As mentioned yesterday, the trailer for Warner Bros. Pictures’ Tom and Jerry movie dropped today on November 17. So far, it’s not bad. It even shows the cat and mouse going back to the original cartoon’s roots as rivals/frenemies. Albeit, it’s bit more leaning towards the former now.

Ah, just like the good ol’ days.

The trailer for Tom and Jerry shows an interesting mixture of live-action and something rather like hand-drawn animation. The animation actually reminds me of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but of much better quality. Which makes sense, since Tom and Jerry has a 2021 release date, while Who Framed Roger Rabbit was released back in 1988. The animation is actually good enough that if they used any CGI for the movie, it’s pretty much impossible to distinguish from the traditional animation. For me, that’s a big plus.

Tom and Jerry dance around the poor event planner's legs.
Time to play “Spot the transition”.

The Tom and Jerry trailer even shows a seamless transition from live-action to animation, and back again. It can be really hard to tell when the transition occurs if you don’t pause, really. For animation quality alone, this definitely gets my praise. If Warner Bros. can keep up this animation quality, I’m sold on this movie.

Who Framed Tom and Jerry?

Tom and Jerry movie poster.
“Soon” in this case means next year.

Tom and Jerry even has a surprisingly complex plot to go with the high quality animation. While we don’t have any details of what the plot entails, we do have an official synopsis. It follows as:

One of the most beloved rivalries in history is reignited when Jerry moves into New York City’s finest hotel on the eve of “the wedding of the century,” forcing the event’s desperate planner to hire Tom to get rid of him, in director Tim Story’s “Tom and Jerry.”  The ensuing cat and mouse battle threatens to destroy her career, the wedding and possibly the hotel itself. But soon, an even bigger problem arises: a diabolically ambitious staffer conspiring against all three of them.

So yeah, the premise of the plot of Tom and Jerry has the cat and mouse start out as enemies. As for why Jerry would terrorize a big NYC hotel, that’s apparently his job. The trailer even shows him having his own business card, describing as “Jerry Mouse: A Mouse”. No one pays him for his job, but as the trailer shows, he enjoys some sweet benefits at the expense of the hotel. Which is probably why the hotel’s event planner hires Tom to get rid of Jerry. Unfortunately, while Tom is a decent hunter, he has to contend with a sapient mouse who can bend reality to his whims. Guess who wins in that contest?

It’s rather fortunate then that there’s a handy third party villain that all our protagonists can band together to face. Admittedly, this is the premise of virtually all the Tom and Jerry animated movies to date. Depending on how this movie pulls it off though, it could be touching.

Conclusion

The new Tom and Jerry movie just got a pretty interesting trailer to advertise its eventual release by Warner Bros. Pictures on March 5, 2021. Will this be the next Who Frames Roger Rabbit? Well, maybe, maybe not. We’ll just have to see the movie and judge for ourselves changed from its decade-long stay in development hell.

Source: Warner Bros. Pictures