As the holiday season has reared into full swing, many of us are delving into the beloved pastime of watching holiday movies. The only thing more popular than watching holiday movies perhaps is arguing which is the *best* holiday movie. With hundreds of different options, these arguments can last all the way until the next holiday season. At the end of the day, your favorite holiday movie is just that, your favorite, and your enjoyment is enough to validate your opinion. However, it is just your opinion, and while you can have your favorite, I’m here to tell you about the one and only *objectively* best holiday movie, “Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale” (2007).
Your favorite holiday movie might have plenty of good qualities, but if it’s not “Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale,” it’s not the best holiday movie. Released in 2007, the animated masterpiece themed after the classic ballet, “The Nutcracker,” contains and perfects every indulgent trope that makes holiday movies so entertaining, all wrapped up in beautiful animation, and tied together with incredible music and voice acting. If not for the glaring, objective perfection in quality, I might be tempted to think nostalgia and personal preference were dictating my claim of its superiority. Thankfully, its perfection lies beyond opinions, so there’s no argument against the film’s top spot on the holiday movie list.
The film opens with Jerry the mouse and his sidekick Tuffy admiring a performance of “The Nutcracker,” later going down to the stage to bask in the stage lights and attempt a little ballet of their own. While clumsy at first, the stage bestows some holiday magic onto Jerry and transforms him into the star of the show, while also animating the various toys on stage to become the supporting cast, including a ballerina from a music box. Outside of the theatre in a snowy ally, a band of cats including the infamous Tom the tomcat sings a wonderful number attributed to the King of the cats, our soon-to-be antagonist. The magic from the stage leaks out and brings the cats inside to Jerry’s world of the nutcracker, and they begin taking over the short-lived kingdom of toys. The entire scene is filled with delectable choreography to the beat of “March of the Nutcracker,” ending with Tom firing Jerry, a horse toy named Nelly and a pixie decoration named Paulie out of a canon and into a far-off scene. With the kingdom now overrun by the cats, the rest of the toys are enslaved and the ballerina is locked in a cage. The King of the Cats sends Tom and his now army-cats to go after and capture Jerry. As they head off, Tuffy stows away with them to warn Jerry of their pursuit. Meanwhile, Jerry and his new toy friends venture to try and find a man named the Toymaker, the creator of all the toys (their god, if you will), and ask him for help in defeating the cats. They venture through several scenes representing the different acts of “The Nutcracker” while pursued by Tom and his gang, overcoming obstacles and suffering various toy-related injuries, until they eventually find the Toymaker’s workshop.
There, he helps fix up a threadbare Paulie and gives Jerry a wind-up key before telling them he has a busy night, leaving through a door with a calendar next to it reading Dec. 24. Jerry uses the wind-up key to crank hundreds of toy soldiers into action and venture back to the kingdom, where they run out the cats and Jerry reclaims his crown and friends. The special ends with the camera panning out and revealing the toymaker and a ballerina in the audience, applauding Jerry.
This 48-minute long animated feature meshes the incredible music and theme of “The Nutcracker” with the hilarious slapstick comedy Tom and Jerry are known for in order to create something that transcends both components. The animation flows to the music like expert ballerinas that just so happen to look like anthropomorphic cats and mice.
The music is nostalgic, and the new characters are some of the best that cinema has ever been graced with. Nelly, the toy horse who can only talk if her string is pulled, goes through an amazing journey of friendship and overcoming her fears. She gets separated from Jerry after she’s too afraid to cross a large chasm and is then interrogated by the cats who pull her string and force her to reveal Jerry’s motivation to see the toymaker. Dejected after giving up her friends, she sulks back to the kingdom, only to later save Jerry and Tuffy from Tom, and then Nelly gives her life to save Jerry once again from a collapsing wall.
Thankfully, once again the magic of the stage revives Nelly and removes her string so she can freely talk. Nelly’s arc is one of perfection, and Kathleen Barr does an excellent job of voicing her. Just as much attention is given to our main mouse Jerry as well. His famous silent nature is extended to very silent sound effects which help to emphasize his movement and actions, creating a recognizable difference between Jerry and the rest of the characters. Jerry’s unique presence on the screen only sells the production further as one of absolute quality.
“The Nutcracker” is already a staple of the holiday world and hearing “The Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairy” puts anyone in the holiday spirit. When you hear the song while you see your favorite cat and mouse duo duke it out, surrounded by complex and earnest characters amidst beautiful backgrounds, it’s hard to think of anything that could even come close to perfectly embodying the holiday spirit in a movie. While it cannot fully present the perfection of “Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale,” the brief summary and review should be enough to either remind you that you need to watch this masterpiece again or convince you if you’ve somehow never seen it before.
This article appeared in The Tiger’s Nov. 18 print edition. It may differ in formatting or content due to space constraints.
