Hey this cartoon friends? Yes, it’s been a long time … but fortunately, this is not any return.
This is the story of a cat and mouse named Tom and Jerry… that is what I could add when we know the basic characters? Yes, after years of adventures and misadventures of all kinds without taking a ride in a series of timeless many seasons under various artists, a first feature-length animated disappoints more than it pleases, new series, and tv movies revisiting other fictions that had nothing to do with our duo) they come back on the Big Screen in a reality similar to our own sides of the characters in flesh and bone to a new and original story-rich races-continuation and twists, so good or bad news? We talk about it without spoil, with good and bad points and it starts with these :
– : Jokes dispensable. I will be nice to be as objective as possible in my reviews, the humor is a subject on which the feeling is unique to each person and even if we come back to that on other points, I have to admit that some replicas for references +/- meta, modern technologies or the gag visually easy can irritate either the ears or the eyes. Whether the will is forced to confront the generations by their trends in the dialogues, the insistence on … “the natural needs” of the animals, even outside the field, or even winks to popular phenomena which do nothing that was not necessary. Some of the scenes want to be taken with a bit of a serious nature (for what little there is) and may be marred by a disturbing element.
– : Nothing and nobody is perfect. In the case of the human characters, the little to complain about, or what return would be that, by the time, there are some variations of the game of comedy. Whether Moretz, Pena and the rest of the cast, even if the context of the film lends itself to it, everyone has a right to his time “freewheel” with a facial expression exaggerated, on-game in the reactions and gestures, and the replica that bides (ex : quote of the applications or social networks, trying to look young, it is already very often corny but in addition, they verbalize with confusion, it’s embarrassing). Even the character of JOY with his gimmick doesn’t always fly and only Cameron, the bartender is the exception that confirms the rule.
– : Domestic scene edition Cartoon. Although the main plot remains focused on Tom and Jerry with a new character third party in the person of Kayla (Chloe Grace Moretz), a secondary is added in parallel. A kind of marriage of the prince, inter-cultural place in the hotel that attend our heroes (as in the trailer), and despite his need to fit the movie on an average, which conernera the bride and groom will seem very silly and very relevant even for the message it delivers. A print of addition to the issues of little concern that it would have been better to run uninhibited to the point when one observes the behavior of one of the two partners turned to ridicule, while a union is preparing. Also the moral around the couple in question is fairly predictable, and they still do not really of lesson, reinforcing this side to be inadequate by the universe of Tom and Jerry, who have their own well-better led.
And as we have come to the end of the bad by a moral forgettable start with the good points with a more deserving and keep the best for the end.
+ : Good will and perseverance are the keys. Although the plot around the character of Kayla agreed, it is not less identifiable and lets you attach that of Tom and Jerry in a seamless way. The turn of events is constantly being due to a combination of circumstances, circumstances in which Kayla is facing and kind of bounce with apprehension, but also insurance, not without fear, but not without confidence in it… This is a character flawed as most, but optimistic, it does not attempt to shoot the cover of the staff of the hotel or of the duo Tom and Jerry it fits because it has adopted the right mindset, even when it knows that it does not play in his favor and that she wants everyone deserves his or her role and title of a legitimate and good bottom he is even described by Cameron.
+ : Toons, or that of Toons ? Tom and Jerry is a cat and a mouse (if so, I assure you), and by that, I mean that we should see them as real animals of our reality, then it is the cartoons finally drawn characters and lively. Where any other film in the same genre (such as Stuart Little, Scoobydoo, Alvin, and the Chipmunks or more) would have settled for the duo’s self-titled for this kind of rendering, this film has it applied to ALL. Any breed of animal is spared (at least for a fake connection quickly subtle in the background that could escape any) that this is the flying animals (all types of birds) the land (canine, feline, rodent…) and/or even aquatic (fish of any kind) are all drawn and animated with the same touch of surreal.
An amazing array but surprisingly effective, and quickly adopted by the public, as the film love is a bit of fun but also play the self to the universe of the film: we are in a reality similar to ours, the only difference is that the animals seem to “toonés” …and this is how this is normal. If a dog changes the denture to move with an air of warm and docile to a more fierce and wild, he can do it because it is normal ; if a cat recovers its normal look intact so that it comes to be flattened by a massive object, it can do that because it is normal, or if a mouse pointer changes to a fairy’s house by digging a hole in the wall with a comfort fit to its environment, it can do that because it is normal. You do not ask the question in the films mentioned above, or others such as “Who wants the skin of Roger Rabbit” or “The Looney Tunes take action” where the Toons live together with the humans without explanation and there is no more evil.
*After all of our animals are capable of many feats: the parrot speaks a language articulated, the kangaroo has a front pouch pocket, the owl turns his head 360° … so why not ? The film will also (through its dialogues, the VF of the least which is very good your work) deal with the subject of the defense of animals without making too much of its crates…paradoxically.
+ : Return to the fundamentals. Do you want to fight about it ? You’ll have the fight. Do you want to chase? You’ll have a lot of chases. You will start with a bit of a gag? This is not what is missing and adds a touch of the interaction that can be supported with human characters, and you get a film Tom and Jerry live-action worthy of that title and to the height of the cartoon original timeless with its charm and success.
Nothing to do with the 1st film entirely in animation that was almost his duo main in the background and mostly was talking about… what this movie does not, with the exception of a scene from the song of seduction played on the piano by Tom towards a female, which was common in the cartoon original; Otherwise when Tom screams (of pain) are the same cries, when Jerry flute notes of the violins which follow one another, one of the two are outstanding in the top of the vacuum, there remains a second before falling down, a shot is given on the head, a bump is formed immediately and the recache as quickly by pressing on it… A scene with Michael Pena, however, stood out from the rest (in the manner of the generic intro) by the written text and extra-diégétique suddenly without any real reason and contribution, but it is a detail. A loyalty that is respectful of the base material condensed and yet well-distributed in 1 hour 40 minutes of the film.
+ : The Beauty of the Animation. Pass 2020, where the interaction between animation and live-action is going to make the animated characters to the 3D ultra-realistic to the point of losing the soul of the original characters, we are dealing in this case for a return to 2D, with a character design, corresponding to the more recent cartoons are better accomplished on our dynamic duo and encrusting to wonder, in an environment similar to ours. The play of shadows and lights is all to integrate the animated characters with just the right amount of credibility to whatever the background, in the middle of the crowd, in a confined space or even in the middle of traffic with traffic. If it happens once or twice to see the actors look in the vacuum or in a field against the field to help to lay their gaze on a point in space, everyone gets involved, extras included, when a staged dynamic needs to take place. A scene of “action” I was particularly marked and reproduced a second time in the last act, it is simply daunting as Joe Dante for ” The Looney Tunes take action “.
Certainly, we are not at the height of a Roger Rabbit but we have come a long way since Mary Poppins or “Anchors Aweigh” with Gene Kelly in a musical duo with Jerry (yes our mouse).
One last important point about the staging : the camera. I don’t think I remember, since the phases of the game in ” Ready Player One “, a video camera as well, “board” seems to be as fluid as the animation of the characters, to follow the latter in places as narrow, (even though it should have a share in modeling), in chases also rhythmic, indoors or outdoors, etc.. The story happens in New York or another big city of little importance because it focuses on Tom and Jerry racing or make a truce for the time of a common mission which is to go through all the paths and possible states and the camera manages to follow them wherever they go (together or separately) without the mounting is unbearable. You understand that it happens and it follows without difficulty that the different effects of rhythm, which return again to the cartoons of yesteryear.
Balance : if the film made 1h41, that I removed the end credits say 3min (rounding up) and I remove the attempts at humour failed either the replica or the visual (which can be counted on the fingers of one hand) we rest… 1 hour and 38 minutes of pure fun entertainment, as expected no more when we grew up with Tom and Jerry and it is nostalgic of this period a golden age for them, I remain as objective as possible but leave a chance to this movie, it is worth the price of a cinema ticket as the 1st animation. Good session for you and give me your feedback.
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