*OK if you absolutely insist…

IMDB Synopsis

A legendary rivalry reemerges when Jerry moves into New York City’s finest hotel on the eve of the wedding of the century, forcing the desperate event planner to hire Tom to get rid of him. As mayhem ensues, the escalating cat-and-mouse battle soon threatens to destroy her career, the wedding, and possibly the hotel itself.

“I will not let this hotel be ruined by a cat and a mouse!”

Oh boy here we go again Juicers, another animation being turned Live Action (sort of?). This time it was the fabled Tom & Jerry’s turn to be given The Smurfs and Alvin and the Chipmunks treatment of Live Action/CGI. When I first heard this I immediately thought, I am not the biggest T&J guy, and I thought about the fact that those characters do not talk, and would that still be the case. Well, yes that is the case and it does seem to be one of the problems with the movie, but we will get into that. This is a Warner Bros. release that they are doing simultaneously in Theater and on HBO Max, so it is available currently for everyone to watch, which is good because it is a kids movie at the end of the day.

Since this is Animation I will be doing my Apple Juice Animation Ratings so lets just jump on it shall we?

Animation – A

I thought the Animation and the gags all actually looked great. I know Director Tim Story (Shaft, Fantastic Four movies) was insistent on the hand drawn animation look to keep the original look, instead of the newer 3D style. I think this was a great call because it does bring the nostalgia and in my opinion I just like the hand drawn look better. I mean come on, imagine if they looked like this…

It was also fun to see some of the other Hanna Barbera characters like Butch and Spike get into the mix, because it shows a love for that incredible HB universe that basically blew up Animation.

Voice Cast – D+

This is more talking about the cast overall because honestly it just felt like everyone was kicking below their coverage. The main two actors are Michael Peña and Chloë Grace Moretz, two people I love, but side by side with animation it just felt off to me. I also thought it was a miss not to have T&J talk because their gags work for 15-20 minute episodes but for a 100 minute movie it just felt like it was too much and could have used some personality.

Music – B

The movie opens with a Tribe Called Quest which is an interesting choice to say the least but brings you into the city vibe of the movie. The rest is a quick and vibrant score from Christopher Lennertz which definitely feels like a T&J movie. The other part that is interesting is the usage of the sounds in this movie. They all the old sound effects and did make me feel like a kid again her the zips, and bangs and the other fun sounds.

Story – D

At the end of the day a Tom & Jerry movie was never going to be about an overarching story. Tom tries to set a trap for Jerry and what do you know it never works! Of course though they do bring in the humans here to tell a story and mainly it is about a wedding at Royal Gate hotel which is run by Terence Mendoza (Michael Peña). When Kayla Forester (Chloë Grace Moretz) sneaks her way into a job, she gets entangled with our beloved cat and mouse and chaos breaks loose. Like I said above, just the constant traps that never work gets old after about a half hour and you are left with a bunch of likeable actors seemingly trying their hardest to make this interesting (spoiler alert its not).

*A couple other tidbits

• I did like the opening credits I felt like it did grab me into the movie.
• Colin Jost, (Randy Moss voice) CMON MAN

Updating a property like this that is over 50 years old was always going to be a struggle. I think there is some decent choices with the animation and keeping the original sound effects, but overall there is just not nearly enough story there for the amount of gags you get with T&J.

Juice Rating:

*You can find my 2021 Movie Rankings here.

*You can find all of my Movie Ratings here.

*You can follow my Letterboxd account here.