Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

It’s time to talk about a ‘Tom and Jerry’ movie that I purchased from my trip in Newcastle in July 2022. I know it’s taken me a while to get around to finally watch the film in 2023, but I’ve managed to check it out and can share some thoughts on what one of the latest ‘Tom and Jerry’ animated films is like.

‘Tom and Jerry: Cowboy Up!’ was released in January 2022, five years after ‘Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’ was made in 2017. And to be brutally honest, I enjoyed the ‘Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka’ film and the 2011 live-action film more than ‘Tom and Jerry: Cowboy Up’. 😐

Now that’s not to say ‘Cowboy Up!’ is terrible. It’s decent and harmless enough, but it’s not as exciting and memorable as previous ‘Tom and Jerry’ films I’ve seen. The animation style is different in ‘Cowboy Up!’, which I found a bit off-putting. I prefer a slightly old-fashioned style of animation. 😐

The animation for ‘Cowboy Up!’ is provided by Renegade Animation, who provided the animation for ‘The Tom and Jerry Show’ from 2014 to 2021 as well as the recent ‘Tom and Jerry in New York’ series. That’s fine enough and the designs for Tom and Jerry as characters do match to the originals.

But there’s something about the animation in ‘Cowboy Up!’ that didn’t feel right for me, as it felt too modern and…well, ‘cartoony’. And yes, it’s ironic me saying that since Tom and Jerry are cartoon characters, but it’s not that cartoon animation style I’ve been accustomed in classic ‘Tom and Jerry’.

Also, as strange as this sounds, ‘Cowboy Up!’ doesn’t have Tom and Jerry as the focus in the story. The story has Tom and Jerry teaming up to help a cowgirl and her brother to save their homestead from a greedy land-grabber. They also have help from Jerry’s three ‘precocious’ nephews in the film.

Yes, as if one Tuffy the Mouse wasn’t enough (or is it Nibbles?), we have two more nephews of Jerry’s, including Scruffy and Duffy, I believe. Why couldn’t it have been just one nephew to be with Jerry in the film? Tuffy is tolerable enough on his own, but two more Tuffy’s? It’s too much for me. 😐

They also have help from a group of prairie dogs in the film. Quite frankly, this is the first time I’ve come across prairie dogs, even in a Western film such as this. Like Tuffy and his two brothers, I found the prairie dogs annoying and they took a lot of the focus away from Tom and Jerry as characters. 😐

The human characters aren’t that memorable. I’ve forgotten their names already. I know there’s a cowgirl, her father (or is it her grandpa or uncle) and her brother at their ranch and there’s the greedy land-grabber and his minion in the film. But aside from that, I can’t recall what they’re called.

The film doesn’t feature Spike, Tyke and Droopy in the film, which is a shame, since they did appear in ‘Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka’. It was nice to see the four cat characters, including Butch, Lightning, Meatheat and Topsy (or is he called ‘Shorty’?), but they just appear in time for the film’s second act.

There are scenes where Tom chases Jerry and his nephews around, but the tension and rivalry is short-lived when the mice manage to help Tom from being charged upon by an angry bull. I can’t help wonder if perhaps a bit more rivalry between Tom and Jerry and his nephews could be in this. 😦

There are occasions where I laughed at certain moments in the film, but I can’t quite recall what those moments were. ‘Cowboy Up!’ isn’t that funny enough for such an average Western adventure featuring Tom and Jerry. It’s a shame really, since there could’ve been high comedy in a film like this.

Overall, ‘Tom and Jerry: Cowboy Up!’ wasn’t the spectacle I was hoping for. Like I said, it’s decent and harmless enough and it’s okay to waste 72 minutes on, but it’s not as exciting and interesting as I would like it to be. Hopefully, the next ‘Tom and Jerry’ film I check out will be a lot more enjoyable.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂