Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		2.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers Blu-ray Movie Review

Trouble's brewing on the Seven Seas...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown February 28, 2014

The problem with the recent string of Tom and Jerry original animated movies comes to bear on Shiver Me Whiskers (2006) and Robin Hood and His Merry Mouse (2012), despite their productions being separated by six years. The cat and mouse duo simply aren't the stars of the story. Shiver and Hood are better than most, I'll grant you, offering the pair more screentime and a more crucial role to play in each adventure. But like the classic characters' latest outing, Tom and Jerry's Giant Adventure, both movies struggle to connect and, ultimately, justify their feature-length existence. I'd even go so far as to say each one feels like little more than an extended episode of a cartoon. In place of "extended," though, put "stretched so thin it tears apart within minutes," and in place of "a cartoon," put "a cartoon loosely based on the Tom and Jerry shorts of old."

Best friends forever!

It's a swashbuckling pirate adventure when Tom sets sail as a lowly cabin cat for the biggest, baddest pirate on the high seas: the infamous Captain Red (Kevin Michael Richardson). Tired of swabbing the deck all day, Tom thinks his luck has changed when a mysterious bottle containing a treasure map washes on board. But poor little Jerry has been guarding the treasure map and now has a greedy cat on his paws. The race is on and Tom and Jerry must work together to get past coconut-throwing monkeys and a giant, slimy octopus, then outsmart the pirates to find the buried treasure.

Between the High Seas and Sherwood Forest, the Shiver Me Whiskers and Merry Mouse opportunities seem endless, and that's because they are. Imagine "Treasure Island" by way of the duo, or even Pirates of the Caribbean. The original cartoon would suddenly become the inspiration for a viable and faithful Tom and Jerry movie. And yet, silent and stagnate, Tom and Jerry are shoved into the middle of stories that hinge on human characters. Human adversity. Human comedy. The beloved cat and mouse are dragged along for the ride (even when they're driving the action forward), betraying their adversarial natures in yet another team-up buddy comedy. It doesn't help that each movie's production team expends enormous energy riffing on familiar tales but rarely riff on the Hanna-Barbera icons or employ either one to clever ends. Kids will certainly have a blast. Of that I have no doubt. Both movies are bright, colorful and full of sword-slinging action, sneering baddies, slapstick laughs and heroic deeds. Sadly, longtime Tom and Jerry fans won't be nearly as ecstatic, wondering why oh why the thrill has gone away.

Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shiver Me Whiskers encounters a few storms on its high definition voyage, and its 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation is tossed back and forth for the duration of the journey. (And never mind the tech specs on the back cover, which list the movie's aspect ratio as 1.37:1. Shiver is presented at 1.78:1.) All is not lost -- colors are bold and bountiful, with piercing primaries and deep blacks, and contrast is at least fairly consistent -- but the rest of the image is fraught with endless issues. The animators' line art is haunted by pixelation and aliasing. Severe banding and macroblocking plague the backgrounds and skies. A harsh layer of digitally inserted grain renders the movie's high seas scenes unsightly. Compression anomalies and strangeness in the original animation produce all sorts of eyesores. On and on and on, problem after problem. Most of the distractions trace back to the source, so I'm willing to afford this one a modicum of slack. But there's very little to the presentation that impresses, and even less that leaves its mark on Blu-ray. It looks considerably better than its DVD counterpart, but any praise ends there.

Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Warner's lossless audio track delivers a more suitable experience, but even at its most chaotic and adventurous, it comes up short. The villain here is clearly the movie's original sound design, which is flat, front-heavy and less than involving, so again, it at least isn't a matter of slugging through a subpar mix. But it only accomplishes so much. Voices are bright and intelligible, effects are crisp and clear, LFE output is strong and seaworthy, and music has its way with the soundfield. But the rear speakers are used sparingly and sporadically, dynamics are merely decent, and prioritization is a bit lacking. And without any standout sequences leaping to mind, it's safe to say none of it amounts to anything memorable. Serviceable? Yes. Exciting or enveloping? No.

Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers doesn't include any special features.

Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum... would be nice to drown my sorrows after watching Shiver Me Whiskers. Oh, there's some fun to be had, particularly if you're in elementary school. But the 2006 original movie lacks the charm and unpredictability of the classic Tom and Jerry shorts and series, offering yet another team up that seems wholly at odds with the cat and mouse duo's M.O. Warner's Blu-ray release isn't much better, no thanks to a mediocre video presentation, middle-of-the-road lossless audio track, and barebones disc. If the price is right, nab this one from the bargain bin for your kids. Otherwise, leave it where it lies, and preferably near the bottom, where some other poor soul won't stumble across it.