Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale is a 2007 animated holiday themed fantasy comedy direct-to-video film starring Tom and Jerry produced by Warner Bros. Animation and directed by Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone. It is loosely based on the story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E. T. A. Hoffmann, with Jerry in the role of the Nutcracker, while Tom played one of the King Mouse's (who, in this version, is replaced with a cat) henchmen.
This film would be the last animated production for co-creator, Joseph Barbera, who died on December 18, 2006, and the film was dedicated to his memory.
The movie begins with Jerry and his young ward Tuffy (who here sports his French accent from the Mouseketeer shorts) watching the Christmas ballet. Later, Jerry goes to the empty stage floor, where magic begins to happen. Toys come alive including Nellie the pony (who can only talk if someone pulls her string) and Paulie the Christmas Ornament (who was missing a head, due to Jerry kicking it earlier on). The magic then makes Le Petite Ballerina, (a ballerina) come to life, and Jerry dances with her.
The stage is transformed into a wintry wonderland, where the toys are enjoying dinner. Tom, who is in the alley looking for something to eat, hears this, and, with the other cats, raid the feast, trapping the toys. Jerry, Paulie, and Nellie try to stop this, but are shot out of a cannon. Tuffy escapes, Tom as the Captain of the Cat Guards traps the Ballerina in a cage, then brings her to the Cat king, where he asks her to dance for him, but she refuses and tells the cat that she will never dance for him, especially after what happened earlier with the take over. The Cat king tell the Ballerina there is nothing she can do about it, in which she reminds him about Jerry, and that he will never give up. Later on, Tom is called to gather men and stop Jerry. Tuffy gives the Ballerina a string attached to keys, on the end of which is keys. He then goes to stop Tom. Meanwhile, Jerry, Paulie, and Nellie decide to follow the star to a man called the Toy Maker. They stop in front of a frozen river. All make it safely, except Jerry who falls in, and becomes tangled in weed. He is freed, and is pulled up by Nellie and Paulie. This makes Paulie unravel. Tuffy gets to Tom, and dresses up as an angel and a devil. He is found out, and ends up sticking a trident in Tom's eye, which the cats hold together like a ladder, causing them to fall in a cliff (Tom screams the Wilhelm scream). He runs to Jerry, warning him of the cats. Tom and his friends, disguised as Christmas trees, surround Jerry, but Tom gets attacked by squirrels, and shredded in a tree shredder. The cats attack, but the heroes escape, inside a tree. The cats beat up Tom by mistake.
The heroes then come to a hill, where Paulie's head is sent flying into another hole. They go into the hole, only to find a fiery world with lava pits and dragons (the Arabian Dance plays through this scene). A flame fairy gives Paulie his head back. A dragon wakes up, but is hypnotized by Jerry into lifting them out of the pit. They launch a cannon, which blasts Jerry and his friends into a house with clocks. Tom gives chase, but is pecked on by wooden birds. The heroes then come to a hill, in which Paulie loses his head. They go into the hole, only to find a fiery world with lava pits and dragons (the Arabian Dance plays through this scene). A flame fairy gives Paulie his head back. A dragon wakes up, but is hypnotized by Jerry into lifting them out of the pit. They are chased by the cats again, and run into a fairground. Tom is virtually destroyed here, being crushed again and again - of course, this being a cartoon, he always revives. They make it to a ridge, and Jerry blows up a balloon with which they make it off safely. Tom though, is blasted by cannons. One cat shoots an arrow, bursting Nellie's balloon. Tuffy grabs on to her, and unravels more of Paulie. Nellie is let down, and chased by the cats. Jerry saves her, but he lets go of her string. The cats pull her string, and she tells them where the others are headed. The remaining three make it to the Toy Maker, who fixes Paulie, and gives them toy soldiers. The three depart with their newly attained army in order to take back their kingdom.
Later, when the cats attempt to escape the army of toy soldiers, the Ballerina appears with the other toys, and she leads them in an army as a way to show the Cat king how they felt being locked up. Tom vacuums up many of the soldiers, but they are blown onto the cats. Jerry and Tuffy are eaten by Tom, but Nellie returns, and throws a hammer, smashing Tom's teeth. Jerry then pushes a toy train and all the cats ride on it until it hits a wall and the wreckage goes into a box, with all the bad cats inside. Then the Ballerina hugs Jerry telling him that she never doubted him. Then, a wall falls down on Nellie, but fortunately, the magic revives her, and she begins to talk on her own, without a string having to be pulled. King Jerry and the Queen Ballerina dance after receiving their crowns back and the curtain is let down, revealing that the entire movie actually was a play. Ending the movie.
This was the fifth Tom and Jerry film to be filmed in widescreen (the first four being Tom and Jerry: The Movie, due to its theatrical release back in 1993, Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars, Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry, due to its limited theatrical release back in 2006, and Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers) and the fourth one to be filmed in the high-definition format (the first three being Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars, Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry, and Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers), although the Region 1 DVD was in full screen (cropping the left and right of the image), though not pan and scan as the camera stays directly in the center of the image. Like other television shows filmed in high-definition (such as American Idol, Father of the Pride, Curious George, and Out of Jimmy's Head) and other films filmed in high-definition (such as The Proud Family Movie, Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry, Scooby-Doo! in Where's My Mummy?, High School Musical, and The Land Before Time XII: The Great Day of the Flyers), the monitor the animation team would have worked from would have 16:9 and 4:3 safe areas so that the full screen version would not crop off too much of any important visual elements (such as characters). However, the film is broadcast in widescreen on Cartoon Network HD.
At the start of the film, a title card saying "A WARNER BROS. ANIMATION CARTOON" is used with a sketch of the WB shield. similar to the one first shown in the theatrical short The Karate Guard. The style is in the style of the MGM Cartoons logo used in the old Tom & Jerry cartoons. There is also a re-creation of the Tom and Jerry title card and a "The End, A Tom and Jerry Cartoon" card from some of those cartoons. This is also reused for Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes.
This its the first Tom and Jerry direct-to-video film series to be Christmas-themed
This film is the shortest Tom and Jerry direct-to-video film running at only 47 minutes.
This is the first Tom and Jerry DTV film series to have songs.
