Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars

Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars is a 2005 American animated science fiction comedy-adventure film starring the cat-and-mouse duo Tom and Jerry. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and Turner Entertainment Co., it is the second made-for-video Tom and Jerry film.

With both the pre-production and post-production processes being based in the United States, it was animated by Filipino-based Toon City in Manila, Philippines.

The film was released on DVD and VHS on January 18, 2005, and on Blu-ray on October 16, 2012. Alongside Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry (also written and directed by Bill Kopp), the release of the film coincided with the 65th anniversary of the cat-and-mouse team's debut in 1940. It is Joseph Barbera's first solo Tom and Jerry work without his partner William Hanna, who died on March 22, 2001.

Voice Cast:

 * Bill Kopp as Tom Cat & Press Guy #1
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Jerry Mouse
 * Kathryn Fiore as Peep & Press Girl
 * Frank Welker as Spike the Bulldog & Ubu
 * Jeff Bennett as Dr. Gluckman, Martian Guard #1 & President
 * Corey Burton as Martian Scientist, Court Attendant & Eyes At The Gate
 * Brad Garrett as Commander Bristle & Martian Guard #3
 * Jess Harnell as Buzz Blister, Martian General & Worker #3
 * Tom Kenny as Grob, Gardener #1 & Martian Guard #2
 * Rob Paulsen as Computer Voice, Worker #1 & Worker #2
 * Billy West as Biff Buzzard, King Thingg & Gardener #2

Trivia:

 * Rated G (General Audience Suggested): mild violence.
 * Suggested Running Times: 74 Minutes (NTSC), 71 Minutes (PAL).
 * In Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry, a poster of Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars can be seen when Tom and Jerry are racing in the final race.

Production:
According to Bill Kopp, the film's director and writer, the film was conceived and scripted in 2003 alongside Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry; the film was announced by Business Wire on November 22, 2004.

Widescreen:
This was the first Tom and Jerry film to be filmed in widescreen and the first one to be filmed in the high-definition format, although the Region 1 DVD and the U.S. version of Boomerang were 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 television shows filmed in high-definition and other films filmed in high-definition, 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 in the United States and released in widescreen on the Region A Blu-ray.

Reception:
The film received a negative review from Radio Times, which gave the film a two-star review and said "the characters are drawn a little too sharply, and the running time is just too long for the pacing that made the original shorts so perfect". Screen Rant has listed the film as one of the worst Tom and Jerry movies ever made saying "The plot is fairly convoluted with the journey to and the journey from Mars feeling like they could have been made into two separate films which is likely why it received a lower score". Writing in 2016 in the book "Mars in the Movies: A History", Thomas Miller described it as "utterly pointless".

Internationally, the film was also reviewed poorly. The Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet said that "the first five minutes of this movie, in which Tom & Jerry ravage a regular kitchen, are much better than the trip to Mars with all its consequences". The German film review website MDPress gave the film 6/10, criticising the film's lack of logic even in the context of a children's cartoon.

Conversely, Renee Schonfeld of Common Sense Media gave it a positive review, rating it 3 out of 5 stars and saying "This franchise entry is funnier than some and has a wittier, more well-developed story than most."

Follow-up film:
Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry was released on October 11, 2005.

Sequel:
Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to the Moon

External links:

 * Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars at IMDb