Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring

Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring
DVD cover
Directed by James T. Walker
Produced by Tom Minton
Written by Tim Cahill
Julie McNally Cahill
Based on Tom and Jerry
by William Hanna and
Joseph Barbera
Starring Frank Welker
Jeff Bennett
Charlie Schlatter
Jim Cummings
Maile Flanagan
Jess Harnell
Maurice LaMarche
Tress MacNeille
Tara Strong
Billy West
Music by J. Eric Schmidt
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Home Video
Release date
  • March 12, 2002 (2002-03-12)[1]
Running time
 64 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring is a 2002 animated direct-to-video fantasy-comedy film starring the cat-and-mouse team Tom and Jerry. It was the first made-for-video attempt to recapture the style of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's original film shorts from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and was also the final animated collaboration of both Hanna and Barbera and the last Tom and Jerry film helmed by the two men, as Hanna died at age 90 on March 22, 2001.

It is the first new Tom and Jerry production ever to be produced by Warner Bros. Animation (in association with Turner Entertainment). While the pre-production and post-production of the film took place in the United States, the South Korean companies Koko Enterprises and Seoul Movie handle the animation overseas.

Although it was originally first announced for release in December 2001, but due to a preview found on some Warner Home Video DVDs including the Scooby-Doo television specials and direct-to-video movies, it was released on VHS and DVD on March 12, 2002 (nearly one year after William Hanna's death). A Game Boy Advance game based on the movie was also made.

Plot

The story starts out with a haunted, creepy-looking mansion house, where Tom Cat, as usual, chases Jerry Mouse and breaks everything in the house. Meanwhile, in the basement, a wizard named Chip is making a magical potion. He uses his magic ring to make his potion, until he realizes that it doesn't work. Chip checks the milk carton that he used on the portion, but there is no substitution for the milk of a cow that lives in Calcutta.

Later, Tom ends up being thrown into the basement, and Chip orders him to guard his magic ring while he goes to Calcutta to milk a cow. If Tom does a good job, he'll be rewarded with a big juicy salmon, but if not, Chip warns that "there will one less kitty to clean up after here", which means that Tom will be kicked out of the house with no return for good. Chip leaves for Calcutta by using his motorcycle, leaving Tom to guard the ring in the basement. Unbeknownst to Tom, an interested Jerry finds the ring, while climbing the table and puts it on his head. Tom spots Jerry, and orders him to give back the ring, but to no avail. Soon, Jerry runs out of the house, and Tom frantically attempts to find and hunt down him.

After losing Tom, Jerry attempts to get the ring removed by going to a jewelry store owned by a diamond cutter. However, the store is closed and the owner has left to get some lunch. Tom sneaks into the store and disguises himself as a worker, using his tail for a mustache and attempting to help Jerry get the ring off, but meets with no success. He fails as well and he blows his cover when his mustache—and his tail—fall off, revealing his true identity. Tom chases Jerry throughout the store, and soon, the diamond cutter returns. Tom and Jerry exit the store. Tom destroys the store and ends up getting chased away by the owner.

Jerry runs off into a fortune-teller home, where an Irish dog Butch and Droopy are residing in. After seeing how lovely Jerry's ring looks, and including the fact that Jerry wants it removed, Butch attempts to pull it off, but fails. Tom comes in, and Jerry runs out, with Butch chasing after him as well. Soon, they end up in an alley, where an alley cat happens to be taking a nap. He wakes up and tries to grab Jerry for his dinner. Tom successfully grabs Jerry in time, and by flicking the ring on his head, makes random objects fall on a horrified alley cat. Butch then comes and is able to get the ring off Jerry's head after Jerry bites Tom's hands, which causes him to be sent flying to the dog. Tom and the alley cat then chase Butch and then wind up spinning and roll toward Jerry, and the ring gets stuck back on Jerry's head. When Tom is running away from Butch and the alley cat, he takes a shortcut to lose sight of them until he accidentally slips on a banana peel, which Jerry's ring then increases the size of; Tom slips on it again and rides on it toward the door of a pet store, leaving Tom unconscious.

A kind old lady comes out and brings the two inside, putting them in two separate cages. However, Tom is paired with Spike and his son Tyke while Jerry is left with two mice named Freddie (Muscles) and Joey (Muscles' dumber partner) who bully a younger mouse, cute and dimwitted Nibbles. At first, Jerry proves to be unsuccessful in trying to stop the mouse bullies from hurting Nibbles until he uses the ring to turn them into hunks of cheese. When the cheese mice escape the cage and Nibbles fails to catch up with them since he intends to eat them, Jerry uses the ring to make Nibbles grow into a giant mouse capable of breaking free from the cage as he grows and catch up with the cheese mice as they escape the store. An unnamed boy (only known as Junior) comes and buys Jerry as his pet. The boy plays with Jerry until the ring produces magic, melting Tom. Escaping the cage, Tom sneaks outside and snatches Jerry from The Boy's hand. The upset boy tells his mother and she tells the police officer, who sends police cars after the cat. Then, the alley cat and Butch, while still looking for Jerry, find Tom and they chase him. Meanwhile, Spike and Tyke get out of the building as well, but right when Tom steps on Tyke. At this point, Spike and Tyke are added in the chase. They run everywhere and Tom and Jerry escape by riding a bus. Suddenly, the bus stops and it reverses, causing Tom and Jerry to panic. The driver is Droopy, and then they are lost until the boy finds Tom and whistles, and the cat and mouse end up cornered in a garbage dump.

Jerry uses the magic ring to freeze the dogs, alley cat, and black / white police cars. Now that they are saved, Tom and Jerry return home, where Tom once again tries to get the ring off, but every time, he fails. Jerry hides in a kitchen cupboard and uses Furniture Ring Remover to get the ring off before throwing the ring in the basement. Tom gets the ring, but panics with fear because he realizes it is stuck firmly on his finger.

Tom hears his master Chip coming and tries to get the ring off, to no avail. Tom quickly tries to trick Chip into thinking Tom has done a good job protecting his ring, but his plan fails when Chip discovers that his ring is on Tom's finger. Chip, believing that Tom attempted to steal his ring, becomes enraged and angrily kicks him out of the house with his fury, where the ring immediately falls off Tom's finger, and as he is pleased to see this, it unfreezes all who chase him to his horror. Nibbles manages to join the chase as he is still chasing the mice who both turned into cheese. Jerry receives the salmon from Chip, which he then turns into a cheese by the ring's power.

Cast

Follow-up film

Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars was released on January 18, 2005.

References

  1. ↑ Godfrey, Leigh (March 6, 2002). "March 2002 Select Animation And Visual Effects DVD Releases". Animation World Network. Archived from the original on August 29, 2015. Retrieved August 29, 2015.
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