Tom And Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale (Special Edition) [Blu-ray]

Directors: Spike Brandt, Tony Cervone

Cast: Chantal Strand, Ian James Corlett, Kathleen Barr (VOICES)

Release Date: October 27, 2020

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 6.5/10

Synopsis:

After watching the season’s final performance of “The Nutcracker” ballet on Christmas Eve, Jerry dreams of dancing with the beautiful prima ballerina, who captivates him with her graceful performance. After the theater patrons leave, Jerry climbs onto the stage and begins to dance on his own, as Tuffy Mouse cheers him on. Through the magic of Christmas Eve, Jerry is suddenly transformed into one of the dancers. Costumed to look like regal prince, he takes center stage, which turns into a winter wonderland, as all the toy props around him come to life, and music from Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker” begins to play. A petite music box ballerina springs to life and joins Jerry as the two of them dance their way into the Nutcracker’s magical realm. It seems as though Jerry’s “The Nutcracker” fantasy has finally become a reality. That’s until Tom and his band of alley cats enter through the theater’s stage door, capture all the toys and lock the beautiful ballerina in a cage.

Please Note: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

The whole family is invited to revisit the lovable holiday fun of ‘Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale’. The animated holiday adventure joins Jerry who while living in an empty theater dreams of performing in the Nutcracker ballet. A dream he thought was merely an unrealistic fantasy until Tom and his dangerous group of alley cats invade the theater and Jerry finds himself whisked away into a magical wonderland. Now Jerry must take on the cats with a little help from some new friends and find a way back to the regular world in order to save the kidnapped music-box ballerina that the cats have taken captive and save the day.

Many of you dedicated ‘Tom and Jerry’ fans out there should be thrilled to finally have the opportunity to bring ‘Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale’ home in high definition on Blu-ray at last. It’s a sweet, incredibly entertaining and cleverly constructed take on the famous ballet that finds plenty of smart ways to incorporate the famous antics of Tom and Jerry into the holiday classic in order to offer audiences of all ages a wonderfully enjoyable animated film that’s not only a real treat, but one of the better Tom and Jerry features in recent memory, still holding up without any trouble over a decade after its initial release and now looking better than ever before on Blu-ray for the first time. Even while some may be slightly disappointed by the lack of a lossless audio option, nearly everyone should be thrilled with the gorgeous high definition video presentation and the two perfectly suited Christmas themed bonus episodes (which somewhat surprisingly are also presented in high definition) which make up a nice little collection with great quality that can be enjoyed for years to come around the holiday season.

For those of you that might be confused or simply curious about the listed runtime of 79 minutes on this release compared to the runtime of the previously released edition of ‘Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale’ which clocked in under 50 minutes, I just wanted to clarify that the main feature is not an extended version with new footage or anything of that sort. The 79 minute runtime appears to represent the total time of the main film and both bonus episodes altogether.

Overall, the Special Edition Blu-ray release of ‘Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale’ brings the 2007 holiday themed animated feature set to the famous Nutcracker music and featuring our favorite cat and mouse duo home in stunning high definition on Blu-ray for the first time ever. The new Special Edition Blu-ray also comes with two perfectly selected Holiday centric Bonus Episodes also presented in high definition for a perfect ‘Tom and Jerry’ Christmas collection that the entire family can enjoy and revisit every year, and in the best quality this sweet animated feature has ever been available in. For diehard ‘Tom and Jerry’ fans young and old (and any household with dedicated fans) that are even considering a purchase, the Special Edition Blu-ray release shouldn’t disappoint and is recommended. I can confidently say that I’ll likely be revisiting this release myself around the holiday season down the road.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale’ Special Edition features a full 1080p High Definition presentation of ‘A Nutcracker Tale’ with the film’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation of the main feature looks fantastic and provides a beautifully sharp, smooth and vibrantly colored presentation from start to finish with no notable faults or problems to be found along the way. It holds up smoothly even during the various darker and fast moving segments, never allowing anything onscreen to become negatively affected or rendered indiscernible. Overall, this is a wonderful high definition video presentation from Warner Bros. that should easily thrill fans of this ‘Tom and Jerry’ holiday favorite.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a lossy 640 kbps 5.1 channel Dolby Digital soundtrack for the main feature. Even while some fans may be understandably disappointed at the absence of a lossless audio offering, this multichannel soundtrack still sounds pretty fantastic altogether and offers a crisp, clean and occasionally somewhat aggressive audio presentation throughout. It repeatedly takes advantage of all five available channels in order to send the famous nutcracker music along with bits of action and other effects throughout the various speakers whenever it’s appropriate, and never conflicting with any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously. Overall, this is a quite solid 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack that holds its own quite well and never disappoints.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Special Edition Blu-ray release of ‘Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale’ includes 2 Holiday Themed Bonus Episodes, both of which are also presented in high definition and their original 4×3 Aspect Ratios (we’ve also included a screenshot of each below): ‘Tom and Jerry: The Night Before Christmas’ (running approximately 9 minutes in length) and ‘Tom and Jerry: Santa’s Little Helpers’ (running approximately 22 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Disc Rating: 6.5/10

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‘Tom And Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale’ Special Edition is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from Warner Bros. Entertainment

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