My Movie Review on Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992) · 4:42pm Apr 4th, 2023
Greetings and salutations, my friends.
This is your top-of-the-line film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.
Today, I'm gonna give you guys my take of "Tom and Jerry: The Movie". The film from 1992, to be exact.
Here's the rundown of it:
After he's accidentally left behind by his owners in the midst of a moving trip, Tom the Cat is forced to rummage through the streets just to make a living, with the unwelcome company of Jerry the Mouse following from afar.
During their travel through the streets, Tom and Jerry encounter an orphaned girl named Robyn Starling, who's forced to live under the company of her cruel guardian, Pristine Figg, who also has a chubby dog named Ferdinand. When Tom and Jerry later discover that Robyn's father is alive, they decide to work together in helping Robyn escape Mrs. Figg and reunite with her father.
After I did my review of the 2021 "Tom & Jerry" movie a couple years ago, I put doing an analysis of its 1992 predecessor on my to-do list. Of course, after I became more interested in reviewing other movies outside of it, I ultimately cast this one aside until my review-pile lessened. Obviously, it worked quite well, because now I can turn my attention more to this movie without feeling distracted.
And I really can't lie, I used to watch the 1992 "Tom and Jerry" movie many times as a kid. When Blockbuster was still open for business, I often borrowed the DVD copy they had simply because I was a big fan of the old Tom and Jerry cartoons. Basically, I was nostalgia-baited by the film. As I got older, though, I began to take greater note of how much this movie departed from its source material, and that was before I became aware of the negative reputation it received. This factor in question caused me to be uncertain over how I felt about the movie in general, although I didn't want to review it without giving a rewatch first.
Coming from a guy who finally rewatched the 1992 "Tom and Jerry" movie via a free cartoon website recently...well, let's just say there's a reason for why I prefer the 2021 "Tom & Jerry" film more.
For instance, the direction by Phil Roman, and the story by Dennis Marks, were aggressively mediocre.
Considering Roman's background directing various members of the Charlie Brown & Garfield franchises, and Dennis Marks's previous work as a writer for "Tom & Jerry Kids", you'd think that they'd make this movie faithful to its predecessors and give it a sense of charm. Instead, Roman and Marks created a movie that literally didn't feel like a Tom and Jerry movie; rather, it seemed more like a Disney-wannabe with Tom & Jerry in the name and some imposters posing as them, and if you replaced them with characters that are completely different and original there really wouldn't have been much of a difference. In many ways, the film's opening credits and beginning gave the impression that it was truly going to live up to the franchise's legacy and fame, and everything seemed to be off on a promising start. But then, after the titular duo meet Pugsy the Dog and Frankie the Flea, and both title characters started talking, the entire movie went way down from what was likely promised.
On top of this, the teamup and friendship-growing aspect between Tom and Jerry was severely misplaced. Granted, there were many occasions in the franchise where that happened, and there were times where the whole thing worked quite well, such as in the 2021 film of the same name. In the 1992 film, though, not so much. If Roman and Marks really wanted to make a story where Tom and Jerry team up for something, a more logical reason would've been for a cross-country journey to locate and reunite with Tom's original owners. The idea in general may be simple, but it'd also make sense and would've made the plot much more engaging; the first act even seemed to provide the right start for such a story. But no, Roman and Marks decided to have Tom & Jerry be subjects of a plot reminiscent of the two "Rescuers" movies by Disney, and the entirety of that was needless and felt like it was just shoved in at the last minute.
The rest of the aspects in the story and direction weren't well-done either. The beginning and end of the movie did graciously showcase the franchise's visual comedy style, and so did the kitchen scene Tom & Jerry shared with Ferdinand the Dog, but other than that...the overall humor was either flat or by-the-numbers. Despite Roman and Marks also trying to give the story heart and emotion, as well as some morals to live by, the film was completely soulless and I couldn't get what it was trying to teach in the long run.
As for the characters and voice acting, they were mediocre at best.
Don't get me wrong, Richard Kind is a wonderful performer, and I'm sure Dana Hill was a brilliantly-talented actress. As the voices of Tom & Jerry, though, Kind and Hill were bizarrely miscast; and not only were their performances annoying, but they didn't give the two title characters any sense of personality or texture. Tom and Jerry themselves hardly had any sort of development throughout the film either, that's for sure.
Likewise, the film's new characters were far from appealing. Some of them were forgettable, others were irritable. None of them even had a remote sense of development or personality, and there are so many other things to criticize about each of them that I may as well make a separate post simply to explain what they are. The vocal performances of the people portraying them certainly didn't help the new characters be any more enjoyable, because each cast member sounded like they were involved simply to make a quick buck.
The one thing I won't deny, though, is that the late Tony Jay was the only one who managed to make a remotely decent impression. Portraying the part of Lickboot the lawyer, his deliveries in dialogue, deep voice, and theatricality are always quite welcoming. He can make any sort of line he's given into a memorable quote, and I highly doubt that anyone else would've done better for the role. Heck, I don't think a certain line featured in this video here would've become so meme-worthy if not for Jay taking on the part:
One thing's for sure, the 1992 "Tom and Jerry" demonstrated why Tony Jay is such a vocal legend, even after his death in 2006.
Moving on from that...
The animation was also a mixed bag.
For a movie made under a 3½ million dollar budget, and with clearly limited resources, the visuals were beautiful and had a liveliness that made them all-the-more engaging. Everything about it also had the look and feel of a storybook, and it was remarkably reminiscent of the early works done by Walt Disney and Don Bluth. At the same time, the animation honorably captured the style of the classics, only with a more cinematic quality.
The only problem is that there were some animation errors that were impossible to overlook, such as some brief moments where Tom's muzzle is grey instead of white. Other than that, the character animations of Pristine Figg and Dr. Applecheek often ranged from decent to ugly, because they'd form over-the-top expressions that'd be extremely creepy and cringy. A factor that isn't helped by the performances of the late Charlotte Rae and Henry Gibson.
Finally, it all comes down to the music by Henry Mancini, and the songs by him and Leslie Bricusse.
Score-wise, Mancini truly rocked the house with creating the music for this motion picture, especially considering it was the second and final animated film he composed for. Admittedly, I do believe that his work for Disney's "The Great Mouse Detective" was the superior of the two, but his score for the 1992 "Tom and Jerry" film was fun in its own way. It felt precisely like the kind a movie about the titular duo would have, and it wasn't without personality either.
Unfortunately, the songs were a mixed bag. There were three songs that I found to be delightful, and three others that were forgettable. "Friends to the End", "What Do We Care? (The Alley Cats' Song)", and "(Money is Such) A Beautiful Word" were the songs I enjoyed because they each had lyrics and melodies that made them so fun and pleasing to the ears. But, "God's Little Creatures", "I Miss You (Robyn's Song)", and "I've Done It All" were the ones I found to be the complete opposite of the other three songs I mentioned, particularly to where they were openly lackluster.
In conclusion, aside from having some noteworthy highlights, the 1992 "Tom and Jerry" movie is nothing more than a poorly-thought disgrace to the franchise of the same name. It showcases terrible filmmaking and decisions at their finest, carries little-to-no faithfulness to the source material, and it's one non-Disney animated feature that I'd recommend skipping entirely more than checking out.
So, I rate the 1992 "Tom and Jerry" movie a solid two out of five stars.
And believe me, this is just me being merciful thanks to the highlights I mentioned.
We've got to have... money
I certainly liked it better than any of the non talking ones that followed. Although those two will always hate each other at least they did put it aside for Robin until she was safe and sound.
Definitely one of the most annoying, cringeworthy animated films in existence.
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Tell me about it. And that’s even despite the highlights.
I haven't seen it fully.
This movie is a guilty pleasure for me.
If I remember there were highlights from this movie, specifically when it felt like Tom and Jerry.