14 DAY TRIAL // Coming to prove what critics have been saying for more than a year, namely that movie studios have run out of bankable fresh ideas, Warner Bros. will bring Tom and Jerry back on the silver screen as computer-generated characters. While, at this point, this is nothing but a rumor, Variety reports that Warner is moving fast to bring the popular cat and mouse story in theaters.
Apparently, the beloved Hanna-Barbera characters will not make their comeback as we got used to seeing them, since they will be CGI, with the entire action set against live settings, the same movie-oriented publication says. Of course, fans have already started to say, this was also the premise for “Garfield” and, other than the fact that both films with it did great at the box-office, critical reception of them was lukewarm at best.
“Studio-based Dan Lin, currently producing the upcoming ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and exec producer on ‘Terminator: Salvation,’ will adapt the classic Hanna-Barbera property as an origin story that reveals how Tom and Jerry first meet and form their rivalry before getting lost in Chicago and reluctantly working together during an arduous journey home. Eric Gravning is penning the script.” Variety writes in the latest issue.
Leaving aside the redundant need to make a movie as justification for a rivalry that should be obvious from the very start – after all, Tom and Jerry, regardless of how much the public loves them, are still a cat and a mouse, and their purpose in life is being enemies – there is also the issue of what this movie would do to the characters in terms of how they were initially created.
For instance, there is the problem of the violence in the original series. As the guys from SlashFilm say, perhaps ditching the idea of making this movie would be best for all involved, meaning both the studio and the fans. “The Homeward Bound-esque element of the plot sounds like it might get in the way of the over-the-top violence that was a hallmark of the original series, which would be a disappointment. […] Do we really need more contemporary actors putting words/voices into the mouths of CGI version of beloved childhood characters (assuming that that’s the way they go with this film)?” a post on SlashFilm reads, speaking in the name of countless fans worldwide.