Dudes and dudettes, fans of cartoons, aficionados of classic cell animation, let me tell you that I was not terribly enthusiastic about receiving Tom and Jerry Blast Off to Mars. It sat for a week, like plutonium oozing from a leak in a lead-lined container, while I watched various other DVD offerings. Even back in the day, Tom and Jerry weren?t my favorite cartoon characters, losing out to such stalwarts as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Scooby Doo, and Jonny Quest. There were other reasons I felt I needed to open Tom and Jerry Blast Off to Mars inside a containment field, the strongest being that fairly recently my son brought home a VHS copy of Tom and Jerry: The Movie from the library and it was bad. Actually, saying it was bad is doing a disservice to the word bad. It was a sucking black hole of a movie, dragging good taste, cartoon fun, and even my eyeballs into it as it played. One example: Tom and Jerry talked!!! I almost swore off cats and mice forever.

Finally, I gathered considerable courage and popped it into the PS2 that I use for my console DVD player at home and let ?er rip.

Was I ever wrong.

And you?d be wrong too if you didn?t give this film a try.

It?s a laugh riot from the word go.

Bill Kopp?s treatment of Tom and Jerry Blast Off to Mars is bang on. Kopp, who is best known for his Eek! The Cat cartoons, is credited as writer and director, but he deserves a great deal more credit than that. He must have X-ray machines for eyes, because he was able to cut through the fluff and pull out the pure essentials of what makes Tom and Jerry funny, and then deliver them time and time again. I know it?s a clich?, but this is a movie that you simply don?t want to end. It?s that funny.

As usual, there are no spoilers in this review, except that the dynamic duo actually do wind up on the Red Planet for extended time in this film. I will also say that if you enjoy two zany characters generally destroying everything they can get their hands on, run around, dash through, jump on top of, or climb over, then this is the film for you. Classic statue? History. Expensive vase? Smithereens. Expensive carpet? Unraveled until it?s just a ball of twine. You get the picture. And yet, while it?s hard to believe, this film also has the pacing to make it not just a bash fest. There are significant moments (most lasting no more than a minute) where characters do talk (though Tom and Jerry are mute for the most part, as they should be), and this pushes the plot forward. However, once the essential dialog is delivered or plot twist unveiled, it?s back to the mayhem.

The essential stuff that makes up Tom and Jerry is retained. You can tell that Kopp and Krew did their homework. Tom?s puckered sneer is back in full. Jerry?s expression of wide-eyed delight is as wonderful as ever.

But it?s also the sound effects crew that provides the glue that melds everything together. How do they do it? There are only so many things you can do with wood blocks, balloons, old shoes, and such. Of course, sound effects guys collect junk I?ve never heard of to make the sounds that I (and others) love.

Oh, by the way, the extras are also extra good. ?Tom and Jerry?s Martian Mission? is a National Geographic short film about Mars. Very cool, it is (to backwardly paraphrase Yoda). The ?Blasting Off? making-of featurette discloses a lot of the behind the scenes stuff that shows just how special it was to make the film. Lastly, ?Step-by-Step with Tom and Jerry? is an animation featurette that breaks down how several of the shots were developed, all the way from concept to animated storyboard to the integration of 3D elements into the 2D final work. It?s spectacular.

If this sounds like a love affair with a movie, it is. Some animated films come and go, but I will be hanging on to my copy of Tom and Jerry Blast Off to Mars. Now if I could just keep my son from putting it media side down on the coffee table after he watches it!! He has a little bit of Tom and Jerry in him...