Tom e Jerry: O Quebra-Nozes

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.

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.

I will not say this movie is perfect, for me it is too short and I didn't care for the dialogue that much. That said, it is a very sweet and enjoyable movie for kids. Just for the record, I am 17 and I adore Tom and Jerry. The DTV movies have been mixed, some have been disappointing like Fast and the Furry but others have been surprisingly good especially Tom and Jerry Blast Off To Mars. Tom and Jerry:A Nutcracker Tale is for me one of the better ones, and perhaps the one I enjoyed most. The animation is impressive; it is colourful and fluid, and despite one or two forgivable stiff movements the character movements weren't too bad. The story, very loosely based on the story of the ballet and on the timeless story by ETA Hoffmann, is very sweet and I think original too. There is some great comedy, more to do with what's going on screen, rather than the dialogue. The voice acting wasn't bad either, Tara Strong is a great voice actress and her voicing of Le Petite Ballerina was no exception. Kathaleen Barr is another talented voice actress, and I really liked her as Nellie. And Garry Chalk seems to be having a ball with the King of the Cats. Speaking of the characters, they were still engaging with great personalities, Le Petite Ballerina is beautiful yet feisty and Tom and Jerry while they don't do enough of the hilarious antics that made the original series so enjoyable are still likable. For me though, the best part of the movie was the music. Tchaikovsky's music is always delightful, and it was put to surprisingly clever use here. They had my favourite parts in, though I did wish they had Dance of the Snow Fairies and the Pas De Deux, they could have been so effective. But the climax with the soldiers is inspired. All in all, a very enjoyable DTV offering. 8/10 Bethany Cox

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.