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.

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 short had one problem it's only 45 minutes long. However the backgrounds feel like a modern Fantasia and the jokes are hilarious to look at.

This movie is as stunning as I watched The Cat Concerto many years ago.After Warner took over Tom and Jerry, the music feature of Tom and Jerry is the most retained one.I am really like it.

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.