Directors: Spike Brandt, Tony Cervone
Distributor: Warner Home Video
Duration: 70 minutes
Tom and Jerry: Spy Quest (DVD) – Movie Review
Do you remember the times when every day, a new Tom and Jerry episode was shown on the television after school? Luckily, Tom and Jerry is still a ‘thing’ nowadays so if you want to let your kids see a decent cartoon or if you want to watch a Tom and Jerry’s movie for nostalgic reasons yourself, Spy Quest is decent enough to give it a try.
For those who didn’t have the pleasure of watching Tom and Jerry when they were little, here’s a small introduction of the two main characters. First of all, we’ve got Tom, the clumsy cat who seems to have a nose for getting himself in bizarre (and painful) situations. Jerry (the mouse) on the other hand, seems to have been gifted with a decent amount of brainpower. Although the two are often portrayed as arch-enemies and they keep annoying one another, you can clearly see that they wouldn’t let anything happen to their fellow animal friend. The relationship can best be compared to those of siblings (anyone with a brother or sister will understand).
So, now we know the basic background of the cartoon figures, let’s get back to Spy Quest. In the movie, Tom and Jerry are minding their own business while trying to enjoy the sunshine on the beach. Of course, the two can’t leave each other in peace and soon enough, Jerry and Tom are being their usual selves. Suddenly though, their lazy day gets disturbed by what looks to be cats in flying armor suits. Apparently an evil mastermind who goes with the name of Dr. Zin (James Hong) has set his eyes on a sort of sphere made by Dr. Benton Quest (Eric Bauza). To get his hands on the object, Zin sees no other way than to kidnap Dr. Quest and his bodyguard Race Bannon (Michael Hanks). Now it’s up to Jonny Quest (Benton’s son, spoken in by Reese Hartwig), his best friend Hadji (Arnie Pantoja) and our good old pals Tom and Jerry to dive straight in the lair of the enemy and save the professor!
Story wise, Spy Quest succeeds in keeping the attention throughout the whole 70 minutes although some scenes are a lot less exciting than others. Sometimes, the story seems to be dragging a bit and it’s hard to shake the feeling that the creators tried to stretch the plot as long as possible just to reach the 70 minutes of screen time. Still, there are a lot of movies which apply that trick a bit more severe so it’s not that big of a deal to complain about. Another small issue the movie often presents the viewers with, are some subpar dialogues. Especially when the army of cats is speaking, it’s hard not to roll your eyes at some of the words coming out of their mouths. Children won’t notice this as much as adults of course, but still, it would’ve been nice if the cats were a bit more eloquent. Luckily, there’s enough humour in the movie to make you a bit more forgiving on that part.
Tom and Jerry are not too big on speaking and making conversation as you might well know. Apart from the regular scream or grunt, you won’t hear any speech coming out of their mouths. Luckily, not all characters are as mute as our heroes so here are some words about the general voice acting. The voice actors (as there are almost no female characters that speak in the movie) do a decent job and make for convincing characters. As said before, the dialogue is sometimes of a lower quality but then again, children won’t even notice it all that much. They just want to see their heroes save the world and that’s exactly what they’ll get in Spy Quest. To circle back to the voice acting, although nothing Oscar worthy performance wise, the speech is quite good for an animation movie like this one.
When you’ve finished watching Spy Quest, the DVD has some other fun things in store for you. Not one or two but four separate cartoon episodes have been added to the DVD content. The first two episodes originate from the original Tom and Jerry TV show and show you some classic action between the two of them. The other extra episodes feature Jonny Quest and his crew on some exciting adventures. If you are a fan of cartoons from the past, these extras will mean great news to you.
Conclusion
Tom and Jerry: Spy Quest is a fun animation movie with an acceptable story and entertaining characters. Sometimes it’s hard to shake the feeling that the plot has been stretched out as much as possible as some parts in the movie are quite slow paced and not that interesting. The dialogues too, could’ve used some more revising as the cat-army blurts out the one meaningless sentence after the other. Still, Spy Quest stays true to the Tom and Jerry franchise as we know it from the past thanks to the regular humorous moments in the movie.
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