WTF: 'Tom And Jerry: Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory' Is A Movie?

This week in completely unnecessary ideas that you didn't think were even possible, there's a straight-to-DVD movie inserting Tom and Jerry into a shot-for-shot animated version of the 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Let that sink in. Because no matter how you try to convince yourself that it's some bad trip, it's real.

Apparently this is not a new practice for Warner Bros., which I learned has released 12 (!) direct-to-DVD movies starring the classic cat-and-mouse duo before making this abomination. One of which was titled The Fast and the Furry, so I guess I dodged a bullet in not knowing that existed. But now that I've found, I'm dragging you all down with me.

But I'm assuming with The Fast and the Furry that they didn't just recreate The Fast and the Furious film with an animated Vin Diesel (though I admit, I might just pay to see that), and insert Tom and Jerry engaging in their silly shenanigans as gang wars and street races ensue around them. Though I just learned that this existed, so maybe it does, I don't know.

It seems that Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is emphatically a shot-for-shot remake of the 1971 classic film starring Gene Wilder, but with Tom and Jerry inserting themselves into the action. I can't tell if they're Charlie's pets and he decides to take them along for the chocolate factory tour? Or maybe they just got their own tickets and everyone treats the cat-and-mouse duo as another contestant? I don't know why I'm trying to make sense of this movie.

Bad animation and baffling narrative aside, it is reassuring that Tom and Jerry are maintaining their mostly soundless antics. The clip below is reminiscent of classic Tom and Jerry sequences, with Jerry narrowly evading his feline nemesis as Tom gets increasingly injured. But I'm pretty sure this dignified approach to Tom and Jerry is lost when a mouse dons an Oompa Loompa wig like we see in the trailer above.

If you have a particularly strong sense of morbid curiousity, Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory will be released on Digital HD and Blu-ray in August.

In the meantime, check out this bizarre, far-too-detailed Wiki page on the movie.