAndTheMastersOfTheUniverse He-Man]]".
46	** After Jerry and his friends make their getaway from the Cat Guards by flying away on balloons, Tom dresses up like Franchise/{{Batman}} to fly after them.
47	* {{Slimeball}}: The King of the Cats' song, like its [[Theatre/LesMiserables inspiration]], doesn't paint him in a particularly favorable light.
48	->"King of the Cats, that's what he is.
49	->Takin' all our sustenance,
50	->like it was really his.
51	->Greedy to a fault,
52	->bully to us all,
53	->he'll only be your friend so you can take the fall."
54	* SlasherSmile: Tom does a particularly ''wicked'' one once Nelly was forced to tell the cats that Jerry is heading to the Toymaker.
55	* TemptingFate: Paulie pretty much does this as he, Jerry, and Tuffy are almost to the Toymaker's door saying "Nothing can stop us now." Cue Tom and his guard immediately appearing and blockading the door.
56	** [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in that as the cat guard are doing their EvilLaugh at their NearVillainVictory after mocking Tuffy about how they were so close and they failed, the Toymaker pulls a DeusExMachina opening his door and smacking Tom and his crew away, causing them to turn into a large snowball and roll all the way back to the kingdom empty-handed, so their effort was AllForNothing.
57	* VillainSong: Some verses in "King of the Cats" have the [[CatsAreMean King of the Cats]] himself [[CardCarryingVillain sing about how mean he is]].
58	* TheVillainSucksSong: A downplayed example with "King of the Cats", which calls the King of the Cats a greedy FalseFriend who bullies his minions and selfishly takes food from them. (Ironically, he doesn't seem to mind being called out for this; judging from [[VillainSong his verses]], [[CardCarryingVillain he's proud of these traits]].) However, it also says several times that he's undeniably "something special". What exactly is "special" about him is never really established.
59	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Dr. Malevolent is never seen again after forcing Nelly to give information to where Jerry and his allies are heading, seemingly only there, in the first place, to get a paycheck.
60	** All the townfolk cat who cheered on Tom and his troop, as well as the wildlife with them are never seen after their appearance, either.
61	* AWizardDidIt: The explanation for the toys coming to life is just "magic."

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