Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale

Animation in our age imported the aggressive aspect of fringe Cartoon Network experiments from a decade or so ago. Gone the soft lines, the attention to detail that educates the children's sensibility and sense of beauty. Many cartoons feel like caricatures, and few new ones escape this curse. CGI deformed shapes fit the profile, too. That being said, this TJ movie is dancing on the edge of this issue, but manages to save its looks, and adds a great musical score to climb higher on the hierarchy. There is fine orchestration and perfect story/movements coordonation with the music - children and adults will hum the Nutcracker tunes for days after seeing this. It manages to be a good Christmas animation, with timely characters barely saved from the ugliness of modern animation.

It was nice to watch growing up as a kid. There was a great blend of slapstick and heart in this short. It's basically a retelling of the eponymous take we know just with Tom and Jerry so there's not much to say really. Even so, it's still enjoyable. I like the toys Jerry and stuffy journey with as well as the gags you'd expect.

If you have little kids, they'll enjoy it. Adults I think will like it to. Pop it in if you're in a jolly mood and see for yourself.

Looking at the new tom and jerry movie "Tom and Jerry:A Nutcracker Tale" you might think that it'll be awful like some of the others T&J movies that they have made. However this is not the case. If you are a purist as I am, and am a true fan of the original Tom and Jerrys then this is the movie for you. This movie written by Joe Barbera and Directed by Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone, has true character, and the animation from this DTV is surprisingly wonderful and impressive. The story shows real character and wonderful graphics to the music of the nutcracker. The real history behind this movie is that Joe Barbera loved Christmas Time. He always believed that the music of the nutcracker fit perfectly with Tom and Jerry. I can also imagine that this movie was difficult to make considering that T&J are hard characters to master, a small DTV budget, and creating an epic adventure that lasts more than more than 7 minutes. So you may ask "Did they succeed?", "Does the movie live up to the original style and humor in which T&J were made?". This can all be answered in one simple word. Yes.

This Tom and Jerry A Nutcracker Tale also has the Wilhelm Scream. You can hear the scream when the cats fall off the cliff. The Wilhelm scream was first heard in the 1951 movie Distant Drums. The sound effect was first done by Sheb Wooley. He played in many western movies and was also a regular on the television series Rawhide. The Wilhelm Scream is often used in modern day movies and you can hear it in Troy, Twilight Saga: New Moon, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, License to Wed, Kill Bill Volume One, Inglorious Bastards, Knowing, Are We Done Yet, The Water Horse, Tropic Thunder, Family Guy Blue Harvest, Space Balls, Transformers and Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Plot keywords: Christmas story, comedy, cartoon, and Wilhelm Scream.

This clever rendition of the Nutcracker brought the music alive for my four year old granddaughter. We watched this movie several times over the holidays- at her request. Later when she heard the music she could remember the action of the cartoon- the tie in helped her to enjoy the music throughout the season. The story was sweet and appropriate for young children- the target audience. Characters were plentiful with interesting personalities. There were enough clever jokes and asides to keep adults chuckling. Perhaps the most difficult thing for old viewers to this new version of Tom & Jerry is the talking! Whereas the older cartoons were mostly silent and easy to send around the world, this cartoon has the other characters talking. The Nutcracker music has been performed as ballet all over the world, as a horse-back production in Chicago and now as a Tom & Jerry cartoon for a new generation used to Little Einstein and his musical escapades.