Tom and Jerry: Spy Quest (DVD)

Warner Bros only has 3-4 lines of cartoon movies made for the direct market, DC, Scooby Doo, Tom & Jerry and possibly with the release of The Flintstones vs WWE, maybe the Flintstones too. So for the time being, this type of team-up is how we get new adventures from our other favorite Hanna Barbera stars.Like Abbott and Costello, Tom and Jerry have gone to Mars, and now, like Abbott and Costello, they are taking their comedy stylings to an adventure franchise and doing so quite well.If you can like a cartoon pairing between a slapstick comedy team and an adventure team, this movie will not let you down. There are moments of incredulousness that you have to get past, but this movie is giant piles of fun with unrelenting action. And for the Tom and Jerry fans, they do their cat and mouse tomfoolery bit 3-5 times during the movie.The movie opens with a cameo from Spike and Tyke and later features visits from Droopy and Jezebel Jade. James Hong brings new depth to the character of Doctor Zin that had me wondering if the voice was being done by Ken Jeong. The character designs by Dan Haskett are fantastic and a bit reminiscent of John K's stuff when Kricfalusi isn't trying to gross everyone out.The DVD opens with trailers for a second Batman Unlimited movie and a new Lego Justice league movie. Bonus features include 4 Tom and Jerry shorts from the recent (current?) cartoon series and a pair of Doctor Zin episodes of Jonny Quest, one from the 60's series and one from the 80's series. Also trailers for Flintstones vs WWE and Tom & Jerry: the Lost Dragon.I have only 2 complaints about this. First, it is not available on Blu Ray, and second, there is a brief animation of Droopy that is run twice in the same way.But start to finish this is a super awesome movie. I hope this movie does well enough to launch Jonny Quest intro a series of movies for the direct market as well as Tom & Jerry crossovers with other Super Adventure stars like Space Ghost and The Herculoids. Maybe Tom and Jerry could help the kids who call on Shazzan for help, to finally find their way home. Or underwater adventures with Moby Dick?

I love "Jonny Quest." No, actually I LOVE "Jonny Quest" and have ever since I was a tiny girl sitting with my dad on that long ago Friday night when it premiered. Those wonderful characters got a bad rap after the 1995 update, but they remain great favorites with many fans. When I first heard about this project over a year ago, I was curious as to how well it would work for our dramatic, rather serious heroes to be blended with the generally annoying and eternally slapstick cat and mouse team Tom and Jerry. However, since the folks working on this project were fellow diehard Quest fans, I knew that our heroes--the happily classic Jonny, his unflappable adopted brother Hadji, the kindly Dr. Benton Quest, tough bodyguard Race Bannon, the all-knowing Bandit and the gorgeously crafty Jezebel Jade--would be handled well. Yes, this is actually a typical Tom and Jerry direct-to-DVD tale...but (thankfully) the Quest team makes it so much more than that. The story itself has some flaws, such as the Quest's "secret" base being renamed, well-labeled and lit up with beacons at night (!) or the dated 'Yellow Peril' delivery of the dreaded Dr. Zin or the numerous times when a smaller character impossibly supports or lifts a character two or three times his/her weight/size. It's not a big deal, though. What's important is the warmth, bravery and charm depicted between the members of the Quest family and Race and their immediate affection for that trouble-making cat and mouse pair. The DVD includes one classic "Jonny Quest" episode (The Fraudulent Volcano), one from the 1980s update "The New Adventures Of Jonny Quest" plus two Tom and Jerry short subjects. Don't be put off by the concept or title. Just buy it. Trust me: It's worth it!

I became a huge fan of the orginal 1964 Jonny Quest series when I was in college in the 1990’s. It was being played in reruns on weekday afternoons, about the time I got home from classes. I had already been vaguely familiar with it, recalling that it had been rerunning when I was a child in the ‘70’s and 80’s, but at the time I hadn’t paid much attention to it. However, in my young adulthood, it was something to unwind with after a long day of professors lecturing—and what caught my attention was just how “non-cartoonish” it was. Unlike more recent kidsfare (i.e. GI Joe, Transformers) where laser beams spraying everywhere never resulted in anyone actually dying, Jonny Quest pulled no punches, such as action man Race Bannon firing off actual guns with actual bullets and KILLING their deadly attackers. Furthermore, the early 60’s jet age series came off as surprisingly grounded, quasi-realistic, and smartly written, both in terms of characterization and coherent plots. Indeed, it was every bit as good as any mainstream, primetime adventure drama (and better than many). So, when I came across a new adventure in which the mostly grounded Quest Team accidentally team up with...Tom & Jerry... I thought, “ah man, what a way to ruin it.”Now, don’t get me wrong. Who doesn’t love Tom & Jerry? As a child in the 1970’s, I loved watching Tom & Jerry pummel each other, while I ignored reruns of Jonny Quest—and only later discovered how awesome Jonny Quest was. So, it’s fine to love both—but a teamup between the two tonally opposites? Estheticly, you naturally prefer to let “Tom & Jerry” be “Tom & Jerry” and let “Jonny Quest” be “Jonny Quest.” However, since I was in the process of re-watching (and in some cases, watching for the first time) the entire “canon” of the Jonny Quest franchise on DVD box sets, from the original 1960’s jet age series to the 1986 revival, two additional made-for-TV movies from USA Network, all the way to the 1990’s so-called “Real Adventures” of Jonny Quest (meaning what, exactly?—that none of the previous adventures were “real?” What does that even mean?)—so I thought, what the heck. Let’s find out how they manage to bring in the wacky antics of Tom & Jerry. What’s the worst that could happen? After all, most JQ fans seem to consider “Tom & Jerry: Spy Quest” as non-canon/apocryphal. At worst, it’ll be a humorous, wacky romp that will give you a couple of chuckles, without directly harming the more serious nature of the Jonny Quest canon—if there is such a thing as “canon” when it comes to Jonny Quest.Seriously, what does “canon” or continuity mean when Jonny Quest is twelve years old in 1964, he’s still twelve in 1986, as well as during his 1993 “Golden Quest,” and doesn’t even turn fifteen until his conceitedly titled “Real Adventures” in 1996—all of which, every iteration, appearing to take place in the decades in which they were produced? Or, wait, is ALL in some non-specific “near future?” Keep in mind that every interation of the property features the Quest Team (including the original 1960’s version) utilizing futuristic technologies that remain out of reach even in our modern 2020’s reality. Furthermore, the most recent series in 1996 has a rather hubristic title (the REAL Adventures) that would seem to telegraph what the then-showrunners thought of all the previous source material (hence, the main reason I kind of boycotted watching “The Real Adventures” when it first aired, because its title sounded insulting)—and yet, ironically, despite its dismissive title, the so-called “Real Adventures” seem to heavily reference and remain in relatively faithful continuity with all the previous series and movies-of-the-week (i.e. the inclusion of Race’s daughter, Jessie, who first popped up in the late 80’s/early 90’s revivals as a little girl and is now a young woman in the 1996 “Real Adventures”). Its title not-withstanding, the Real Adventures (which turns out to be a pretty decent series, by the way) is relatively faithful to all the “old” adventures—albiet some rather confusing discontinuity regarding Jessie’s true parentage, not to mention when the heck decade does any of this actually take place?Is it the 1960’s innovative jet age when Dr. Quest’s futuristic inventions seemed like they COULD be right around the corner? (NOTE: the Quest Team’s encounter with a retired World War I (which ended in 1918!) fighter pilot, who looks to be a sturdy age 65-70, pretty firmly places the orginal series in the early 1960’s). Is it the late 80’s/early 90’s when everyone has a laser gun and can fly a futuristic spaceship to an over-the-top space station with artificial gravity, massive towers and domes, and looks to be the size of Manhattan? You remember those in the 80’s and 90’s, don’t you? Or is it circa 1996 when the world and tech surrounding Jonny and friends seems reasonably 90’s appropriate, except for a super-advanced virtual reality interface (the infamous “Quest World” which remains in advance of current 2020’s VR tech)? By the way, the “Real Adventures,” we learn that Race was involved with a government raid on a terrorist group in 1978, specifically, and that flashback event is stated to have occurred “almost twenty years ago,” which would line up pretty close to 1996, when the episode aired, that is assuming that “almost twenty years ago” is intended to mean eighteen years ago, to be more precise. Given all that, how does one determine what is or is not “canon” when it comes to Jonny Quest? Is it one continuity with the caveat of a sliding timeframe? It is a multiverse? Is it really all that jarring to see Tom & Jerry mix it up with the almost equally wacky antics of Bandit the dog? I don’t know. You decide. But I can tell you this:All the typical cartoon antics of Tom & Jerry aside, the overall story and plotline of “Spy Quest” makes for a surprisingly legitimate Jonny Quest adventure! Edit out Tom & Jerry and you would think you were watching a regular Jonny Quest episode, with an arguably more humorous tone than normal. Although, keep in mind, it’s only the adults, Dr. Quest and Race Bannon, who tend to be oh-so-serious all the time in the face of grave danger. Meanwhile, Jonny and Hadji tend to bring to the table a kid-friendly banter even in their darkest missions—while Bandit the dog’s wacky comic relief isn’t all that less bonkers than that of Tom & Jerry. So, why not let Tom & Jerry tag along with Team Quest if their primary purpose is to mix it up with Bandit?Indeed, while Tom & Jerry (& Bandit) incite laughs in the background, they mostly stay out of the way, while the core characters of “Jonny Quest” remain fully in character on a perilous spy-fi adventure that would not at all be out of place in the middle of Jonny Quest’s original first season. Dr. Quest is as squarely “serious” and compassionate as ever. Jonny and Hadji haven’t changed at all, as they get into the same kind of trouble they always do. Race does get a little more comically flustered by Jezebel Jade than he typically does, but he remains as badass as ever on the butt-kicking action front—and fully in character. Only the evil Dr. Zin pushes the boundaries of his generally humorless personality, as he’s forced to react to the comical idiocies of three anthropomorphic feline henchmen whom Tom & Jerry would find familiar (“erm, d-d-definitely, defiantly familiar!”)—and are, frankly, no less believable than the gun-weilding, anthropomorphic creatures we’ve seen Zin genetically engineer in the past, in such “conical” films as “Jonny’s Golden Quest” and “Jonny Quest vs. The Cyber-Insects.” The main difference with those grotesque creations was that they were truly frightening and competent enough to kill you if weren’t lucky enough to be one of the heroes. These talking alley cats are simply morons, but it’s actually refreshing to see Zin show a sense of humor in his annoyance over their bumblings (“Really?? Fish sticks, again?? This is the third time this week!”)—and yet, Zin still remains Zin to his diabolical core. We even learn some interesting tidbits about Zin’s origin story that could easily be adopted into the “serious” mainstream canon of JQ.Despite “Tom & Jerry” being in the title, if you were to ask me, “Is this a Tom & Jerry story or a Jonny Quest story?” I would say without hesitation: this is a full blown Jonny Quest action adventure MOVIE, in which Tom & Jerry just happen to be surprising, but not overly intrusive guest stars. I’d even go so far as to say that Tom & Jerry are their typical wacky selves, and yet, to me, seem a little more well behaved than usual—allowing the more serious “Jonny Quest” characters to play it straight and not seem to “notice” the cartoonish, anthropomorphic natures of a certain cat and mouse.In fact, I considered giving this film a full five stars. It’s thoroughly entertaining and does very little to damage the quasi-grounded “believability” of the Jonny Quest franchise, even if you were to go so far as to include it as canon. In many ways, this JQ/T&J crossover is more faithful to the original classic Jonny Quest series than its later revivals in the 1980’s onward. There’s no appearance by the rediculous (albiet likable) Hard Rock of the 1986 Jonny Quest revival (hey, you got Tom & Jerry and even a Droopy cameo, so why not Hard Rock?), but “Tom & Jerry: Spy Quest” is indeed a full blown love letter to the original 1964 Jonny Quest, complete with dozens of easter eggs and nods to the classic series (as well as additional the later sequels), which true JQ fans will pick up on. Chronologically, you could even place this movie right in the middle of JQ’s 1964 first season, right around the time that Dr. Quest’s iconic supersonic Quest Jet seemingly disappears without explanation in favor of a smaller, jump jet used towards the end of the season. What ever happened to that iconic superplane from opening credits? Why was it seemingly retired offscreen? Well, according to “Tom & Jerry: Spy Quest,” Jonny and Hadji (along with Tom & Jerry hanging on for dear life) managed to crash it in THIS movie! Even Jonny’s original voice actor, Tim Matheson, makes an adult return to the franchise as a Kennedy-esque President of the United States—fittingly since JFK was so instrumental in cheerleading America’s incredible aerospace innovations of the early 60’s, the kind of innovations (and plausible dreaming) so celebrated by the original Jonny Quest series (only to become less plausible and more over the top by the time Jonny Quest returned in 1986).The only thing the prevents me from giving it a full five stars (I’m still giving it a very respectable four) as a “fully legit,” “fully canonical” Jonny Quest adventure is the final act. Although most of the film allows the “Jonny Quest” characters to play it mostly straight, as they seem not notice or be affected by Tom & Jerry’s cartoon antics, things change a bit going into the third act. After the canonically-significant crash of the Quest Jet (something which could even be taken seriously in terms of the JQ chronology), Jonny and Hadji decide to complete their journey to rescue Race and Dr. Quest (being held by Zin), by strapping on their iconic, orginal series jet packs. Cool, right? The problem is, for the first time, it’s fully apparent that Jonny & Hadji recognize Tom & Jerry’s human-like intelligence, where as Bandit, at the end of the day, is still just a dog and is treated as such. While Bandit is happy to ride in a pouch strapped to Jonny, the boys are unphased strapping a jet pack on Tom (a cat!!!) and letting him opperate it himself (with Jerry riding along). While this begins to breakdown the film’s sense of “playing it straight,” it breaks down more in final climatic boss fight—as Tom & Jerry go from background comic relief (a la Bandit) and become much more integral in the final heroics, alongside Jonny, Hadji, Race, and Dr. Quest. The believability factor is then virtually torpedoed as Zin’s volcanic island transforms into a rocket powered flying mountain aimed at attacking Washington, D.C. I could buy that if I was watching Transformers, but I’m watching Jonny Quest. However, to be fair, that’s only slightly more stupid that Dr. Zin constructing a massive space base within an asteroid in “Jonny Quest vs. The Cyber-Insects.” Building a base within a hollowed-out asteroid is at least plausible...in the next hundred years or so. Transforming a MOUNTAIN into a rocket and flying it within the atmosphere, crossing the Atlantic Ocean...not so much.At the same time, the anthropomorphic natures of Tom, Jerry, the talking alley cats of Tom & Jerry’s own rogues gallery turned bumbling henchmen for Zin, and even an appearance by Droopy helping to manage the affairs of Jezebel Jade, are frankly no more or less believable than some of the fantastical things already experienced by the “oh-so-serious” Team Quest—from Hadji’s magic to dinosaurs and living mummies to genetically engineered anthropomorphic animal creatures to Hard Rock. So, why not Tom & Jerry? It’s a thoroughly fun ride whether it’s “canon” or not.

Another great Tom and Jerry movie.

Cadeaux pour les enfants. Toujours aussi drôle.

Mais bon qui s'en plaindrait, les dessins ont 60 ans et c'est tout de même un must pour tout le monde, Les éternels Tom et Jerry nous font toujours rire autant, n'est ce pas l'essentiel ?

il n'y a pas de sous titres en français. ceci dit c'est surtout du sans paroles . ss titres ne anglais