[rating: 2]
This is the hardest kind of review to write. When a movie is great, you can't wait to discuss it with the world and recommend it to everyone you meet. When something is painfully, unendurably awful, it inspires you to make humorous, rage-fueled observations. But when, like Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale, a movie is just sort of whatever, there isn't much to say.
Granted, by comparison with yesterday's version of The Nutcracker, this thing is practically Citizen Kane. But on its own merits, the only word you can use to describe it is: meh.
The cartoon is a very loose telling of the Nutcracker story, with Jerry the mouse taking on the duties of the title character. A pretty little ballerina has been kidnapped by the evil cat king, who has also usurped the leadership of Toyland. (It's sort of weird to use a mouse as the hero in a story where it's traditionally the villains who belong to the order rodentia, but there it is.) Jerry must rescue the imprisoned ballerina and depose the pretender to the throne. The cat king sends out troops—led, of course, by none other than Tom—to put a stop to Jerry's do-goodery.
For the ...
