Tom & Jerry Movie (2021?)

My understanding is that it's set in a world where *every* animal is a cartoon creature. If you look at the trailer, you never see any real animals.

Of course, this means meat and dairy also comes from cartoon animals...

I don't really think they'd need to justify the cartoon nature of Tom and Jerry, but it's one of those things that moviemakers continually stress over. It's the same thing with super-hero costumes in super-hero movies; you don't really need to justify it (even though movie-makers continually feel they have to), the audience will accept that, as a super-hero, the character is going to wear a costume.

The power of Hand-Waving.

Edited by Robbery on Feb 16th 2021 at 11:33:00 AM

Probably one of the negatives of making this film a live action adaptation of the cartoon series. There's a sense of explaining certain things to the audience about why cartoon characters even existed in a live action world in the first place. At least in the case of Roger Rabbit and Looney Tunes, it's because they are in Hollywood and they are considered actors themselves, despite being cartoon characters.

I love animation, TV, movies, YOU NAME IT!

It doesn't look like the film is going to bother to explain anything, and as said they really don't need to.

In general, it looks like they're quite literally doing Tom and Jerry, just with the human side being live action. In the fiction of the movie thus far, Tom is just a cat, and Jerry is just a mouse.

Which is great, because it means they're sticking to the spirit of the concept.

As for the sneak peek, it's alright. It's funny, but there are times where it feels like should've been shot better.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Feb 17th 2021 at 9:21:26 AM

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

It's interesting that the plot of the film seems to hinge of Tom being contracted to remove Jerry from a hotel. The Tom and Jerry concept isn't really one that lends itself to long-form story telling; most film versions, if they don't dispense with the original set-up outright, do it fairly quickly. It'd be hard to make a 90 minute film that's actually faithful to the characters and their premise.

A new scene was uploaded on Twitter (not sure if it was uploaded to Youtube, as I'm not finding it).

It's strange to me how the female hotel worker berates Tom for having not killed Jerry yet.... but then immediately afterward speaks to Jerry as if he's an old friend.... even being on a First-Name Basis with him.

That's.... very confusing to me. It's like "Tom! Why haven't you killed that mouse yet? Oh, hey Jerry, what's up?" Um...

With all the memes about women choosing a bear over a man, Hollywood might wanna get on an 'East of the Sun and West of the Moon' adaptation

Maybe it's a case of keeping appearances or classic Cartoon stuff

"Bingo! If two species hate each other, they will wipe each other out on their own."

Maybe the film starts off with the female worker wanting to get rid of Jerry, but once she gets to know Jerry, she starts becoming friends with him. That sounds like an interesting premise.

I love animation, TV, movies, YOU NAME IT!

Somewhat related, but apparently brand-new series of shorts called Tom & Jerry Special Shorts appeared out of nowhere on HBO Max.

If they remind you of the recent and also HBO Max exclusive Looney Tunes Cartoons, I think it's because they share crew members?

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Feb 20th 2021 at 3:44:03 AM

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=13080225260A07640100&page=33#comment-804

I posted about this before, but yes, these shorts have the same people from Looney Tunes Cartoons .

For now, we don't know if there are any more shorts coming soon (considering these shorts were shadowdropped today, ten days after Puss Gets the Boot's 81th Anniversary). Showrunner Pete Browngradt only talked about these two shorts, and we retroactively know that fellow LTC staffer Michael Ruocco worked on these shorts two years ago.

That being said, there is an upcoming series known as "Tom and Jerry in The Big City" coming to HBO Max, according to this 2019 sizzle reel (starting from 1:36). However, we have not gotten a glimpse of news on the project, besides speculation that it could be taking after the movie, according to storyboard artist Dirk Erik Schulz.

This means we Special Shorts, the 2021 theatrical movie, In The Big City, and Junior to kick off the new decade.

Edited by XMenMutant22 on Feb 20th 2021 at 7:44:40 AM

Hey I thought the clip was pretty funny. As for her saying why isn't he dead and then talking to him like he's an old friend, he did have a ring which was leverage. She did say right before that she was calling in the exterminators, and did call him "a little con artist" when he showed the ring.

Edited by jjjj2 on Feb 20th 2021 at 10:52:31 AM

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Watching it right now. Kinda liking it so far.

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Seems like the movie has been sort of getting a mixed response. Critics apparently hate it considering the really low score at Rotten Tomatoes, but the animation community as a whole doesn't seem to think it's too bad. Maybe I'll take a watch after all, though I still dislike the choice of CGI.

"I like girls, but now, it's about justice."

I felt the CGI was actually gorgeous. I really liked the cel-shaded look and the fact that all animals in the movie were done in that way.

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I'm awaiting Thad Komorowski's commentary on the film (that is if he bothers to watch it).

With all the memes about women choosing a bear over a man, Hollywood might wanna get on an 'East of the Sun and West of the Moon' adaptation

My final opinion on it was that it wasn't a masterpiece, but it was perfectly serviceable.

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Just saw the movie and I liked it! Sure, the human characters were flat and the plot didn't seem to fit Tom and Jerry as a whole, but I had fun with this movie!

I love animation, TV, movies, YOU NAME IT!

I'd say it's pretty comfortably in the top 2 or 3 Tom and Jerry movies.

It's been 3000 years…

That's not really saying much xD

Yeah, that's a classic case of Overly Narrow Superlative. ;)

Yeah I was going to Pothole Damned by Faint Praise over that's not saying much, but it seems people have effectively beaten me to the punch. Still I did like it. I did not love it though. I'd probably give it a 6.5-7/10.

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Apparently Droopy cameoed in the movie and he didn't look to good. Poor guy.

"I like girls, but now, it's about justice."

He technically has two, though one of them is a darkly comedic reference that'll "put a smile on one's face".

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As a sidenote, Framestore wasn't the first 3DCG studio contracted to produce the film's stylized animation. Texas-based Brazen Animation uploaded a test animation of their bouncier, yet cartoony-designed take on Tom interacting in an excerpt of La La Land.

Interesting that the lighting in that test footage is more realistic than in the final movie. I guess they toned down the lighting to make it look more like 2d cartoons?