Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
Tom the cat and Jerry the mouse get kicked out of their home and relocate to a fancy New York hotel, where a scrappy employee named Kayla will lose her job if she can’t evict Jerry before a high-class wedding at the hotel. Her solution? Hiring Tom to get rid of the pesky mouse.
The 2021 Tom & Jerry film blends live-action and animation in a visually serviceable way, but the hybrid approach feels more gimmicky than inspired. The plot is thin and formulaic, wedging the classic cat-and-mouse dynamic into a generic hotel wedding storyline that adds little of value. The human cast delivers unremarkable performances, with Chloë Grace Moretz doing adequate work in a role that gives her little to work with. Cinematography gets a slight bump for the animation integration, which is competent if not groundbreaking. Novelty is low — while live-action/animation hybrids have history, this execution feels derivative and safe rather than distinctive. The ending wraps up predictably with no real surprises. Overall a passable family film that fails to capture the anarchic energy of the original cartoons.