Trivia / Tom & Jerry (2021)

• California Doubling:
  • Zigzagged. While the film was mostly filmed in New York City, the Royal Gate hotel scenes were shot at Warner Bros. Leavesden Studios in London.
• Content Leak:
  • On October 25, 2020, camera footage of the French teaser trailer was posted on Twitter, giving fans their first peek at footage before the American teaser's release in November.
  • The film's HBO Max release became the vehicle for another movie's leak when the Tom and Jerry file was inexplicably replaced with that of Zack Snyder's Justice League, 10 days ahead of that film's release date. The streaming service corrected the error within an hour of its discovery by excited Twitter users, though it bizarrely resulted in the movie's title on the website briefly changing into "Tom and Jerry (Do Not Use)" despite functioning as expected.
• Development Hell:
  • A live-action Tom and Jerry movie had been in and out of development since the 1970's with attempts by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer with Bonnie and Clyde writer David Newman and animator Chuck Jones. In 2009, a film was announced that would have been an origin story in which Tom and Jerry get lost in Chicago and try to find their way home, with a style similar to the Alvin and the Chipmunks films.
  • At one point in development, the film was to have been entirely animated.
• Missing Trailer Scene: According to producer Chris DrFaria the trailer's scene of Tom and Jerry bidding farewell to each other on the highway came from a deleted opening, in which Tom and Jerry get kicked out of their house after wrecking the place with their antics. Which was confirmed to be cut for time, and due to the audience's existing knowledge on the duo's dynamic that another introduction didn't feel necessary to them.
  • The one prominently featured scene in all trailers and TV spots of Chef Jackie exclaiming "I will NOT let this hotel be ruined by a cat and a mouse!" is not in the final movie.
• Posthumous Credit: William Hanna's voice is reused via archival audio from the 1940s cartoons. He died in 2001.
• Promoted Fanboy: The cast and crew of the film have all grown up as avid fans of the cartoons, and happily joined the project for their given roles.
• Release Date Change: Originally scheduled for December 2020, the film was delayed to March 5, 2021 due to the the COVID-19 pandemic forcing animation and post-production to be done from home. Fortunately, live-action photography was completed right before Hollywood production shutdown measures were implemented. The film was then bumped up a week earlier to February 26, 2021, likely so it won't compete with Raya and the Last Dragon, which will also see a simultaneous release on theatrical and streaming platforms.
• Role Reprise: Via archive audio, the late William Hanna reprises his role as Tom and Jerry.
• Sleeper Hit: Despite terrible reviews and simultaneous availability on HBO Max, the film opened with one of the largest weekends of the COVID-19 pandemic up to that point with $14.1 million, significantly ahead of The Croods: A New Age and the following weekend's Raya and the Last Dragon, surprising most box-office pundits.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Olivia Cooke, Zoey Deutch, Hailee Steinfeld, Isabela Moner, Ariel Winter, Elle Fanning, Naomi Scott, Yara Shahidi, Sofia Carson, Meg Donnelly, Kelly Marie Tran, and Becky G were considered for Kayla before the casting of Chloë Grace Moretz. In Isabela Moner's case, she would have been reunited with her Dora and the Lost City of Gold co-star Michael Peña.
  • Peter Dinklage was considered for the part of Terrance before Michael Peña was cast.
  • In this early leaked test footage (at the 1:23 mark) Tom and Jerry at one point had more realistic animal-like designs before they had their classic designs in cell-shaded CGI. This is most likely left over from the 2009 incarnation.
  • As mentioned up top, the film was originally going to be fully animated. The plot of this scrapped version was going to be a Human-Focused Adaptation centering around a young family moving into a country house in New England listed for sale, which is inhabited by Jerry, who tries to scare them away, prompting the family to take in Tom in order to catch the mouse. The duo would then have to learn about friendship and work together to protect the family from an outside threat.

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