Reaction & Review | Tom and Jerry & The Wizard of Oz

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an animated movie from 2011. That movie is "Tom and Jerry & The Wizard of Oz".

Now, I know some of you are probably looking at that title and you're thinking to yourself that this movie is actually a thing? And the answer is yes. Apparently, Warner Bros. made an animated version of, what I'm going to assume is suppose to be the 1939 version of this movie. Now I know that "The Wizard of Oz" has gone through plenty of adaptations that are different from the 1939 movie, but from what I read on the back of the DVD case for this movie, it looks like they are doing a retelling of the 1939 movie. The only thing that's different is that they've added Tom and Jerry to the mix. Now this isn't really new territory for Tom and Jerry, because they've been involved in quite a few crossovers in their time. Things such as "The Wizard of Oz", "Johnny Quest", Sherlock Holmes, "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", and they even did a sequel to this movie. Which, I don't even know if I want to cover the sequel at all, because I have to see if this movie is worth watching as a standalone film.

Now I should mention that I love "Tom and Jerry". I remember many years ago, as a kid, that I use to watch quite a bit of "Tom and Jerry" at my aunts place when I use to watch it on Boomerang, where they would show classic cartoons on that network. I even use to own a VHS copy of "Tom and Jerry: The Movie" from 1992. And while, admittedly, the movie hasn't exactly aged all that well, I still ended up kinda liking it. Now as for the other half of this crossover, "The Wizard of Oz" is a great classic movie. I, like most people, use to watch that movie quite a bit as a kid. And while it's not exactly one of my favorite classic movies ever made, I still really enjoy watching it from time to time.

With that being said, there is kind of a reason as to why I wanted to cover this movie. Not just because it's combining two things that I really enjoy from my childhood, but it's also something that I'm both curious and concerned about when it comes to this movie. The curious bit is, obviously, how well these two franchises can co-exist as a crossover. What's leaving me concerned, however, is the runtime of this movie, and what exactly they are covering in terms of content. You see, the original 1939 movie was close to being 2 hours long. It ran for about an hour and 52 minutes, and they covered a lot of things in that movie. And being that it was an adaptation from a novel, they probably had to leave out quite a bit of things from that novel in order for the 1939 movie to work. This movie, on the other hand, and I'm even not kidding when I say this...is only working with just an hour. That runtime is probably lower than most of, if not all of DC's direct-to-video animated films that Warner Bros. also puts out. I don't even know if this movie is gonna be able to work with only just an hour, considering that they also have to work in Tom and Jerry's humor, which is either gonna bring the flow of the movie down, or it could possibly enhance it in someway.

So, with all that in mind, I'm not totally sure how this movie is going to work out, considering that they have to focus both on the humor of "Tom and Jerry" while also trying to retell the 1939 movie within such a short runtime. Now, who knows? This movie could genuinely surprise me and wind up being rather decent. But the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Tom and Jerry & The Wizard of Oz".

1 minute later

Guys, I am loving the opening music to this movie. It really does feel like the opening to the original 1939 film, what with them including the text from the 1939 movie as well, and it sounds beautiful. I'm hoping that's a good sign of things to come.

6 minutes later

You know, guys, I don't often comment much about art-style in movies, but there's something about Dorothy's eyes that look a little bit off-putting to me. I think it's because of the fact that she just has really blue eyes. I would normally imagine seeing her with either brown or red eyes, but the fact they're really blue is sorta throwing me off slightly. Now granted, it's not a huge complaint, and it's something that I'll hopefully get use to as the film rolls on, but it is something that I kinda wanted to mention.

10 minutes later

You guys can't hear this for obvious reasons, but this rendition of the Scarecrow song...kinda sucks. It's mostly not helped with the fact that it's sung by this annoying this mouse. Oh, and now he's transitioned into the "Wizard of Oz" song...OK. Kinda hoping to hear less singing from this mouse, because it's beginning to get a little bit grating.

15 minutes later

I will this say this much, guys. The backgrounds and the locales look great, and they almost match up to what was in the 1939 movie. The movie itself has been kinda lacking so far, but I'll get more into that when the movie is done.

4 minutes later

OK, I have a question, and this is something I'm not sure was answered in the 1939 movie. Granted, it's been quite a number of years since I last seen it, but I still want to ask this anyway. So, when the Wicked Witch told Dorothy that when the sands of the hourglass run out, she would die. So, my question is what would happen if Dorothy actually destroyed the hourglass before the sands filled up on the other side? As far as I could remember, there was no rule stating that "Oh BTW, if you destroy the hourglass, then the effects of the hourglass won't cause you to die." So, what exactly is stopping her from just destroying the hourglass while she's locked up in the room by herself? Unless the hourglass was made up of magic in which Dorothy couldn't destroy it, then there should be nothing holding her back by just grabbing some sort of a weapon and smashing the hourglass to pieces, thus she wouldn't have to worry about dying. Problem solved! Granted, I totally understand that this is very trivial and kinda pointless to bring up, considering that the movie's well over 80 years old at this point, but it is something that is sorta bugging me a little bit.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Tom and Jerry & The Wizard of Oz". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off...OK. Dear lord, where do I even begin...? Well, I could start by saying that, going into this movie, I was a little bit concerned about how this movie was going turn out. Aside from what I stated earlier about how it was going to combine both the story of the 1939 movie while also trying to work in the humor of "Tom and Jerry", I've also heard a lot of people completely trashing this movie, mostly because of it's concept, saying that it's unnecessary to combine both of these franchises into one movie. And while I will say that the movie isn't great, and it's certainly not something I would watch a second time, it's not completely awful either. It's just sort of average at best. 

So, with that being said, let's finally talk about the movie in detail. And as usual with a lot of these reviews, I'm gonna start with the writing. I've talked about this a couple of times in my past reviews when discussing adaptations of certain movies, whether it's a comic book movie, video game movie, etc. And the one thing I usually bring up when it comes to adaptations is that you're bound to take certain liberties with what you're adapting. Because if you're just doing a straight-laced story of something and you're not really changing anything whatsoever, then your movie is gonna end up being a bit bland. And as I mentioned earlier, "The Wizard of Oz" has gone through quite a number of film adaptations over the years. Most of which I've never seen before, aside from this particular one. And they definitely change it up quite a bit, which I'll get into in a moment. Now when it comes to this movie, the one thing I was really concerned about was what this movie was going to do with just an hour of it's runtime? Because again, the original movie was almost twice the length that this movie had, so this movie was bound to cut some corners in order for the movie to get made. And I will say that what they were able to do here within such a short runtime...kinda works. Kind of, but it's obviously not a perfect adaptation.

The biggest thing that this movie changes from the 1939 movie is the focus of Tom and Jerry. Now, at the very beginning of the movie, we do mostly follow how the 1939 movie played out. The one thing that is not present during this opening part is when Dorothy meets Professor Marvel. It instead skips over to the tornado scene after Tom and Jerry save Toto from the Wicked Witch. And then when that tornado scene hits, it mostly focuses on Tom and Jerry for about the first third of the film. And this is where the movie tries to work around it's short runtime. You see, rather than focusing on Dorothy's adventures, they shift the focus onto Tom and Jerry right around when they first meet one of our other main characters named Tuffy, who resides in Munchkinland. By the way, we never see any Munchkins, which is a little bit strange considering that it's called Munchkinland and there's no Munchkins to be seen whatsoever, but whatever. It's not a huge deal overall. So, Tuffy gives out exposition to Tom and Jerry about the events that had already happened while Dorothy was in Munchkinland up until she followed the yellow brick road. In which Tuffy joins them to go after her, because he also has a dream of wanting to grow bigger in height. And from there, that's when this movie starts to focus more on the slapstick humor of Tom and Jerry. And this is where the movie kinda shines here. First of all, some of the slapstick humor that they do here is legitimately really funny at times. This movie was able to give them just enough breathing space in which they were able to work in some of their humor. And I kinda like this change, because if this movie had done it the other way around in which if Tom and Jerry were always by Dorothy's side, and we got to see her meet the Scarecrow, the Tin-Man, and the Cowardly Lion scene by scene, while also incorporating some of their humor, then this movie would've slowed INCREDIBLY down, which, I think, would've also pushed passed this film's original runtime. Thankfully though, that's not the case, because their humor doesn't entirely get in the way with the story here.

That being said, though, this movie also feels rather rushed. Which, in part, has to do with the film's really short runtime. Because what this movie was able to work with in terms of Tom and Jerry's humor also sacrifices a good portion of how the 1939 film plays out. As I mentioned earlier, we skip most of Dorothy's adventures in which she meets her companions, which also means that we don't get to see any of the character depth between Dorothy, the Tin-Man, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion. Now some people will think that because this movie is a retelling of the 1939 film, with Tom and Jerry added to the cast, it isn't really necessary to tell the same story again, because everyone knows about these classic characters and their motivations of wanting to meet the Wizard. But, I also have to remind some people that not everyone has seen the 1939 film, and if they were to go into this movie for the first time without having seen the original film first, then you're not gonna have any idea as to why these characters are following Dorothy to begin with. Now yes, they do mention at one point that the Scarecrow wants a brain, the Tin-Man wants a heart, and the Cowardly Lion wants courage, but they don't really explain WHY they want that. And if you don't know why they want any of that stuff, then there's a good chance that they'll find these characters to be a bit bland and rather one-dimensional. So at that point, I would just say go watch the 1939 film first before you even think about watching this movie. Or go read the novel, since that came out first, and probably explains more than what the 1939 movie was able to tell.

Which then leads into another issue with this movie. It's something that I mentioned earlier in regards to people's opinions about how this movie is just an unnecessary crossover between two franchises that barely mesh well with each other. And while I will agree to an extent that this movie does feel a little bit unnecessary, I do think that doing a "Tom and Jerry" version of "The Wizard of Oz" is not really a bad idea either. In fact, I think this movie would work a lot better if, instead of just retelling a condensed version of the 1939 movie, it was an animal-hybrid version of "The Wizard of Oz". You could still have Tom and Jerry as the main characters. I don't know who you'd get to play Dorothy, but if they still wanted to work in her, I guess they could also make it work. And instead of meeting the same characters from the 1939 movie, you could meet different versions of those characters. And the reason why I bring this up is because, at one point, Tom, Jerry, and Tuffy meet a couple of crows around the cornfield where Dorothy first met the Scarecrow. And I thought, at the time anyway, that the crows were going to join them in hoping to meet the Wizard for whatever they desired. But they don't, and we don't see them again after that scene. However, if this movie wanted to be a "Tom and Jerry" version of "The Wizard of Oz", then I could see this movie including them in it as sort of a replacement for the Scarecrow. And you could do the same thing with the Tin-Man and the Cowardly Lion. This movie could do that, while also working in a lot of the humor that Tom and Jerry are best known for. I think that would work a lot better rather than just doing a retelling of the 1939 movie. Now again, what is here for humor does work in regards to "Tom and Jerry", but it could've worked better if they weren't tied into the cast from the 1939 movie is what I'm trying to get at here.

So with all that in mind, the writing here is OK for what this movie had to work with, but it could've been so much better on a different level if it wasn't just a retelling of the 1939 movie with Tom and Jerry added to the mix. Now even though I think the writing here is just OK, I will say the acting here is really good. When it comes to "The Wizard of Oz" characters, they got really good replacements for voicing these characters. The best would have to be Grey DeLisle voicing Dorothy. She nails this character, almost, to a tee. She has the mannerisms, the personality, and the voice is perfect for her. Now granted, she's obviously not going to be on the same level that Judy Garland was when she played Dorothy, but for what Grey DeLisle had to work with in this movie, it's fucking great. And that goes for almost everyone else involving the rest of the cast. Tom and Jerry are almost excluded here, with the one lone exception of anytime that Tom has to scream in pain. That's, like, the closest thing when it comes to acting from these two main characters. But aside from that, the acting here is really good from, just about, the entire cast.

The animation looks mostly good here. There are a couple of exceptions, though, that look kinda weak. The biggest of this would have to be the inclusion of CG. Now, unlike a majority of the direct-to-video animated films from DC, there's not much usage of it here. The most notable usage of it is during the tornado scene, in which, normally we get to see the famous moment of Dorothy viewing the stuff flying around the inside of the tornado while she's still in her house. Although in this movie, it's not her that's seeing it, it's Tom and Jerry. But anyway, the CG comes in when we get to see the house carried by the tornado, and the CG on the house looks...kinda like shit. The model of the house looks rather cheap. And considering that this movie came out in 2011, this CG would've looked bad by 2001 standards. That's how cheap and bad it really looked. But again, the CG in this movie is very limited, because most of the rest of the movie is in 2D. And the rest of the animation looks pretty good for this kind of movie. The backgrounds and locales look really close to how the 1939 looked back in the day, and I'm kinda happy that this movie was able to capture the look and feel of the 1939 movie. The character models also look really good, too. The one that I'm still kinda iffy on is Dorothy's blue eyes. I don't know if it was because they wanted to reflect that with her dress, which is also blue, or if it was just an artistic choice that the animators wanted to go with to make herself stand out a little bit. For me, personally, it's not something that ruins the film or anything, but it is something that you'll have to get use to if you ever decide to watch this movie. But for the most part, the animation and the art-style looks really good here.

Sound-mix here is mixed fine. The music here is great, for the most part. And being that this movie is a retelling of the 1939 movie, it would be natural for this movie have a new spin on these classic songs. The best one would have to be "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". This rendition of it is fan-fucking-tastic. It is such an amazing version of this song. And whoever sang this version of it, whether it was Grey DeLisle or someone else, sounded great, and it made that song sound just as good as the original song did. The weakest song, however, would have to be the one sung by Tuffy, who kinda makes his own rendition of the Scarecrow song. And it doesn't sound anywhere NEAR as good as the original song did. And, I think, that's mostly because of it's singer. Now, I have no idea idea who sang this version of the song, whether it's Tuffy's voice actress or someone else entirely, but that singing voice did not really help the song whatsoever. Now when Tuffy is singing the "Wizard of Oz" song, it's actually pretty good. But the song before that...not so much. And it was probably the weakest song in the entire movie. But everything else when it comes to the score sounds great. Some of it resembles what it sounded like in the 1939 movie, while also sounding like something you would hear from a "Tom and Jerry" short from back in the day. So yeah, the music here sounds great, save for one song.

Overall, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Tom and Jerry & The Wizard of Oz"? Honestly...it's kind of a tough call. I would say that if you are a fan of "Tom and Jerry", then you might something here that you'll like. If you're a fan of the "Wizard of Oz", however, you're probably not gonna want to watch this, because it's, more or less, a condensed version of the classic movie that focuses more on the other two titled characters. And at that point, I would just say stick with the 1939 movie. For people who have never seen the 1939 movie, I would say you should go watch that before you consider watching this movie. Now if you have children in some capacity, whether it's children of your own, or it's a niece or nephew, and they're fans of both franchises, then I would absolutely say yes. Because, I believe, children will adore this movie. And if you want to show them something that will entertain them for about an hour, then this movie will certainly provide that kind of entertainment for them. However, for older fans of these franchises, it's kind of a mixed bag. Myself, personally, I don't think it's something I would watch a second time. But I am somewhat curious about that sequel, considering that they did make a sequel to this movie a few years later. I don't think I'll get to it anytime soon, but it might be something worth considering for a future Reaction & Review. Until then, though, I'm just gonna go find something else to watch. Now unfortunately, I don't really own a physical copy of "The Wizard of Oz", so I can't go and watch that. However, it did sorta spark a memory of mine from years ago, where I use to own a VHS copy of a cartoon series of "The Wizard of Oz" that was produced by DiC Entertainment way back in the 90's. I'm gonna go and see if that series is up on YouTube and go marathon some episodes of that, because it's been a long, LONG time since I last watched anything involving that, and I want to see where exactly they went with that series, since I only ever watched the first episode on that tape. So, I'm gonna go and do that next after I'm done putting this review together.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.