Tom & Jerry Movie Review - Wacky Animal Antics

Tom & Jerry takes place in an alternate universe in which all animals are animated characters interacting with live humans. In NYC, young conwoman Kayla (Chloë Grace Moretz) tries but can’t seem to hold a job until she cons her unqualified way into a temporary post as an event planner/supervisor at a posh hotel during the wedding of the century.

Tom and Jerry are always fightingCourtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Meanwhile mouse Jerry can’t find a decent place to live. He moves into the hotel after encountering his old nemesis Tom and scuffling with him. Kayla is told to get rid of Jerry before any wedding guests see him. She hires Tom to do the job but will the old enemies wreck the hotel and get Kayla fired? 

Tom and Jerry in NYC

Cat Tom, who plays keyboard and is booked for a John Legend concert at Madison Square Garden, rides into NYC on a train while mouse Jerry is shown various unlivable “apartments” by a sleazy mouse real estate agent. The old enemies collide in Central Park where Tom is pretending to be blind and playing keyboard for tips. Needing more money for his apartment, Jerry gets more tips than Tom by dancing to Tom’s music. A fight ensues between the two that wrecks Tom’s keyboard.

Tom and Jerry in the cityCourtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

At the Hotel

After Tom bumps into bike messenger girl Kayla, she spills her load of freshly washed laundry and she is fired.

Tom has knocked over bike messenger KaylaCourtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Tom follows Jerry to the posh Royal Gate Hotel where the tiny mouse enters while bigger Tom is stuck outside. Kayla goes in to munch at the free lobby buffet where she meets an English woman who is there to interview for a job as event planner for an upcoming big celebrity wedding between Preeta (Pallavi Sharda) and Ben (Colin Jost… think Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas). Kayla cleverly cons the woman out of her impressive resume and applies for the job herself. Meanwhile, Tom has to get away from a rough gang of street cats while Jerry starts setting up house in the walls of the hotel.

A tough cat street gang is after TomCourtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

New Job

Kayla impresses the Hotel Manager (Rob Delaney) but Events Manager Terence (Michael Peña) isn’t thrilled with her. Still, she is hired. She’ll stay in the hotel for a week and help with the big wedding. She gets a uniform and Terence shows her around while Jerry keeps furnishing his new pad with whatever he can steal and Tom tries everything to get into the hotel.

Jerry won't let Tom into the hotelCourtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Kayla is introduced to Head Chef Jackie (Ken Jeong) who is a holy terror, a doorman who knows she is lying about herself, strange bellgirl Joy (Patsy Ferran) and cute bartender Cameron (Jordan Bolger). The wedding couple enters with luggage and their pets Spike the bulldog and Toots the pampered cat. Jerry spots a giant diamond engagement ring on Preeta’s finger… hummm, more money for posher digs. He must have it! Toots warms up to Kayla while Jerry is seen in the kitchen freaking out the chef. We can’t have a rodent infestation!

Spike enters the hotel with owner BenCourtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Catch that Mouse!

Kayla is given the job of getting rid of the mouse before he appears to hotel guests. An early attempt at a trap is laughed at by Jerry as he eats the offered cheese.

A trap won't stop JerryCourtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Tom’s attempts at getting into the hotel finally succeed after many crazy failures and he and Jerry trash a hotel room in their chase but Kayla convinces management to let her hire Tom to take care of the mouse problem. Hey he is a natural mouse predator! Toots turns out to be more vicious than sweet although Tom is smitten with her, and bulldog Spike is used by Jerry to make life miserable for Tom.

Spike is after TomCourtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Wedding Woes

Bridegroom Ben is trying way too hard to make this a huge extravaganza wedding while Preeta doesn’t need it.

Preeta would rather have a smaller weddingCourtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

They open wedding gifts and Preeta admits to Kayla that she has lost her huge engagement ring. When Ben finds out, Kayla covers for her saying that it is being cleaned. Kayla sees that Jerry has the ring. He won’t give it back unless he is allowed to live in the hotel. All the animals get into a huge fight that wrecks the hotel lobby and Terence is blamed and sent on leave while Kayla is promoted to run the wedding festivities when she gets Preeta’s lost ring back.

Tom and Jerry trash a hotel room in their fightCourtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

On the Town

Kayla convincesTom and Jerry to try to be friendly and they hit the town taking selfies and enjoying themselves enough to get thrown into animal jail where Terence, who wants Kayla out, convinces them to return to the hotel to raise heck and mess up the wedding.

Terence convinces Tom to make a mess of the weddingCourtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Two elephants are trucked in for the bride and groom to ride into their East Indian-themed wedding along with peacocks and a tiger!

Preeta and Ben ride in on elephantsCourtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

With all these critters combine with Tom and Jerry in one room, surely chaos with ensue. Will Terence win and Kayla lose her job? Will the bride and groom keep arguing about the size of the wedding? Will Tom and Jerry ever stop fighting?

Preeta and Ben (Colin Jost) pose for wedding picturesCourtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Wrapping Up

Although the crazy, slapstick, animation-violent cat and mouse action will probably please fans who grew up with the Tom and Jerry duo, the attempt to mix a live action/human story with animated animal antics, in this case, doesn’t result in achieving either unlike the classic 1988 comedy/mystery Who Framed Roger Rabbit. That one gave us a human sleuth unravelling a clever mystery along with creative cartoon battles.

Tom and Jerry can be friends for a whileCourtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

The story/script is at fault. Characters are under-developed. Joy the Bellgirl shows funny promise but this goes nowhere and a hinted-at romance between lead Kayla and cute bartender Cameron is abandoned in mid-flirt. Ken Jeong, who can be hilarious, doesn’t get the chance here either nor does bridegroom straight man played by talented “Saturday Night Live’s” Colin Jost.  All of these characters are just support/props for very repetitive cat and mouse chase and fight action. This is not the actors’ fault. All do their best.

Kayla tells Tom and Jerry to be friendly at least for the weddingCourtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

There are lots of very cute supporting animated animals. Two elephants brought in to be part of the wedding extravaganza are sweetly funny and a bulldog and cat familiar to fans of the old cartoon series, are also appealing.

Some may object to the rather violent animated chase/fight action but Tom and Jerry are no more violent than Wiley Coyote and the Roadrunner. As long as younger kids realize that real animals do not recover from real-life violence, they can just enjoy the silliness.

Tom & Jerry has appealing animated animals, earnest actors doing their best and a few fun sequences but it could have been better. We award three stars.

Tom & Jerry Movie Rating: 

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

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