Tom and Jerry: The Movie

***Tom and Jerry: The Movie*** is a 1992 American animated musical comedy film based on the characters Tom and Jerry. Produced and directed by Phil Roman from a screenplay by Dennis Marks (who also scripted some episodes of *Tom & Jerry Kids* at the time), the film stars the voices of Richard Kind as Tom, Dana Hill (in her final film role) as Jerry, Anndi McAfee as Robyn Starling, Tony Jay as Lickboot, Rip Taylor as Captain Kiddie, Henry Gibson as Dr. Applecheek, Michael Bell, Ed Gilbert, David L. Lander, Howard Morris as Squawk, and Charlotte Rae as Aunt Pristine Figg.

### Ratings

G (US)

It is the first theatrical feature-length animated film featuring the cat-and-mouse pair[2] as well as their return to the big screen after 25 years. Although largely mute in the original cartoons, the duo speaks throughout this film. Joseph Barbera, co-founder of Hanna-Barbera Productions and co-creator of *Tom and Jerry*, served as creative consultant for the film.[2]
 The film tells the story about a little girl named Robyn Starling, who
recruits Tom and Jerry (to which they put their differences aside after
their home is wrecked) to help her escape from her evil abusive
child-hating guardian and reunite with her lost and presumed-dead
father.

After having its world premiere in Germany on October 1, 1992, *Tom and Jerry: The Movie* was released theatrically in the United States on July 30, 1993, by Miramax Films. The film received negative reviews from critics and was a box office bomb, earning $3.6 million on a $3.5 million budget.

## Plot

Tom's owners are moving to a new house, but he is distracted by his pursuit of Jerry
 and is left behind by the moving van. Tom chases the van, but is scared
 away by a bulldog and is forced to stay in the house. The next morning,
 the house is demolished, leaving both Tom and Jerry homeless. The pair
wander the streets until they meet a stray dog named Puggsy and his flea
 companion, Frankie. Through introducing themselves, Tom and Jerry
discover that they can speak, and they are persuaded to befriend each
other to ensure their survival. While Tom and Jerry are sidetracked
searching for food, Puggsy and Frankie are captured by dogcatchers. Tom
is apprehended by a group of hostile alley cats, until Jerry traps them
in the sewer. While walking, Tom and Jerry meet Robyn Starling, a
runaway girl whose mother died when she was a baby and her father
apparently died in an avalanche during an expedition in Tibet.
 Robyn and her family's fortune are in the custody of her greedy
guardian Pristine Figg and her lawyer Lickboot, who see Robyn only as a
means to keeping their obtained wealth. A local policeman brings Robyn
home along with Tom and Jerry.

Figg reluctantly allows Tom and Jerry to stay. However, after a
food fight between Tom, Jerry and Figg's obese dog Ferdinand, Figg
suggests taking them to a kind man named Dr. Applecheeck who loves
animals, which Robyn thinks about. Jerry overhears Figg and Lickboot
discussing a telegram that reveals that Robyn's father is alive and
running his company in Tibet. Jerry tells Tom about this and they
attempt to tell Robyn about it, but Figg locks Robyn in her room and
takes Tom and Jerry to Dr. Applecheeck, who is revealed to be a cruel
animal kidnapper and the employer of the dogcatchers who captured Puggsy
 and Frankie. Tom and Jerry reunite with Puggsy and Frankie, who suggest
 using a nearby control panel to open the cages. Tom and Jerry free the
captured animals and return to Robyn's home to inform her of her
father's survival. Tom, Jerry and Robyn set out to find Robyn's father
on a raft, but the raft is suddenly struck by a ship and they end up
separated. Meanwhile, in Tibet, Daddy Starling, father of Robyn, is
aware of Robyn's situation, and decides to leave Tibet for America.

The next day, Figg and Lickboot decide to put a $1 million bounty
 on Robyn to anyone who can find her, with no promise on paying. Robyn
is found and hosted by amusement park manager Captain Kiddie and his
first mate Squawk, a parrot puppet. Kiddie is initially friendly with
Robyn until he sees Figg's bounty on a milk carton. He traps Robyn on a
Ferris wheel and contacts Figg, who leaves with Lickboot and Ferdinand
while Applecheeck and the dogcatchers try to beat them there in order to
 collect the bounty. Tom and Jerry find and free Robyn and trap the
dogcatchers on the Ferris wheel right when Figg and Lickboot arrive.
They escape in a paddle steamer
 while Figg, Lickboot, Kiddie and Applecheeck give chase. In the ensuing
 chase, Applecheeck falls from a bridge and sinks Kiddie's dinghy, while
 Figg and Lickboot head to the "Robyn's Nest" – a small cabin where
Robyn and her father spent their holidays – predicting she will be
there.

Tom, Jerry and Robyn arrive at the cabin, but Robyn is
apprehended by Figg and Lickboot, who lock Tom and Jerry outside with
Ferdinand. During a tussle, an oil lamp is knocked over and starts a
fire. While Figg and Lickboot attempt to escape, Tom and Jerry manage to
 get Robyn safely on the roof. Figg and Lickboot manage to vacate the
cabin, but stumble on Ferdinand's skateboard and crash onto the paddle
steamer, which sails out of control and sends them away. Robyn's father
arrives by helicopter and rescues her, but fail to rescue Tom and Jerry
right before the cabin collapses, and they barely survive. Robyn's
father promises to never leave her alone again and Tom and Jerry's
heroics make the paper. The pair begin a new life in Robyn's luxurious
villa and return to their old habits.

## Voice cast

* Richard Kind as Tom
* Dana Hill as Jerry
* Anndi McAfee as Robyn Starling
* Charlotte Rae as Aunt Pristine Figg
* Tony Jay as Lickboot
* Michael Bell as Ferdinand, Straycatcher #1
* Henry Gibson as Dr. J. Sweetface Applecheek
* Ed Gilbert as Puggsy and Robyn's Father
* David Lander as Frankie Da Flea
* Rip Taylor as Captain Kiddie
* Howard Morris as Squawk
* Sydney Lassick as Straycatcher #2
* Don Messick as Droopy
* Tino Insana as The Patrolman
* B. J. Ward as Tom's Owner
* Greg Burson as Moving Man
* Raymond McLeod as Bulldog, Alleycat #1
* Mitchell D. Moore as Alleycat #2
* Scott Wojahn as Alleycat #3

## Production

There
 were attempts to make a Tom and Jerry feature film, mainly in the 1970s
 after the successful reruns of the original cartoons and the airings of
 the new TV animated versions (although there has been debatable
possibilities of making attempts in the golden age of cartoons). Chuck Jones,
 who previously worked on his take on the characters in his studio,
wanted to make a Tom and Jerry movie but later pulled out on the idea
due to not finding a suitable script to work with.

Another attempt was made when MGM wanted to make the feature in live-action with David Newman (one of the writers who wrote *Bonnie and Clyde*) to write the screenplay, and it was going to feature Dustin Hoffman and Chevy Chase as the duo, but sometime later, the idea was shelved.

Then when the late 1980s came, Phil Roman and the company managed
 to revive the attempts of making an animated film featuring the duo,
after his experience in directing the animated specials featuring
another popular cartoon cat, Garfield,
 and he always loved the animated cat and mouse duo cartoons. This gave
the opportunity of making it the first theatrical animated film for Film
 Roman studios and his first (and only) directorial role for a
theatrical animated film after directing the TV movie *Garfield: His 9 Lives*,
 with Joseph Barbera aboard as a consultant. One of the rare options the
 crew decided to take is going in a different direction and something
new on the portrayal of the duo by giving them fluent dialogue because
they considered that most of the audience would feel bored or
uninterested in the repetitive mute aspect.

In the early development of the script by Dennis Marks, some of
its dialogue and actions in other scenes, including the main characters
talking throughout at the beginning before encountering Puggsy and
Frankie, had to be taken out.[3]
 Originally, a comedic sequence before the further events of the duo
talking was drafted as a prologue and homage to the original cartoons
before the credits, but it was later decided to drop the idea and
partially replaced by the animated slapstick scenes during the credits
for the sake moving forward on the situations for the story.[4]

Animators on *Tom and Jerry: The Movie* include Eric Thomas, Art Roman, Doug Frankel, Tony Fucile, Steven E. Gordon, Leslie Gorin, Dan Haskett, Brian Robert Hogan, Gabi Payn, Irven Spence, and Arnie Wong. Some animation was outsourced to Wang Film Productions in Taiwan, where James Miko and Aundre Knutson served as supervising directors. Additional animation was provided by The Baer Animation Company and Creative Capers Cartoons. The computer animation for the vehicles was provided by Kroyer Films.

For *Tom and Jerry: The Movie*, they used key frames, an old technique having been used in Hyperion's films *The Brave Little Toaster* and *Rover Dangerfield*, and Disney's *The Black Cauldron*, *The Great Mouse Detective*, *Who Framed Roger Rabbit*, *Oliver & Company*, *The Little Mermaid*, *DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp* and *The Rescuers Down Under*.

During production, after witnessing the successful start of Disney's musical Renaissance,
 the crew decided to make the film a musical and hired Oscar-winning
composers Henry Mancini and Leslie Bricusse to write the musical numbers
 after working in another musical film together *Victor/Victoria*, with a touch of melodic structure reminiscent to the classic golden age of movie musicals, especially the ones from MGM like *The Wizard of Oz* and *Singin' in the Rain*.

## Music

### Musical numbers

1. "Friends to the End" – Pugsy, Frankie, Tom, Jerry
2. "What Do We Care? (The Alley Cats' Song)" – The Alley Cats
3. "Money Is Such a Beautiful Word" – Aunt Figg, Lickboot
4. "God's Little Creatures" – Dr. Applecheek
5. "I Miss You (Robyn's Song)" – Robyn
6. "I've Done It All" – Captain Kiddie, Squawk
7. "Finale (Friends to the End)"
8. "I Miss You" (End Title) – Stephanie Mills
9. "All in How Much We Give" – Stephanie Mills

### Soundtrack

A soundtrack album was released by MCA Records in 1993 (re-released by Geffen Records
 in 2005) and included both the songs (music written by Henry Mancini
with lyrics by Leslie Bricusse) and score from the film, composed by Henry Mancini.[5] The end credits pop song All in How Much We Give was written by Jody Davidson.

All tracks are written by Henry Mancini.

## Reception

### Critical response

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 14% approval rating based on 14 reviews.[6]

Joseph McBride of *Variety* gave the film a negative review, saying that "*Tom and Jerry Talk* won't go down in film history as a slogan to rival *Garbo Talks*."[7] Charles Solomon of the *Los Angeles Times* panned the film's songs and Phil Roman's direction.[8] Hal Hinson of *The Washington Post*
 criticized the dialogue between the cat and mouse and said that the
voices "don't fit the characters". Hinson also complained that the
musical numbers are "as forgettable as they are intolerably bouncy and
upbeat".[9]

Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert awarded the film "Two Thumbs Down" on their show *Siskel & Ebert*.
 Although they praised the animation, look and the truthful art design
of the animated shorts, neither thought that it was a good idea to give
dialogue to the two characters, giving lack of more slapstick action
from past cartoons and that the story was silly, even considering that
the character of Robyn Starling takes most of the attention than the cat
 and mouse themselves.[10] Conversely, Vincent Canby of *The New York Times*
 was more positive in his review by praising Mancini's score and the
musical numbers, to which he later went on to say that "[the characters
of] Tom and Jerry have charm."[11]

### Box office

*Tom and Jerry: The Movie* opened theatrically on July 30, 1993 in the United States and Canada alongside *Rising Sun*, *Robin Hood: Men in Tights* and *So I Married an Axe Murderer*.[1]
 Ranking number fourteen at the North American box office, the film
grossed $3,560,469 worldwide, making it financially unsuccessful.[1][12]

## Video games

* A video game based on the film was released for the Sega Master System on October 1, 1992 and Sega Game Gear on July 14, 1993,[13][14] followed by a handheld game by Tiger Electronics released the same year.
* A video game based on the film of same name titled *Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics* was released for Game Boy on October 2, 1993[15] and Sega Genesis on December 21, 1993[16][17] by Hi-Tech Expressions and Altron.

## Home media

The film was released on VHS and LaserDisc on October 26, 1993 by Family Home Entertainment.[18] The VHS release of the film was reissued on March 2, 1999 and was released on DVD on March 26, 2002 in United States and on September 26, 2008 in Germany[19] by Warner Home Video.
 Despite receiving a UK VHS release from First Independent Films, no UK
Region 2 DVD release is as of yet currently available. However, UK
buyers can import the French, German, Dutch, or South African copies, as
 they are Region 2, and play in English. [20] The film has been digitally remastered in widescreen on HBO Max, as of July 1, 2020.[21]

## External links

* Official website
* *Tom and Jerry: The Movie* on IMDb
* *Tom and Jerry: The Movie* at Rotten Tomatoes