Tom and Jerry: The Movie

Tom and Jerry: The Movie
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Phil Roman
Produced by Phil Roman
Screenplay by Dennis Marks
Based on Tom and Jerry
by William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
Starring
Music by Henry Mancini
Production
company
Distributed by Miramax Films
Release date
  • July 30, 1993 (1993-07-30)
Running time
 84 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $3.5 million
Box office $3.6 million[1]

Tom and Jerry: The Movie is a 1992 German-American animated musical buddy comedy adventure film starring the Academy Award-winning cat-and-mouse duo Tom and Jerry. Co-produced and directed by Phil Roman, the film was produced by Turner Pictures and Roman's production company Film Roman and was released by Miramax Films and LIVE Entertainment in the U.S. Starring the voices of Richard Kind, Dana Hill, Anndi McAfee, Tony Jay, Rip Taylor, Henry Gibson, Michael Bell, Ed Gilbert, David L. Lander, Howard Morris and Charlotte Rae, it is the first theatrical feature-length animated film featuring the cat-and-mouse duo.[2] It also marked the duo' return to the big screen after 25 years. Although largely mute in the original cartoons the pair talk extensively in this film. Joseph Barbera, co-founder of Hanna-Barbera and co-creator of Tom and Jerry, served as creative consultant for the film.[2]

After having its world premiere in Germany on October 1, 1992, the film was released theatrically on July 30, 1993 in the United States and was a box office bomb, earning only $3.6 million against a budget of $3.5 million and received predominantly negative reviews from critics, mostly for the film's use of dialogue for the characters, musical numbers, sub-par voice acting, dark content, lack of focus on the title characters and slapstick and similarities to Disney's The Little Mermaid and The Rescuers, although the animation was mostly praised.

Plot

While moving to a new house with their owners, Tom and Jerry get into a chase resulting in Tom nailing Jerry inside his mouse hole with floorboards. Unfortunately, Tom misses the moving van and is forced to stay in the house after angering a nearby bulldog. The house is demolished the next morning with Tom going back inside to rescue Jerry, leaving them both homeless.

Wandering through the city, they meet a dog named Puggsy and his flea friend named Frankie whom they persuade the duo to be friends. While finding food from some nearby bins for a feast, Puggsy and Frankie are captured by two dogcatchers while Tom and Jerry end up in a tussle with some alley cats. They escape after Jerry fools them into falling into the sewer. The duo then cross paths with a 9-year-old girl named Robyn Starling, who has run away from home since her mother died when she was still a baby and her father was killed in a recent avalanche while on a mountain-climbing expedition; she has been living with her evil guardian "Aunt" Pristine Figg, her scheming lawyer and boyfriend, Lickboot and her overweight skateboarding dog Ferdinand. Despite Robyn's misgivings, Tom and Jerry persuade her to return home. After Tom and Jerry end up in a massive food fight with Ferdinand and stumble across a telegram confirming that Robyn's father is still alive which Figg hides from Robyn, Figg sends them to an animal shelter run by Dr. Applecheek, who turns out to be a cruel animal kidnapper and the true employer of the two dogcatchers who caught Puggsy.

Reuniting with Puggsy and Frankie in the cells, Tom and Jerry plan an escape, free all of Applecheek's captured animals (among them Droopy) and rush to tell Robyn the news. Elated, Robyn becomes determined to find her father in Tibet and they escape the city on a raft in the river but the raft is struck by a ship and they end up separated. Figg places a $1 million bounty on Robyn without even planning to give that kind of money while Mr. Starling is alerted of his daughter's situation and rushes back to America to find her.

Robyn is then found by Captain Kiddie, the owner of a failing amusement park and he houses her until seeing an advertisement for the reward on a milk cardboard with the help of his parrot puppet Squawk whereupon which he traps Robyn on a ferris wheel and contacts Figg. Tom and Jerry then find Robyn and they flee in a paddle steamer as Figg, Lickboot, Applecheek and the dogcatchers arrive resulting in a long chase that ends with the dogcatchers ending up trapped in the ferris wheel and Kiddie and Applecheek being left stranded in the river.

Tom, Jerry and Robyn then arrive at Robyn's summer cabin (built by her father) but Figg, Lickboot and Ferdinand have arrived first. In the ensuing scuffle a lantern is accidentally knocked over, setting the cabin on fire. As Figg, Lickboot and Ferdinand flee on Robyn's paddle steamer which goes out of control, Tom and Jerry manage to get Robyn to the roof just as Mr. Starling arrives in his helicopter. Robyn is saved but Mr. Starling is unable to reach Tom and Jerry in time before the cabin collapses. Fortunately, the duo barely survive and are rescued by Mr. Starling.

In the aftermath, Robyn is finally reunited with her father and takes Tom and Jerry in as her pets while Figg, Lickboot and Ferdinand are arrested and sent to prison. However, just when it appears that they have found friendship, old habits die hard and the duo resume their antics in which the film ends as Tom chases Jerry once again.

Voice cast

Music

Musical numbers

  1. "Friends to the End" - Pugsy, Frankie, Tom, Jerry
  2. "What Do We Care? (The Alley Cats' Song)" - The Alley Cats
  3. "Money Is Such a Beautiful Word" - Aunt Figg, Lickboot
  4. "God's Little Creatures" - Dr. Applecheek
  5. "I Miss You (Robyn's Song)" - Robyn
  6. "I've Done It All" - Captain Kiddie, Squawk
  7. "Finale (Friends to the End)"
  8. "I Miss You" (End Title) - Stephanie Mills
  9. "All in How Much We Give" - Stephanie Mills

Soundtrack

Tom and Jerry: The Movie - An Original Movie Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by Various Artists
Released July 20, 1993
2005 (rereleased and reissued)
Recorded 1991
Genre Film soundtrack
Label MCA Records
Geffen Records (2005)
Producer Henry Mancini
Leslie Bricusse

A soundtrack album was released by MCA Records in 1992 and included both the songs and score from the film, composed by Henry Mancini.[3]

All tracks written by Henry Mancini.

No.TitleLength
1."All in How Much We Give" (Stephanie Mills) 
2."Friends to the End" (Ed Gilbert, David Lander, Richard Kind, Dana Hill) 
3."What Do We Care? (The Alley Cats' song)" (Raymond McLeod, Michael D. Moore, Scott Wojahn) 
4."God's Little Creatures" (Henry Gibson) 
5."(Money is Such) A Beautiful Word" (Charlotte Rae, Tony Jay) 
6."I Miss You (Robyn's Song)" (Anndi McAfee) 
7."I've Done It All" (Rip Taylor, Howard Morris) 
8."Theme from Tom and Jerry (Main title)" 
9."Homeless" 
10."We Meet Robyn" 
11."Food Fight Polka" 
12."Meet Dr. Applecheek" 
13."Chase" 
14."Escape from the Fire" 
15."Finale (Friends to the End)" 
16."Tom and Jerry Theme (Pop Version)" 

Reception

Critical response

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an 18% approval rating based on 11 reviews with an average rating of 3/10.[4]

Joseph McBride of Variety gave the film a negative review, saying that "Tom and Jerry Talk won't go down in film history as a slogan to rival Garbo Talks."[5] Charles Solomon of the Los Angeles Times panned the film's songs and Phil Roman's direction.[6] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post criticized the dialogue between the cat and mouse and said that the voices "don't fit the characters". Hinson also stated that the musical numbers are "forgettable as they are intolerably bouncy and upbeat".[7]

Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert awarded the film "Two Thumbs Down" on their show Siskel & Ebert. Although they praised the animation, look and the truthful art design of the animated shorts, they neither thought that it was a good idea to give dialogue to the two characters, giving lack of more slapstick action from past cartoons and that the story was silly, even considering that the character of Robyn Starling takes most of the attention than the cat and mouse themselves. Conversely, Vincent Canby of The New York Times was more positive in his review, praising Mancini's score and the musical numbers to which he later went on to say that "[the characters of] Tom and Jerry have charm."[8]

Box office

Tom and Jerry: The Movie opened theatrically on July 30, 1993 in the United States and Canada alongside Rising Sun, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and So I Married an Axe Murderer.[1] Ranking number fourteen at the North American box office, the film grossed $3,560,469 worldwide making it financially unsuccessful.[1][9]

Other media

A video game based on the film was released for the Sega Master System in 1992 and Sega Game Gear in 1993, followed by a handheld game by Tiger Electronics released the same year.

Home media

The film was released on VHS and Laserdisc on October 26, 1993 by Family Home Entertainment.[10] The VHS release of the film was reissued on March 2, 1999 and was released on DVD on March 26, 2002 by Warner Home Video although despite receiving a UK VHS release from First Independent Films, no Region 2 DVD release is as of yet currently available.[11] As of 2018, the film has also yet to be released on Blu-ray.

Follow-up film

Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring was released on March 18, 2002.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Tom and Jerry: The Movie". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  2. 1 2 Barbera, Joe (1992). My Life in 'Toons: From Flatbush to Bedrock in Under a Century. Atlanta, GA: Turner Publishing. pp. 234–239. ISBN 1-57036-042-1.
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ "Tom and Jerry - The Movie". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
  5. ↑ McBride, Joseph (October 1, 1992). "Review of Tom and Jerry: The Movie". Variety. Reed Business Information. Retrieved September 11, 2011.
  6. ↑ Solomon, Charles (July 30, 1993). "Movie Review: Tom and Jerry': A Bland Cat-and-Mouse Chase : The formulaic story feels like a rerun and borrows characters from many other classics". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
  7. ↑ Hinson, Hal (July 30, 1993). "Tom and Jerry". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
  8. ↑ Canby, Vincent (July 30, 1993). "Movie Review - Tom & Jerry: The Movie". The New York Times. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
  9. ↑ "It's Tough to Stay Afloat in the Film-Cartoon Biz : Movies: Disney's hits prove that it can be done, but other firms lack marketing savvy and a competitive product, animators say". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-05-29.
  10. ↑ "Tom and Jerry the Movie [VHS] (1993)". amazon.com. Retrieved 25 January 2012.
  11. ↑ "Tom and Jerry - The Movie (1992)". amazon.com. Retrieved 25 January 2012.

Sources

  • Beck, Jerry (2005). The Animated Movie Guide. Chicago: Chicago Review Press. ISBN 1-55652-591-5. pp. 284–285.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.