Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass review furry foes out of their depth in candy-coated Chinese adventure

"Tom and Jerry, the cartoon foes of yore, are chasing each other around a museum in present-day New York City when they are supernaturally transported, thanks to a magic compass doodah, to a quasi-medieval China where humans mix freely with gods and cryptozoological animals including phoenixes, gargoyles and talking rats."

"Which, admittedly, isn't a massive conceptual leap from Tom and Jerry's usual imaginary world, where a cat and a mouse can be endlessly regenerated after being flattened, sliced, diced or blown up according to comedy needs. Nevertheless, there's some serious cognitive dissonance going on here; this is a mix-and-match mashup of mythologies that fans of the original T&J shorts, written and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera in the 1940s and 50s, may find disturbing."

"Welcome to the future, where IP can be infinitely remixed provided you have enough lawyers or material whose copyright has expired. So Tom and Jerry fall out of the sky in this brave new world, and the local residents of Golden City assume at first they must be gods, and Tom at least isn't in any rush to disabuse them of this notion."

"Partly it's because his newfound fame has helped catch the attention of Jade (voiced in the English dub by Janice Kawaye), a white-furred, blue-eyed opera cat in a red cheongsam dress. For some reason, Jade can both sing and talk, while Tom is mute in the traditional manner apart from the tiny devil and angel that appear on his shoulders occasionally, just to add a little Judeo-Christian iconography to the mix."

Tom and Jerry chase each other in a New York City museum until a magic compass transports them to quasi-medieval China. Humans coexist with gods and cryptozoological animals such as phoenixes, gargoyles, and talking rats. The story blends mythologies and cartoon logic, creating cognitive dissonance for fans of the original shorts. Tom and Jerry fall into Golden City, where residents initially assume they are gods. Tom’s fame draws attention from Jade, an opera cat who can sing and talk. The plot centers on the Phoenix Master, a supernatural humanoid trickster seeking the compass for centuries, and Mega-Rat, an embittered enemy who tries to manipulate Jerry into cooperation.

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