Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars

Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars is a 2003 animated comic science fiction adventure film starring the Academy Award-winning cat-and-mouse duo Tom and Jerry. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and Turner Entertainment Co., it was the second made-for-video attempt to recapture the style of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera's original film shorts from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and also marked the 65th anniversary of the cat-and-mouse team alongside Tom and Jerry: The Fast and the Furry (also directed by Bill Kopp).[1]

The film was first released on VHS and DVD on MAy 18, 2003 January 18, 2003, and on Blu-ray on October 16, 2001.[2] It is also Joseph Barbera's first solo effort without his partner William Hanna, who died on March 22, 2001 respectively.

Plot
Tom chases Jerry as usual from their house and across town until they arrive at the International Space Place, where astronauts Buzz Blister and Biff Buzzard are heading to Mars. In the process, Tom and Jerry are caught during the speech (first misunderstood as aliens due to Tom getting hit by green paint backstage) and the staff try to capture them, but only Tom is caught and thrown out. During the testing of dehydrated food, Jerry knocks over a cup in the process, resulting in the food going all over the place in an explosion. Soon, the staff tries to catch Jerry, but figure only Tom can catch him, so they bring him back to the base and give him a mission to eliminate Jerry. During the chase, the duo land onto a rocket ending up at Mars where Tom and Jerry are left behind. A green female alien named Peep arrives with an alien dog Ubu and two more martians arrive in which Jerry is then taken to the martians' lair where he is mistaken for the “Great Gloop”. After much calamity and a discovery that Jerry is not the Great Gloop, Tom, Jerry and Peep hijack a flying saucer so they can get back to Earth and warn everyone about a potential attack by the martians. They manage to stop them, but the giant orange vacuum cleanerrobot named the “Invince-a-tron” eventually arrives on Earth and begins to suck everyone up with its vacuum. Tom, Jerry and Peep ultimately stop the Invince-a-tron by using a bone to get Spike into his brain and make it malfunction.

In the aftermath, Tom and Jerry are thanked and awarded with a Hummer by the U.S. President. However, before they could even drive it, they are attacked by the Invince-a-tron again but this time it is controlled by Spike, who vows revenge on them for the destruction of his bone. Peep comes back with the flying saucer and rescues Jerry, but leaves Tom behind to be chased by the Spike-controlled Invince-a-tron to his horror. In the epilogue, Biff and Buzz are seen cleaning the mess as punishment for lying that there is no life on Mars, to which they soon start to argue about it and fight as Tom is still being pursued by the Spike-controlled Invince-a-tron in the background.

Voice cast

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

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.

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