SMR 334: Tom And Jerry

2 Comments

1. 

   SANDLERAGONY

   03/24/2021 at 4:03 PM

   They should’ve made an animated film, instead of this poor attempt of tacking-on the title characters into a useless marriage story & Chloe Grace-Moretz badly attempting humor beats. At least the voice acting delivers, it’s just wasted because the studio decided to waste our time, once again, with being scared that adults can’t connect to animated characters. That’s all bullshit, of course, because of countless examples from all the Disney subsidiaries have connected with comic book characters in live-action. I simply didn’t get this decision from WB on this, besides being stuck in their archaic ways.

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2. 

   btouch

   03/16/2021 at 10:41 PM

   Well, since I don’t know how to use the internet, let me respond to THIS episode.

   I pretty much felt the same way you both felt about this movie: I found the animated parts to be fun, but the live-action parts are all mostly bad and there are way too many of them. It wasn’t likely Warner Bros. would have done this as all-animation since they already make a steady stream of (middling) direct-to-video Tom & Jerry movies, but that probably would indeed have been a lot better. The movie wasn’t the complete disaster I thought it would be – I was very apprehensive to the idea of using cel-shaded CGI to animate the cartoon characters – but Good Lord was the screenplay flat and the acting basic.

   In reference to what Karen was saying about the lead role that Chloe Grace Moretz, frankly, doesn’t do a good job with, they wrote that part with “someone” like her in mind. However, to of the other actresses they considered – Isabel Moner (live-action Dora the Explorer) or Yara Shahidi – would have been far better choices.

   Karen’s choice of Tiffany Haddish or even Issa Rae, who came to mind when I was watching it, may have been good too. I think they were angling for a college-age actress, however. I also wonder if, considering Tom & Jerry’s…history, if they were scared to cast a lead actress of color.

   Speaking of Blackness, I was surprised how much culture Tim Story was permitted to bring to this movie as director. “Jerome A. Mouse” blasting Jodeci in his mouse hole is the absolute best moment in the film. Clearly he got to help pick a lot of the music (the irony is that he directed the video for Jagged Edge’s “Let’s Get Married,” which he uses in the movie).

   It also seems like he was the one who hired T-Pain to play Tom’s singing voice and Lil’ Rel Howery to play Tom’s shoulder angel/devil. The alley cats are voiced by Kevin Hart’s Plastic Cup Boyz clique (just not Kevin himself), except for the lead (Butch), who’s voiced by a Latin musician named Nicky Jam. It’s weird people accused the movie of blackface and of pandering to modern kids (with 20 and 30 year old R&B and rap songs?) Many didn’t seem to consider that perhaps the movie had a Black producer/director, but my friends repeatedly remind me that no one reads even opening credits. At any rate, I’d much rather hear Tribe than the random white rock “classic” songs producers often stuff animated movies like “Megamind” and such with.

   I was still shocked at just how well this movie did at the box office. People really risked COVID to see this movie – which they could have watched at home – and they enjoyed it! (80% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes vs. 24% from critics) Oh well. Good for them, but they can’t pull this twice.

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