We were provided an early screening of the Tom and Jerry movie, free promotional items and an interview with the director, Tim Story courtesy of Warner Bros. Opinions are our own.

Tom and Jerry was a cartoon that I watched all the time as a kid. This classic cat and mouse team spent episodes trying to kill each other. Jerry the Mouse would always outsmart Tom the Cat. Now, Tom and Jerry are hitting the big screen with everything they’ve got in the new Tom and Jerry movie that is out today in theaters and on HBO Max. I watched this movie with Andy and he also participated in our interview of Tim Story. This was Andy’s first introduction to Tom and Jerry and he enjoyed it. I think he really liked all the crazy destruction that followed in the wake of these two.

Tom and Jerry have made their way to New York City. Tom aspires to be playing piano and singing with John Legend. Jerry is simply looking for a nice home. The two cross paths with each other and instantly create a rivalry. From there the movie follows their antics through one of New York’s fanciest hotels where they bring their own brand of chaos to an unsuspecting populace. The movie is part animation and part live action. Tom and Jerry are 2D animated along with all the other animals in the movie. They interact with the rest of the characters and the scenery really well. I thought it was pretty seamless as they destroyed everything in their path.

On the human side of the cast we have Chloe Grace Moretz as Kayla. She is a street smart young woman who is also part con artist but has a heart of gold. She finds her way to the same hotel and into a job coordinating a major wedding at the hotel. Here boss is Rob Delaney as Mr. Dubros the hotel manager and she works with Michael Peña as Terrance the head of staff. Terrance has his suspicions of Kayla and seeks to find out the truth about her and expose her deception. For her part Kayla is tasked with getting rid of Tom and Jerry which just intensifies the chaos.

I loved that there were so many of the favorite gags from over the years that Tom and Jerry have used like the iron to the face that makes Tom’s face the shape of the iron. Jerry pretending that he has something in his hands only to ball up his fist and punch Tom in the eye. There are a ton of them added to the movie and when I was able to ask Tim Story about it in the interview I asked if there were any of these classic gags that he wasn’t able to add to the movie but really wanted to add in. Tim really seemed to like my question because he said that there were a few of those things that he wanted to get into the movie. The first he thought of was where Tom would run into a wall and then his whole body would break into pieces. Another was the hot foot that would have sent Tom into the air like a rocket. We also followed up with a second question which Tim touched upon earlier in the interview but he further expanded on how the movie was made and how he was able to get the people to interact with the animated characters. They had a puppeteer on set that would control a greyscale puppet of Tom. The actors worked with the puppet. With the character of Spike the dog they had another puppeteer down on all fours doing the actions of Spike. I am glad that I asked it because that was a question that Andy had.

A major part of the movie is the wedding and with it comes a wedding cake. If there is going to be a cake there needs to be a baker/chef, someone who heads up the kitchen. That is played by Ken Jeong. Andy loves Ken Jeong because of his time on The Masked Singer. So Andy was thrilled to see him in the movie and Ken has some hilarious moments. One of them involves the cake and that is why we made a cake and smashed a piñata cake. Cake is very important to a big movie wedding.

In all it was a funny movie and the kids will enjoy seeing the antics of Tom and Jerry on screen. The characters of the human variety are good despite their personality faults and quirks. In all it is a light-hearted family comedy that I think people are going to enjoy.