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Frenemies in the Big City Tom and Jerry director Tim Story and his creative team talk about the joys of making a hybrid pic starring the beloved Hanna-Barbera duo. By Ramin Zahed
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t’s hard to believe that Hanna-Barbera’s eternal cat-and-mouse frenemies will be turning 81 this year. With 164 shorts, nine TV series (original and packaged), three specials and 14 movies on their resume, Tom and Jerry are now wreaking havoc in their own Warner Bros. hybrid feature this month. The high-energy romp is directed by Tim Story (Fantastic Four, Barbershop, Ride Along), produced by Chris DeFaria (The LEGO Movie 2, Gravity), with a script by Kevin Costello (Brigsby Bear) and stars the likes of Chloë Grace Moretz, Michael Peña, Rob Delaney, Colin Jost, Ken Jeong and Pallavi Sharda. The plot finds Tom being hired at a fancy New York City hotel to stop Jerry from wrecking a high-profile wedding. The two soon band together to stop a staffer who’s scheming against both of them. “I was introduced to the project in the fall of 2018,” recalls Story during a recent phone interview. “I grew up on Tom and Jerry cartoons, and I could immediately rattle off my favorite episodes off the top of my head. I knew exactly which versions and which situations would work for a modern movie.”
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Destructive Duo Story says the duo’s wild energy level and constant mayhem is hard to resist both for young kids and older audiences. “I remember watching
those cartoons and then taking the chairs in our house and making forts with blankets. I have a young son who used to do that all the time, too. Tom and Jerry were destroying their house on a
‘I think we have delivered whatever audiences thought a new feature film with Tom and Jerry would be like and look like.’ — Director Tim Story
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march 21
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