Tom and Jerry Getting New Chinese Animated Movie

The animated characters Tom and Jerry are returning home to the United States after years as international movie stars. Their new 3D animated feature, Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass, follows the cartoon cat and mouse into a world of Chinese mythology after typical antics in a museum. The movie arrives in theaters this Friday, but viewers might miss it because it was primarily made for international audiences.

Released in China last August, the film was co-produced by Warner Bros. Pictures and China Film Group, which is a state-owned film company, and directed by Zhang Gang. Polygon shared an exclusive clip ahead of the Sept. 4 release to contrast the film with the mostly forgotten 2021 live-action movie.

How Tom and Jerry became Chinese movie stars

William Hanna and Joseph Barbera created Tom and Jerry in 1940 for MGM. During that period, the MGM animation studio lagged behind Disney shorts and Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoons. The new duo quickly became a hit. MGM produced 161 animated shorts of the pair between 1940 and 1957. These shorts ran before feature films in theaters rather than on television.

Budget cuts at MGM ended production on those 161 classic shorts in 1957 as television disrupted the movie business. MGM revived Tom and Jerry in 1961 by outsourcing animation to Soviet-aligned Czechoslovakia to lower costs. MGM even Americanized the credits to hide the partnership with a nation allied with Russia, America’s primary international adversary at the time.

Those cartoons still played before American movies. Overseas production simply lowered budgets, which later became standard for television animation. Fans call this the Gene Deitch Era after the animator who directed all 13 shorts. Limited animation reduced the success of this run, but it launched the global journey of Tom and Jerry.

Theatrical animated shorts shifted to television in the late 1950s and 1960s. Broadcasters typically packaged three shorts together to fill a half-hour television slot. Tom and Jerry entered television in 1965 and soon expanded to international markets.

Tom and Jerry go global

Repurposing cartoons for international distribution was standard practice. Disney and Warner Bros. redubbed their content for global markets, but Tom and Jerry succeeded because the characters do not talk. Their physical comedy relies on universal slapstick. Disney shorts featured heavy musical elements, and Looney Tunes relied on dialogue, with the exception of Coyote and Road Runner shorts. Jerry hitting Tom in the head required no translation, which eliminated the need for dubbing and preserved the jokes across different languages.

Tom and Jerry reached Japanese television in 1965 and the Philippines in 1966. China received the cartoons later in the 1980s after the United States normalized relations in the 1970s. The characters became television staples worldwide, particularly across Asian countries.

Warner Bros. producer and Singapore native Charlene Tan spoke about the characters in an interview with Cartoon Brew.

“I’m sure that it was the same for kids my age all around the world – Tom and Jerry was something that was just always there growing up,” Tan said. “What we all loved about the show was that it also made our parents and even our grandparents laugh. It’s truly multi-generational. Living in Singapore, when you were waiting at the dentist, waiting to collect your passport, or at the hairdresser, it was on the screens. Everybody watched it, and everybody enjoyed it. With such a simple premise, what’s not to love? It’s definitely not just an American brand of humor. Physical comedy works well across all cultures, so it’s not surprising Tom and Jerry travels so well. Whether the audience is Chinese, Korean, Japanese, or Indian, slapstick makes everyone laugh. It’s universal.”

American studios began producing original content specifically for television in the 1970s rather than reusing theatrical shorts. The franchise produced varying levels of success through movies and television specials, which included two theatrical films and multiple streaming programs.

Tom and Jerry maintained strong popularity in Asian countries. Warner Bros. acquired the characters in 2006 through a corporate merger and eventually targeted the regions with the strongest fanbases. The Japanese series Tom and Jerry Gokko premiered on November 11, 2022. Singapore subsequently released a locally produced series of shorts titled Tom and Jerry, which is known in America as Tom and Jerry Singapore.

Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass represents the most ambitious project yet as a feature-length film instead of a short series. Reviews for the film have been mixed. The box office run in China last August was also modest. Even if the film struggles with audiences in America and Asia, the enduring global popularity of the cat and mouse remains secure.

Source: Polygon