Tom & Jerry: Cowboy Up!
Some slapstick violence in Western-themed cartoon.
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Tom & Jerry: Cowboy Up!
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this movie.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Tom & Jerry: Cowboy Up! is a 2022 animated movie in which the cat and mouse must work together to help a cowgirl keep her ranch away from a greedy land grabber. While not as violent as the classic Tom & Jerry cartoons of yesteryear, there are still many instances of slapstick animated violence. A cowboy falls backwards into a cactus, characters throw pies to the faces of others, characters thrown off carts, chased by angry bulls, thrown into fences. Tom chases Jerry with a pitchfork. Tom fires a cannon and fireworks at the villains. The ranch catches fire and burns down. Aside from this, it's a pretty standard cartoon story, with some positive messages about teamwork and the meaning of home and family.
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What's the Story?
In TOM & JERRY: COWBOY UP!, Bentley has just returned to the ranch that's run by his sister Betty. He has brought along his pet cat Tom, and while Bentley brags to Betty about his success in the city as an aspiring railroad tycoon, Tom is immediately up to his old tricks and chases Jerry and his three mouse nephews around the ranch. After Bentley sees the mice near his food on the dinner table, he immediately wants to catch the mice and remove them from the premises. This leads to an opportunity for a greedy land grabber, who sends a bumbling prairie dog-hating villain who tells Betty his name is "Sunflower Muleytoad" and brings along three cats who he claims are some of the best mouse catchers in the West. As the landgrabber schemes to get Betty to unwittingly sign paperwork that would give away her ranch, Tom and Jerry, along with assistance from Jerry's nephews and a vast coterie of prairie dogs living around and below the ranch, must team up to save the ranch.
Is It Any Good?
It's a Tom and Jerry cartoon set in the Wild West. In this movie, the pair set aside their long-standing rivalry to work together to stop an unscrupulous land grabber from stealing a ranch. There's enough of the comedy slapstick and pratfalls that have come to define Tom's endless pursuit of Jerry, but with none of the violence (and racism) of the mid-20th century cartoons. There are some decent song sequences throughout, and a rare joke intended for the grown-ups instead of the kids. To make up for the lack of speech from Jerry or Tom, Jerry now has three precocious little nephews who don't lack for anything to say.
It's a perfectly fine movie for its targeted audience. Interestingly, the titular cat and mouse don't even come across as the stars of their own movie. There's one distinct sequence near the beginning where Tom chases Jerry, but in the rest of the movie they're overshadowed by Jerry's nephews, the prairie dogs, other cats, the sheriff, and all the other humans. It's nothing new, but kids are likely to enjoy the silly antics.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about cartoon violence like the kind seen in Tom & Jerry: Cowboy Up! How does the violence compare to that in other cartoons, from today and from the past?
What do the characters learn about home and family?
How is this like other movies set in the "Wild West?"
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming: January 25, 2022
- Cast: George Ackles, Sean Burgos, Trevor Devall
- Director: Darrell Van Citters
- Studio: Warner Bros. Animation
- Genre: Family and Kids
- Topics: Cats, Dogs, and Mice, Horses and Farm Animals
- Run time: 75 minutes
- MPAA rating: NR
- Last updated: October 8, 2022
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