Let's be real for a second. When the first trailer for the hybrid Tom and Jerry movie dropped, the internet lost its collective mind—and not necessarily in a good way. Critics were sharpening their knives before the first frame even flickered on screen. They saw a live-action New York City, a "prestige" cast led by Chloë Grace Moretz and Michael Peña, and a pair of slapstick icons rendered in 2.5D animation. It looked like a recipe for a corporate disaster.
But here’s the thing. It wasn’t.
Most people approach these reboots with this weird, misplaced nostalgia. They want Citizen Kane with a mouse trap. But if you actually sit down and watch what director Tim Story put together, it's pretty clear he understood the assignment better than the reviewers did. The movie isn't trying to reinvent the wheel. It’s trying to crash a car into a wedding cake at sixty miles per hour. That’s the soul of Tom and Jerry.
The Problem with Modern Slapstick
Slapstick is a dying art. It’s hard to do. In the original shorts created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the violence was musical. It had a rhythm. You had the wind-up, the impact, and the lingering after-effect—usually Tom turning into the shape of a vase or a frying pan.
When you move that into a real-world setting, it usually feels jarring. Think about the Smurfs movies or Alvin and the Chipmunks. Those films often try to make the cartoon characters "grounded" or, heaven forbid, "gritty." The Tom and Jerry movie skipped that nonsense. It kept the physics of the cartoon world intact while the humans just had to deal with the fallout. Honestly, seeing a cat get flattened like a pancake in the middle of a high-end Manhattan hotel is exactly the kind of chaos we needed in 2021.
The plot is thin. It’s basically about a girl named Kayla who fakes her way into a job at the Royal Gate Hotel just as "the wedding of the century" is about to happen. Tom and Jerry show up, things get broken, and Michael Peña looks perpetually stressed. That’s it. That’s the whole movie. And honestly? It works because it doesn’t try to be anything else.
Why the Animation Style Saved It
There was a lot of debate about the look. Why not full 3D? Why not traditional 2D?
✨ Don't miss: Chase From Paw Patrol: Why This German Shepherd Is Actually a Big Deal
The choice to go with a "pop-up book" 3D style—where the characters have volume but are shaded to look like hand-drawn cells—was a stroke of genius by the Framestore VFX team. If Tom looked like a real cat, the violence would be horrifying. If he looked like a flat 2D drawing, he’d feel disconnected from the lighting of the room. By hitting that middle ground, the movie allowed the slapstick to feel "heavy." When Tom hits a wall, you feel the impact, but it still looks like a cartoon. It’s a delicate balance.
One thing people often miss is that the movie kept the characters silent. There were early rumors (and terrifying memories of the 1992 film) that they might give the duo voices. They didn’t. Tom screams—using the classic, soul-piercing vocal recordings of William Hanna himself—but he doesn't monologue about his feelings. Jerry remains a silent, slightly sociopathic genius. Keeping them mute preserved their dignity. Well, as much dignity as a cat who gets his tail stuck in a light socket can have.
The "Humans" Aren't as Bad as You Think
The biggest complaint with hybrid movies is always: "Too much human, not enough animal."
While the Tom and Jerry movie definitely spends a lot of time on the hotel staff, the casting helps carry the weight. Michael Peña is doing a specific kind of comedic "try-hard" energy that fits the tone. Chloë Grace Moretz plays the "likable fraud" well enough to keep the plot moving. But the real MVP is Rob Delaney as Mr. DuBros. He’s just... weird. It adds a layer of surrealism to the human side of the story that matches the absurdity of the cat-and-mouse war.
Is the wedding subplot with Preeta (Pallavi Sharda) and Ben (Colin Jost) a bit cliché? Yeah. Definitely. It’s a standard "rich people wedding" trope. But it provides a high-stakes environment where a single mouse can cause a million dollars in damage. You need a "straight man" in comedy, and the Royal Gate Hotel is the ultimate straight man.
Breaking Down the Action
If you’re watching this, you’re here for the fights. The movie delivers a few standout sequences that actually pay homage to the original tropes:
🔗 Read more: Charlize Theron Sweet November: Why This Panned Rom-Com Became a Cult Favorite
- The Central Park Meet-Cute: The opening where Tom tries to pass himself off as a blind piano player is a direct nod to the classic shorts. It establishes the rivalry immediately without a word of dialogue.
- The Hotel Room Destruction: This is peak Tom and Jerry. The way they use the furniture, the vacuum cleaners, and the architecture of the room feels like a classic 1940s storyboard brought to life.
- The Skateboard Chase: Using a motorized skateboard through the streets of New York provided a sense of scale that the old 4:3 aspect ratio cartoons could never achieve.
Critics complained that the movie felt like a series of sketches tied together by a weak plot. My counter-argument: Have you seen a Tom and Jerry cartoon? They are literally sketches. That’s the format. Expecting a tight, Three-Act emotional journey from a franchise built on a cat getting hit with a mallet is just fundamentally misunderstanding the source material.
Cultural Impact and Why It Matters Now
People forget that this movie was one of the first big "test cases" for the day-and-date release model on HBO Max. It made over $130 million at the global box office during a time when half the world’s theaters were still closed. That’s not a fluke. It’s proof that there is an enduring hunger for this specific brand of low-stakes, high-energy entertainment.
It also didn't try to be "edgy." There are no poop jokes (thankfully), and it doesn't try to make Tom and Jerry "cool" for the TikTok generation. It just lets them be themselves. The soundtrack, curated by Christopher Lennertz, mixes classic orchestral stings with modern hip-hop, which actually fits the New York vibe better than you’d expect.
What Most People Get Wrong
The loudest voices online claimed the movie ruined their childhood.
Nonsense.
Your childhood is fine. This movie didn't delete the 114 original shorts. What it did was introduce a version of these characters to kids who might find the grainy, 1940s film grain of the originals a bit too "old." It’s a gateway drug to slapstick. If a kid watches the 2021 Tom and Jerry movie and laughs when Tom gets his head stuck in a flute, they’re eventually going to find the original The Cat Concerto. That’s a win for animation history.
💡 You might also like: Charlie Charlie Are You Here: Why the Viral Demon Myth Still Creeps Us Out
The film also avoids the trap of making Tom "evil." In the best versions of the franchise, Tom is just a guy doing his job (catching mice) and Jerry is the one who usually starts the trouble. The movie maintains that dynamic. You actually feel for Tom. He’s an underdog. He’s a striver. He just happens to be a striver who is very susceptible to gravity and blunt force trauma.
The Technical Reality of Hybrid Filmmaking
Making a movie like this is a nightmare for the actors. They are essentially yelling at tennis balls on sticks for three months. Moretz has talked about how difficult it was to calibrate her performance when her "co-stars" didn't exist in physical space. When you look at the interaction—the way the humans "pick up" the animated characters—it’s surprisingly seamless. The lighting on Tom’s fur changes as he moves from the shadows of the hotel hallway into the bright New York sun. That takes thousands of man-hours of "match-moving" and compositing. Even if you hate the script, you have to respect the craft.
How to Actually Enjoy the Movie
If you’re going to sit down and watch it tonight, here is the mental framework you need:
- Turn off the "prestige" brain. This isn't Pixar. It isn't trying to make you cry about your dead ancestors or the passage of time. It’s a movie where a cat gets hit by a bus and turns into an accordion.
- Watch the background. A lot of the best gags happen in the margins of the frame. The animators snuck in tons of "squash and stretch" references that go by in a blink.
- Focus on the Foley. The sound design is incredible. Every "boing," "thwack," and "ouch" is crisp and pulls directly from the classic sound libraries.
- Appreciate the Michael Peña of it all. He is playing a cartoon character in a human body. Once you realize he's in on the joke, his performance becomes ten times funnier.
What to Do Next
If you’ve already seen the movie and you’re looking for more, don't just stop there.
Check out the Tom and Jerry in New York series that followed on Max. It uses the same art style but moves back to the shorter, bite-sized episodes that fit the characters better. Or, better yet, go find a collection of the original Fred Quimby-produced shorts from the 1940s. Specifically, look for The Two Mouseketeers or Solid Serenade.
The 2021 film is a bridge. It’s not the destination. It’s a loud, colorful, slightly messy tribute to the fact that watching someone fall down will always be funny, no matter what year it is or how much CGI you use to make it happen.
If you want to dive deeper into the animation process, look up the "Making Of" featurettes specifically focusing on Framestore's character rigs. It explains how they translated 2D "smear frames"—where a character looks like a blurry mess for one frame to show speed—into a 3D environment. It’s fascinating stuff for anyone who cares about how movies are actually built.