Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is a 2017 American direct-to-video animated musical fantasy comedy film starring the cat-and-mouse duo, named mh:besttvshows:Tom and Jerry. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and Turner Entertainment Co., it is the first Tom and Jerry direct-to-video film to be distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment internationally and is also the final Tom and Jerry direct-to-video film to be involved with Warner Bros. Animation's founder Hal Geer, who died on January 26, 2017.

The film is an animated adaptation of the 1971 film mh:greatestmovies:Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (which in turn is based on the 1964 book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl) with the addition of Tom and Jerry as characters and seen through their point of view. The film was released via digital media on June 27, 2017, and released on home media on July 11, 2017.

Plot
In a re-telling of the 1971 classic film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Tom and Jerry must help Charlie Bucket attain and find one of the five Golden Tickets (found by Augustus Gloop, Violet Beauregarde, Veruca Salt, and Mike Teavee) and secretly accompany him alongside Grandpa Joe into Willy Wonka's entire chocolate factory to not only prevent Mr. Arthur Slugworth (later known as Mr. Wilkinson), one of Wonka's rival competitors and Spike, one of Tom's enemies, from stealing a special candy known as the Everlasting Gobstopper, but also experience the wonderful world of the chocolate factory with the guide of Tuffy, a mouse who is about to become a real Oompa-Loompa. The lucky few who find a golden ticket are invited to visit Willy Wonka’s world-famous chocolate factory and win a lifetime supply of chocolate.

Why It's NOT A Pure Imagination

 * 1) The idea of having a crossover movie between Tom and Jerry and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is rather pointless. The only reason why this movie was made in the first place is because Paramount Pictures, the original distributor of the 1971 film, lost the film rights after the failure, as it was given to Warner Bros. Pictures, who acquired Wolper Productions and could hold on to the film rights to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and not lose them, explaining the strange timing and mismatch of movies as seen below.
 * 2) *First and foremost, the crossover between the franchises of Tom and Jerry and Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in this film feels very forced and poorly mismatched, since both franchises barely have anything in common to begin with other than the fact that they're both Warner Bros. properties. Also. Really, an animated adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory could easily work and better. Just not a dumb shot-for-shot rehashed of the classic 1971 film with Tom and Jerry thrown in.
 * 3) **Yes, its true enough, Tom and Jerry previously had crossovers with other franchises such as in Hanna-Barbera's 50th: A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration (crossover with various Hanna-Barbera cartoons from the 1950s-1970s), Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz and its sequel Tom and Jerry: Back to Oz (crossover with MGM's The Wizard of Oz (1939)), and Tom and Jerry: Spy Quest (crossover with Hanna-Barbera's Jonny Quest), but at least it makes sense, since in those crossovers, Tom and Jerry and the franchises they crossed paths with at least had something in common in one way or another, with such as Tom and Jerry and The Wizard of Oz (1939) being originally a part of MGM during the Golden Age of Hollywood and Tom and Jerry and various Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters such as Jonny Quest being created by both William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (though depending on your views), unlike this crossover film though, since Willy Wonka wasn't part of the MGM and Hanna-Barbera properties, who were created by Roald Dahl.
 * 4) ** The original press release announcing the movie described the inclusion of Tom and Jerry as "a great way to introduce young children to this classic story." As many pointed out, though, Tom and Jerry are decades older than even the original book of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; surely any children today who like cartoons from the 1940s will also likely be familiar with more recent film classics. Furthermore, the original book and film are already intended for young children; why do children need something else to introduce them to a children's movie?
 * 5) Cheap and laughable character designs. For example, Mike Teevee looks uncannily similar to Louie from We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story and Veruca's father, Mr. Salt's appearance looks nothing like his 1971 live-action counterpart.
 * 6) Horrible pacing that makes the plot feels rushed. An example of this is how the five Golden Tickets are found within the first few minutes of the film for gluttonous Augustus Gloop, spoiled Veruca Salt, chewing gum-addicted Violet Beauregarde, television addict Mike Teavee, and finally honest and generous Charlie Bucket.
 * 7) Several characters make so many creepy facial expressions.
 * 8) *A prime example is Willy Wonka's infamous smile at the end of the movie, which later became a meme.
 * 9) *Another example is that in the scene where Violet is giving the ticket to Wonka, her eyes are wonky.
 * 10) *Also, special mention goes to Charlie Bucket.
 * 11) ** Lazy eyes are very common.
 * 12) ** His expression when everyone ditches school early to get Wonka Bars, as well as the fact he's so into a stupor he doesn't pay attention to anyone else. He looks like he's hopped up on drugs.
 * 13) ** Time and time again, the movie cuts to Charlie just standing there, making a weird expression most of the time as if it's attempting a Reaction Shot.
 * 14) Many poor attempts at humor, which lack the charm of the 1971 and 2005 film as well as the original book.
 * 15) There is a pointless filler scene where Tom and Jerry try to return Charlie's forgotten ticket, and the latter is saved after the birds got stolen to the nest.
 * 16) Tom and Jerry, while likable, feel like they have been thrown in at the last minute, as they serve little-to-no purpose to the plot. In fact, they could be written out and nothing would change.
 * 17) Mr. Slugworth has been miscast as a legitimate main antagonist in the film for no discernible reason, which makes the ending plot twist take of him not being revealed to be a villainous person confusing, who is really unfamiliar of fans to the Roald Dahi's book or movie adaptations.
 * 18) Badly suggested on this film, where it keeps the 1971 film's ending reveals that the "Mr. Slugworth" Charlie meets was actually Mr. Wilkinson, one of Wonka's employees that were sent to test the children. However, in this version, this perfectly fine twist from the original movie is rendered completely nonsensical one in this one due to Slugworth having a much more prominent role in the plot than the novel and the 1971 film. Instead of the stoic and mysterious figure he was in the original, Slugworth is portrayed as a cackling madman and even keeps up this villainous façade with Tom, Jerry, and Tuffy by attempts to steal the Everlasting Gobstopper, which is not helped by the fact Tuffy also works for Wonka, and would surely know about this fake Slugworth and his role in Wonka's plan when he could have easily explained to them that Charlie wasn't in danger and sent them on their way. Later Wilkinson returns and asks if Charlie and the others passed the test, but just gives it for no reason. The movie's attempts to explain Slugworth's actions here end up falling flat and simply raise even more questions.
 * 19) There are some scenes that have poorly set up, such as the scene where Grandpa Joe, Charlie's grandpa, starts walking again after twenty years.
 * 20) The film butchers all of the original songs, particularly the tunnel song sung by Tuffy.
 * 21) Many of the animations for characters are really disturbing, such as Tuffy going completely out of control in the tunnel scene that is nightmare-inducing.
 * 22) Extremely lack of subtlety.
 * 23) Very poor timing, due to it being released less than a year after Gene Wilder's death on August 29, 2016.
 * 24) Tuffy's sub-plot about becoming an official Oompa-Loompa is not all that interesting.
 * 25) At the end of the film, when Mr. Wilkinson tells everyone that they are just pretending to be villains, Tom shrinks both Wilkinson and Spike, locks them in a drawer, and we never see or hear from them again.
 * 26) For some pointless, inexplicable and unexplained reason, Mr. Slugworth steals Veruca's song "I Want it Now".
 * 27) The movie and musical songs are so mostly carbon copy-and-paste that they are almost exact-replicas, like "The Candy Man" and "Pure Imagination".
 * 28) Violet's famous blueberry inflation scene is badly animated. For example, when she turns blue after chewing gum that contains an entire three-course dinner: tomato soup, roast beef with baked potato, and blueberry pie with ice cream, it looks more like a purple-colored light is flashing on her (probably an attempt to replicate how the effect was done in the original film), and when she swells up, not only does her belt not snap off (which happened in the original film by the way), but when she's done swelling, she looks more like she's overweight rather than a blueberry.
 * 29) Some scenes and dialogues are not even the same as they were in the original movie. For example, when Veruca Salt sings "I Want It Now", she starts halfway through the song, instead of the beginning in the original film and during Violet's defeat where she is turning into blueberry inflation, Willy Wonka says "Stop, don't, come back." in a casual, careless tone of voice, where he looks bored and just wants to get every scene over with when in the original version, he said that during Mike Teavee's defeat where he was shrunk to three inches.
 * 30) Most of the scenes from the original film are officially turned into generic cartoony slapstick.
 * 31) The film destroys the meaning and continuity of most scenes as well as the faithfulness of the book, like when Tom, Jerry, and Tuffy as well as Charlie Bucket and Grandpa Joe are fighting Mr. Slugworth and Spike via Wonka-vision to get the Everlasting Gobstopper back, they turn to multiple sizes before returning back to normal, when in the original film and the book, there was no way to do that, especially since Charlie and Grandpa Joe don't fight Arthur Slugworth for Wonka-vision.
 * 32) Several errors between this and the original film, like how here is the lickable wallpaper is in the inventing room as well as sticky in this movie (which is unexplained) and in the original film, it is in a corridor outside of the inventing room as well as non-sticky.
 * 33) Hypocrisy at its finest here: It was revealed that the real reason why Willy Wonka doesn't like cats, especially in this case Tom, is because of fear of vandalizing his entire chocolate factory and violating the factory contract rules. Yet he doesn't mind hiring both Spike and Tuffy (which we remind you are both a dog and a mouse respectfully) to work at his factory.
 * 34) Plot hole: When Willy Wonka refuses to give Charlie and Grandpa Joe their lifetime supply of chocolate in the climax, he states that Charlie violated the contract he signed. Although the scene of Charlie signing said contract exists in the original film, this version features no such equivalent, rendering this key plot twist incomprehensible.
 * 35) There are lots of rather stupid moments like Spike has been inflation by blueberry and Tom just drinks the fizzy lifting drink for the air balloon by Jerry since Willy Wonka doesn't allow everyone to drink the fizzy lifting drink that might be bumped into the roof ceiling that has to be washed (except Charlie Bucket and Grandpa Joe).

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) While the plot is badly rushed, there's still a fair amount of focus on Charlie and Wonka's side of the story.
 * 2) Jeff Bergman returns to voice Droopy for the first time since the 2010s Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes.
 * 3) As mentioned above, Tom and Jerry are still likeable characters despite their null purpose in the plot.
 * 4) This film has the scary tunnel scene from the original film, but this one is considered way crazier than the original one and it has the same rhymes verbatim. Tuffy even says the word "hell" uncensored. It's very clear that Kath Soucie was really enjoying herself when recording this scene.
 * 5) The visuals for Slugworth's rendition of "I Want It Now" are very creative, despite the scene being pointless.
 * 6) Although the film was mostly a carbon copy of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in narrative, we do get to see a scene where Mr. Salt finally stands up to his daughter and roughly pulls her ear and says he's going to be more strict with her.
 * 7) *The scene also confirms that Veruca Salt and her father did survive their fall into the garbage incinerator, which is good as the original film left ambiguous whether the bratty kids survived or not unlike the book and the 2005 film. By showing this, it can be assumed that Augustus Gloop, Violet Beauregarde, and Mike Teeave survived as well.
 * 8) Some of the slapstick with Tom and Jerry is actually kinda funny.
 * 9) Splendid animation that is a step up from the previous Tom & Jerry direct-to-video movies, even if there are weird and creepy facial expressions.
 * 10) The voice acting is decent, especially Jess Harnell as he does a spot-on impression of Jack Albertson, Grandpa Joe's actor from the original film, and JP Karliak as he does a good impression of Gene Wilder, Willy Wonka's actor from the original film.
 * 11) Violet being a redhead instead of a brunette is accurate to the book.
 * 12) Droopy's cameo, as usual, is superb and clever. Even picturing him as Alberto Minoleta seems funny!
 * 13) The film can be enjoyed by some people who think that it’s so bad, it’s good (tellingly, it has its own Narm subpage on TV Tropes).

Reception
The film's trailer was met with negative receptions, after it was released in April 2017, with questioning why the film was made and was insensitive to release a Charlie & The Chocolate Factory movie less than a year after the death of Gene Wilder, who portrayed Wonka in the original 1971 film. Ryan Scott of Movieweb reacted to the trailer by describing it as "just the latest in a long line of these uncalled for mashups."

Upon released, Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was met with overwhelmingly negative reviews, with some critics questioning its existence. Criticisms revolving around the fact that it is basically a shot-per-shot rehash of the original Willy Wonka film but with the addition of Tom and Jerry inserted onto the story despite their lack of relevance in the film.

In a review of the film, Beth Elderkin of Gizmodo wrote: "Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is not just stupid, it's insulting. It's a cheap mock buster with a cat and mouse artlessly, needlessly inserted."

This film ended up being the last direct-to-video Tom & Jerry film, at least until the announcement of the upcoming direct-to-video Tom & Jerry film Tom and Jerry: Cowboy Up! slated for a 2022 release, while Roald Dahl's estate revoked the license for Dahl's works from Warner Bros. and gave it to Netflix instead. However, a prequel titled Wonka, set to focus exclusively on Willy Wonka's origins will be released by Warner Bros. on 17 March 2023 by Paul King. The third major film to feature the character, Wonka himself will be portrayed by Timothée Chalamet.

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Trivia

 * The film's premise has inspired a lot of parodies involving Tom and Jerry taking part in more absurd crossover ideas of WB classics, such as mmTom and Jerry in Goodfellas and Tom and Jerry in 2001 A Space Odyssey''.
 * The film is referred to as "DeviantArt: The Movie", due in no small part to the Off-Model animation and blatant fetish-pandering going on at numerous points. It's also worth noting that there's a community of people on DA that are REALLY into making crossover fanfictions that consist in shoving their OCs or characters from other media into a movie, tagging along with the protagonist.
 * The film is dedicated to Gene Wilder.
 * TCM originally referred to it as Tom and Jerry: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, in line with the book. It was likely changed to avoid confusion to the 2005 adaptation.
 * Willy Wonka's infamous smile at the end of the film became an Internet meme.
 * This is, to date, one of the very few mockbuster films produced by a major Hollywood studio's direct-to-video unit (in this case, Warner Bros.' television animation unit Warner Bros. Animation).
 * Tom and Jerry previously appeared in a (nearly) shot-for-shot animated remake of a pre-existing live-action musical film The Wizard of Oz (1939) called Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz produced six years prior.
 * 19 years before this film came out, Warner Bros. also previously did an animated direct-to-video mockbuster of a pre-existing live-action classic film as early as 1998 in order to coincide with the studio's 75th anniversary, in this case, is The Mighty Kong (1998), an animated musical remake based on RKO Radio Pictures' original King Kong (1933) film, which wasn't even a musical or a family film, to begin with. Like many other cheap direct-to-video mockbusters produced by major studios such as Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, The Mighty Kong was very negatively received by both critics and audiences alike, with most criticisms targeted at their unnecessary existence as well and the films' dumbing down of the original films' source materials for its target audience of children.