Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass: suitable for your child?

Story

Tom (voice of John Shang) and Jerry (voice of Yifei Ruan), up to their usual shenanigans, accidentally activate a mysterious magical compass inside a museum. They’re transported through time to an ancient world filled with mythical beings, powerful creatures and celestial forces.

As Tom and Jerry try to understand where they are and how to get home, they become involved in a much larger struggle surrounding the compass and its extraordinary power.

They meet an unusual group of individuals, including the Phoenix Master (voice of Kyle McCarley), a disgraced god who has been trying to get back to heaven for 300 years and who needs the compass to get there. They also encounter Mega Rat (voice of Brent Mukai), a power-hungry, vengeful crime lord who wants the compass for his own evil purposes.

Tom and Jerry soon realise that fighting each other won’t help them escape, nor will it help their newfound friends. Instead, they must find a way to work together to save an ancient city from Mega Rat and return the compass to where it belongs.

Themes

Greed; selfishness; recklessness; manipulation; destruction; violence; revenge

Violence

Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass has frequent violence. For example:

In many scenes, Tom and Jerry get up to their usual slapstick violence – hitting, punching, stabbing, throwing, smacking, shooting, crushing and pounding each other.
Tom shoots arrows at Jerry.
Jerry makes Tom run through a stringed instrument, and Tom is sliced into pieces.
Tom electrocutes Jerry, who falls on a magical compass. Tom and Jerry both end up on a fire extinguisher, rushing around and destroying a museum exhibit.
The Phoenix Master and another character are repeatedly struck by lightning and thrown back to Earth.
A gargoyle dragon appears to be attacking children with shooting flames.
A character is blasted with fire and burns.
Mega Rat threatens to torch a city and immediately begins to firebomb buildings as citizens flee in terror.
Tom and Jerry ride a fire extinguisher into the mouth of a dragon.
Mega Rat uses an iron claw to tear the clothes of the Phoenix Master, leaving scratch marks on the back of his robes.
During a fight with Mega Rat and his henchmen, Tom is hit in the bottom with an arrow. He pulls it out, turns it into a flower and gives it to a female cat.
Caught in a stampede, Jerry is kicked and tossed aside.
Tom tries to stab Jerry with chopsticks and then ties his tail in a bow and uses it as a slingshot.
Mega Rat relives the time when his tail was burned off.
Mega Rat strings up Tom and prepares to burn him.
A rat army comes for Tom, Jerry and their friends. Many are captured, imprisoned and squeezed within their cages.
A mythical chicken shoots eggs out of its bottom. The eggs envelop the rat army.
The rat army is caught in multiple explosive blasts when Tom and Jerry set off some fireworks.
Tom, Jerry and their friends explode out of Mega Rat’s cave.
Tom and Jerry shoot Mega Rat with fireworks.
Mega Rat knocks down a temple and tries to crush everyone in it.
Mega Rat stomps on the head of another character.
A unicorn stabs a gargoyle in the bottom with its horn.
Mega Rat is hit with a blast of light directly in his eyes. The compass is taken, and he shrinks back to his normal size.

Sexual references

Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass has some sexual references. For example, referring to the Phoenix Master, a character says, ‘What a hunk’.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass shows some use of substances. For example:

The Phoenix Master uses peach liquor to intoxicate Tom.
A bunch of characters drink in a tavern.

Nudity and sexual activity

Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass has some nudity and sexual activity. For example, the bottom half of Tom’s fur peels back, revealing heart-covered boxer shorts. He quickly grabs his fur and hoists it back up around his waist.

Product placement

There’s no product placement in Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass.

Coarse language

Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass has some mild coarse language, name-calling and insults, including ‘darn’, ‘fool’, ‘pathetic vermin’, ‘ridiculous roof squatting freaks’ and ‘giant wimp’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass is a computer animated fantasy movie based on the cartoon characters created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. It combines traditional Tom and Jerry slapstick sequences with elements of Chinese mythology, and some of its sequences may be challenging for younger viewers to follow. It’s therefore best suited to viewers aged over 9 years.

These are the main messages from Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass:

Life might be full of challenges, but persistence and cooperation can help us overcome them.
Remember to enjoy the journey, believe in your abilities and never give up.

Values in Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass that you could reinforce with your children include teamwork, cooperation, responsibility, courage and friendship.

Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass could also give you the chance to talk with your children about the real-life consequences of things like:

acting without thinking
using violence to solve conflict
seeking revenge rather than forgiveness
putting your own wants and needs in front of everything else.