Tom and Jerry, released as Tom & Jerry: The Movie in some territories, is a 2021 American comedy film based on the cartoon characters Tom and Jerry created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Produced by Warner Animation Group, it is the second theatrical film based on the characters, following Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992). Directed by Tim Story and written by Kevin Costello, the live-action animated film stars Chloë Grace Moretz, Michael Peña, Colin Jost, Rob Delaney and Ken Jeong.
After years of languishing in development hell, including a live-action film in 2009 and an animated film in 2015, a live-action/animated hybrid film was announced in 2018 with Story attached as director. Filming took place at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden from July to September 2019. Christopher Lennertz composed the film's score.
Tom and Jerry was theatrically released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States on February 26, 2021, alongside a one-month streaming release on HBO Max. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, and grossed $136 million worldwide on a $50‒79 million production budget.
Plot
A cat named Tom, who dreams of being a jazz pianist, moves to Manhattan and busks in Central Park, while a brown mouse named Jerry is in search of a new home. After Tom's piano is destroyed in an altercation, and Tom is exposed as a fraud and a regular cat playing the piano by the residents in Central Park all because of Jerry's antics, he chases Jerry, but accidentally tackles a young woman named Kayla Forester, causing her to lose her job. Down on her luck, Kayla wants to prove her talents and looks for a position at the city's fanciest hotel, the Royal Gate, where Jerry moves in and Tom fails to break in. Kayla, with a stolen resume, is hired to help plan a high-profile wedding and gets a tour of the hotel, while Jerry's usual antics involve stealing food and items to ramp up his new home, and Tom plans more strategies to enter the hotel and capture Jerry.
Local celebrities Preeta Mehta and her fiancé Ben are greeted, as they arrive, along with their pets bulldog Spike and cat Toots. All, except for Spike, are unaware of Jerry stealing from Preeta's handbag. As the couple and their pets are escorted to their room, Jerry's presence is revealed, which puts the wedding and the hotel at risk. Kayla offers to catch Jerry, but fails and realizes that he will be hard to catch. After many failed attempts, Tom successfully enters the hotel, and his ensuing chase after Jerry wrecks a hotel room. Due to noise complaints, Kayla comes to check and befriends Tom, due to their shared goal of catching Jerry. The hotel's owner and general manager Mr. Dubros hires Tom to exterminate Jerry, while Tom and Kayla's boss Terence threatens to fire them if Tom cannot catch Jerry.
After more failed attempts, Tom designs an elaborate mouse trap that gets Jerry out of the hotel. Meanwhile, Kayla helps with the wedding plans and learns that Preeta's engagement ring is missing. Jerry returns, to clash with Tom on the piano, and reveals to Kayla that he had Preeta's ring and agrees to give it back to her in exchange for letting him live in the hotel. Before Kayla can agree, Terence returns from walking Spike and notices Tom looking for Jerry hiding in Kayla's coat pocket, creating a scene that causes Spike, Tom, and Jerry's chase to destroy the lobby. Terence is suspended, while Kayla is promoted to event manager, for returning Preeta's ring. Kayla tells Tom and Jerry that they will have to get along and spend the next day bonding if they want to stay in the hotel, to which they reluctantly agree.
While Kayla takes care of the hotel and manages the wedding with the crew, Tom and Jerry explore the city, but are imprisoned at a pound, after inadvertently committing fan interference at a baseball game. A vengeful Terence separately visits Tom and Jerry and feeds them lies about what they said about each other behind their backs, leading to another duel at the ceremony that throws the wedding into chaos and destroys the rest of the hotel. After Kayla comes clean and leaves in disgrace, Terence evicts Tom, and Preeta renounces the wedding. Realizing that it is their fault, Tom and Jerry put their differences aside, and convince Kayla and the hotel crew, including a skeptical Terence, to salvage the wedding. The pair lure Preeta and Toots to Central Park, where the wedding is held.
Kayla promises to Preeta that Tom and Jerry have atoned for their behavior, and Ben apologizes to Preeta for his extensive expenses, in light of impressing her father. Kayla and the stolen resume's owner reconcile with each other and get jobs at the hotel, while Tom finally becomes a jazz pianist and plays the piano for Toots, with Jerry joining the party until a mishap causes them to fight again. In a post-credit scene, Ben receives a bill for both weddings.
Cast
Chloë Grace Moretz as Kayla Forester Michael Peña as Terence Mendoza Colin Jost as Ben Rob Delaney as Mr. Henry Dubros Pallavi Sharda as Preeta Mehta Jordan Bolger as Cameron Patsy Ferran as Joy Ken Jeong as Chef Jackie Paolo Bonolis as a wedding guest Ozuna as Assistant hotel staff
Voice and animated cast
Tom (credited as Thomas D. Cat), an animated blue/gray bicolor cat He does not have a speaking role, but T-Pain provides his singing voice, with archived vocals from William Hanna, and additional vocals by Kaiji Tang. Jerry (credited as Jerome A. Mouse), an animated brown house mouse He does not have a speaking role, but his vocals are provided by André Sogliuzzo. Bobby Cannavale as Spike, Ben's gray American bulldog Nicky Jam as Butch, a black cat who leads an alley cat gang: Joey Wells as Lightning Harry Ratchford as Topsy Na'im Lynn as Meathead Spank Horton as Ash Lil Rel Howery as Tom's shoulder angel and shoulder devil Utkarsh Ambudkar as Real Estate Rat Tim Story as Pigeon Announcer Jeff Bergman as Droopy (uncredited) Kaiji Tang as Tiger (uncredited) Kaiji Tang and André Sogliuzzo as additional voices
Other Tom and Jerry characters who appear in non-speaking roles include Toots, Preeta's shy beige cat and love interest for Tom, Goldie, the Royal Gate Hotel's goldfish, and Clyde, a large cat in Butch's gang.
Production Prior efforts On January 22, 2009, Warner Bros. Pictures announced plans for a new Tom and Jerry theatrical film, as a live-action/CGI hybrid film produced by Dan Lin with a script written by Eric Gravning, following the success of Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007). It would have followed Tom and Jerry's origins over a Chicago backdrop, where they reluctantly work together to get back home.
On April 6, 2015, plans shifted to a CGI-animated film produced by Warner Animation Group, with a script written by Bryan Schulz and Cornelius Uliano, who co-wrote The Peanuts Movie (2015) with Craig Schulz. It was about a young family who moves into a New England country house inhabited by Jerry and adopts Tom to get rid of him. The duo would team up to protect the family and their house from an outside threat, and learn the meaning of family and friendship. Cate Adams and Jesse Ehrman, who remains an executive producer on the final film, were set to oversee it.
Development and writing On October 15, 2018, Variety reported that Tim Story was set to direct a Tom and Jerry film described as a "live-action/animated hybrid," with filming set to begin in 2019. Story was in discussions with Warner Bros. executives about what he was interested in directing after finishing Shaft (2019) for New Line Cinema; when Tom and Jerry was brought up, he "immediately mentioned his admiration for the characters and how he'd love tackling that property." Story said he "could immediately rattle off my favorite episodes off the top of my head. I knew exactly which versions and which situations would work for a modern movie," and said a Tom and Jerry film was his "dream project" to helm. The film pays homage to many Tom and Jerry shorts, including Mouse Trouble (1944), Mouse in Manhattan (1945) and The Cat Concerto (1947).
In August 2021, Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) screenwriter Patrick Casey revealed that he was in discussions with the studio regarding the film, but ultimately parted ways due to creative differences. Casey stated he was adamant that "[although] you can have some human characters and they can have some stuff going on […] they cannot be the protagonists," and claimed that "[wasn't] what [the producers] wanted to hear." The final screenplay was written by Kevin Costello, marking his solo screenwriting debut after previously co-writing Brigsby Bear (2017). The film is set in New York City with a fancy hotel as the primary location; Costello explained that this provided "a much bigger canvas". Producer Chris DeFaria explained that the choice of location was because "there's just a lot of stuff you can break in a really fancy hotel, and a lot of people there who don't want to see a mouse or a cat, much less the two of them pursuing each other through the lobby."
Story was against the idea of making Tom and Jerry speak, believing that their charm largely comes from their silent behavior. Besides the original shorts, he also cited the films of Charlie Chaplin as an influence on how to direct nonverbal storytelling. He compared Tom and Jerry's relationship to a sibling rivalry. DeFaria described Tom and Jerry as "deep, committed rivals, but like brothers and sisters, they're both the most important people in each other's lives. Though I promise they would never admit it!" Story also hoped the film would appeal to longtime fans and a new generation of audiences: "Fingers crossed, if they [William Hanna and Joseph Barbera] are looking from above, they'll be proud of what we made".
Casting In March 2019, it was reported that Zoey Deutch and Olivia Cooke were frontrunners for the lead live-action role of Kayla, "who teams up with Tom to stop the pesky Jerry from ruining an important event for herself". Additionally, Jennifer Lawrence, Camila Cabello, Yara Shahidi, Kelly Marie Tran, Becky G, Isabela Moner, Kathryn Love Newton, Maisie Williams and Olivia Holt were all in consideration for the role. In April, Chloë Grace Moretz was in final negotiations to star in the film. Moretz described Kayla as "a lot like Jerry" and as "a girl who gunned for what she wanted to achieve but realizes that time and honesty is what will prevail in the end", as well as "a total goofball", the latter aspect allowing her to "lean into who [she is] in real life". She felt that the film "really does harken back to the Tom and Jerry we love".
Later that month, in March 2019, it was reported that Peter Dinklage was considered for the role of Terrance, Kayla's boss and the human antagonist of the film. In May 2019, Michael Peña joined the cast in the role Dinklage was eyed for. Colin Jost, Ken Jeong, Rob Delaney, Jordan Bolger and Pallavi Sharda were added to the cast in July. Patsy Ferran was revealed to be part of the cast in September 2019. According to Story, "Everybody was starting with a shared knowledge of these characters and kind of got what the movie should be". In November 2020, Nicky Jam and Lil Rel Howery revealed that they have been cast in the film in voice roles. On December 2, 2020, Jam revealed that he will be the voice of Butch Cat in the film.
Filming and production design