Tom & Jerry is a new film based on the popular cartoon that had its premiere simultaneously in cinemas and HBO Max.
Let’s dive into some trivia and facts about the new film.
- Tom & Jerry is a 2021 American live-action/computer-animated slapstick comedy film
- The film is marketed as Tom & Jerry: The Movie
- The film is based on the cartoon characters and animated theatrical short film series of the same name created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
- It is the second fully theatrical film adaptation of the characters following 1992’s Tom and Jerry: The Movie
- It is directed by Tim Story and written by Kevin Costello
- The film stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Michael Peña, Colin Jost, Rob Delaney, and Ken Jeong in live-action roles
- Nicky Jam, Bobby Cannavale, and Lil Rel Howery also feature in voice roles
- While the titular characters are voiced by William Hanna, Mel Blanc, June Foray (via archival recordings) and Frank Welker
- Originally intended as a live-action/computer-animated film in 2009, the film languished in development hell
- With plans eventually shifting to producing an entirely animated film, in the same vein as the original theatrical shorts, in 2015
- The film again became a live-action/animated hybrid in 2018, using the shorts as inspiration
- With animation produced by the Warner Animation Group
- While filming begun in 2019
- Tom & Jerry was theatrically released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States on February 26, 2021
- Along with a one-month simultaneous streaming release on HBO Max
- The film has grossed $5 million worldwide against a $50 million production budget
- It received generally negative reviews from critics
- They mainly criticized the focus on the human characters
- Though, the film was praised for the visual effects on the animated characters and faithfulness towards the original shorts
- Animation services were provided by Framestore
- They hired 3D animators with a passion for 2D animation for the project
- The strategy the animators used was to base the animation off a stylized 3D/CGI VFX modeling medium through a vintage 2D finish by creating innovative rigging, animation techniques used to create 2D animation, and custom tools such as lighting and rendering, resulting in the film’s 3D/CGI animation maintaining the look, feel, and spirit of 2D animation
- This was in the veins of the original classic shorts in the 1940s and 1950s
- The animators also used early Tom and Jerry shorts as reference and inspiration for the animation sequences
- Work on the animation was done remotely during the pandemic, with the filmmakers doing creative exploration on certain shots
- Finalizing material through production groups
- Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that the film holds a 24%
- Based on 42 critics
- With an average rating of 4.50/10
- The site’s critics consensus reads, “It isn’t the worst of the long-squabbling duo’s feature-length adventures, but Tom & Jerry is disappointingly short on the anarchic spirit of their classic shorts”
- According to Metacritic, which assigned the film a weighted average score of 32 out of 100
- Based on 13 critics
- The film received “generally unfavorable reviews”
- Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “A–” on an A+ to F scale
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