Since their humble beginnings back in 1940, Tom & Jerry from the classic Hanna Barbera cartoon has been causing chaos for over 80 years. Starting as animated shorts, before moving onto various cartoon series, video games, and movies (most of which were direct-to-video films), their latest venture takes place in New York City. 2021‘s ‘Tom & Jerry” is only the second theatrical film since 1992’s “Tom & Jerry: The Movie,” with the classic duo bringing their famous cat and mouse antics to the Big Apple, mixing a live-action setting and cast with animated animals.

The movie begins with Tom busking in Central Park, hoping to become a professional musician. At first, Tom impresses everyone around, leaving them in awe at the sight of a cat playing music. Of course, it doesn’t last long as his long-time rival, Jerry shows up who decides to try to bring the attention to himself, which leads to a crashing end to Tom’s dreams. Amongst the audience was Kayla Forester (portrayed by Chloë Grace Moretz), a street-smart woman on her way to try to land a position at the Royal Gate Hotel, a high-end 5-star luxury hotel.

Despite being highly under-qualified, Kayla manages to weasel her way into getting a position after a successful interview with owner Henry Dubros (Rob Delaney) who pairs her up with events manager Terence Mendoza (Michael Peña), to help set up a high-profile wedding being held at the hotel. With the highly qualified staff at the Royal Gate, hosting the wedding should be a piece of cake, but with Jerry making himself at home and Tom on the hunt for the mouse who ruined his music career, Kayla’s new career is soon to be put to the ultimate test.

The first thing audiences will notice is that every single animal in the movie is animated which helps them stay true to their cartoony designs. At first, it seems a little odd seeing animated pigeons, stray cats, and pet dogs in a big city crowded with normal looking people, but after a few minutes into the movie, they just seem to blend like normal and helps make it entertaining seeing just how far the movie goes with the animation. Even the seafood market is full of animated fish. This helps balance out the consistency of the overall movie, unlike in 2004’s ‘Garfield: The Movie’ which mixed animated and live-action animals. Of course, the real point of interest in the movie is how the title characters interact with the live-action cast and while it can be hit and miss, it is still overall entertaining.

The cat and mouse duo have the most interactions with Kayla and Chloë Grace Moretz’s performance of her while not terrible, just doesn’t quite mesh well and feels a bit out of place. The other cast members such as Henry Dubros, Michael Peña, and even Ken Jeong as Jackie, the hotel’s head chef, have far interesting moments with Tom & Jerry, even with the limited time they get together on screen. Henry brings a lot of charm as the hotel’s owner, Michael does well as the very experienced events manager trying his best to hold up to his reputation amidst all the chaos, and Ken’s limited role as the stressed-out head chef adds to the comedy. Their comedic timing, seen in a lot of their previous work, just seems to have the best fit for a movie adaptation of the iconic duo, and it feels like the film could do with a little more of those characters and a little less of Kayla.

Ben and Preeta, the bride and groom staying and having their wedding at the hotel also have their own story in the movie, played by Colin Jost (also a comedian and writer for ‘Saturday Night Live’) and Pallavi Sharda respectively. The classic love story of the woman wanting to marry the man for who he is and not for his money is nice but doesn’t add much overall, as it feels like another reason to take the focus away from the title characters in a movie that already has enough human characters. However, Ben’s plan to make the wedding Indian-themed to respect Preeta’s heritage is actually a very nice and thoughtful touch and gives the film some extra diversity, without overdoing it by constantly bringing up the race card and helps make it feel more natural.

Joy, brought to life by Patsy Ferran, is the hotel’s bellhop with a very awkward personality and intends to add more funny moments but instead comes across as cringeworthy and a little annoying, making her another unnecessary character the movie had to make time for. Overall it feels like the movie’s extras did the film more justice than some of the main cast.

The movie of course includes a fair amount of scenes involving Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse on the big screen and seeing them continue their epic cat and mouse rivalry in the big city will surely please longtime fans while introducing new and young audiences to the iconic duo as they wreak havoc in the big apple, and put the big wedding and the Royal Gate Hotel’s reputation in huge jeopardy. Even though they have non-speaking roles, except for one scene where Tom sings, they’re still able to carry the story well through their actions and emotions while interacting with the other characters, their surroundings, and even using social media all while not being able to resist their urge to sabotage each other, bringing their classic humour to the modern-day. Other classic characters from the cartoons also star in the movie including Spike the brutish but goofy bulldog with a strong dislike for Tom, Toots (or Toodles Galore in the cartoons) the attractive female cat who Tom is head over heels for, Butch and his gang of alley cats who love to pick on Tom, plus other familiar faces also make appearances to add to the nostalgia.

While it may not be one of the best cartoon series to movie adaptations, ‘Tom & Jerry’ is still an overall entertaining family film perfect for kids and with a good amount of nostalgia to satisfy older audiences who grew up with the classic cat and mouse duo created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Even though this movie isn’t their first time in New York City, it’s still really interesting and entertaining to see the classic Hanna Barbera cartoon being brought to the modern-day. Tom & Jerry’s epic rivalry has now officially reached 81 years.

Written by: Sammy Hanson