Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Let's get the ugly parts out of the way quickly...

...Tom & Jerry are not a natural fit into the world of Willy Wonka ...there are moments of poor animation throughout the film ...you'll find a reasonable number of plot holes ...it's unlikely that anyone will rank this as their favorite WW movie

That said, if you have read this far and can accept the above, you may find yourself enjoying this film for what it is... an animated homage to a wonderful movie.

I happened upon this film by chance and initially passed it over. But I love the 1971 film and so I found myself going back and read a little about it. Then I saw the artwork and started thinking that this looked an awful lot like the original film... albeit in cartoon form. So I decided to watch it.

I got halfway through it and was really feeling like the folks behind this film had a love for Willy Wonka that mirrored my own. There were a number of moments that I readily recalled from the live action film recreated here.

YES, Tom & Jerry are found throughout the movie (they do get top billing after all) and their antics are what you'd expect from any of their cartoons over the years. I knew that going in and so it did not take away from my enjoyment because I was expecting it. Moreover, the writers try to weave the characters into the broader story and do a reasonable job of it (watch the film and you'll find out where the coin Charlie bought the winning chocolate bar came from).

The voice acting was decent to actually pretty good and the songs/singing, if not quite up to the original's soundtrack, were actually good. In fact, I would swear that they lifted the original actor's singing "I have a Golden Ticket" and used it as it sounded spot-on to me. There's even a pretty neat animated song featuring Slugworth that's stylistic enough to be worth watching a second time.

The irony in all of this is that I would have rated this higher had there been a way to edit out Tom & Jerry. Yes, there would still be issues but it was actually pretty cool to see an animated version of one my beloved childhood favorites. Is it worth a purchase? Maybe for little ones but I do think its rental-worthy.

Bottom line, if you're intrigued by the premise, you'll likely find a few things worth the investment of your time. At a minimum, it got me whistling the soundtrack the last few days.