Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe: Tom and Jerry Chase Time Itself in Forbidden Compass

Some sounds you never forget. A piano crashing down a staircase. A mouse tiptoeing past a sleeping cat. A chase that starts over a crumb and ends with half the house upside down. Tom and Jerry are back on the big screen in Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass, from Warner Bros. Animation, in theaters October 23, 2026 – and the premise is a gift. The classic cat-and-mouse duo, a grand museum, and a time-travel adventure. What could possibly go wrong? Everything, gloriously, and that is the whole point.

Let us set expectations the honest way. This is a preview-style review built on the confirmed facts: the studio, the date, and that museum time-travel premise. No invented plot twists, no pretend spoilers. Just a close look at why this setup suits these 2 characters so well, and why families should circle October 23 in red pen.

A Museum Is the Perfect Tom and Jerry Playground

Think about what a museum gives a chase cartoon. Long marble halls built for echoing footsteps. Glass cases full of breakable treasures. Suits of armor, dinosaur bones, priceless vases balanced exactly where a running cat will pass. The great shorts always worked this way – put the duo in a tidy, breakable world and let physics do the comedy. A concert hall, a bowling alley, a fancy kitchen. A museum tops them all, because everything in it is old, valuable, and strictly do not touch.

Now add time travel. The Forbidden Compass of the title points the duo beyond one building and into other eras, which means the chase can change costumes and scenery the way the classic cartoons changed rooms. One door: marble statues. The next: who knows? For animators, that is a toy box. For kids, it is a new joke every few minutes. For parents who grew up on the originals, it is the old rhythm in a fresh frame.

Why the duo still works in 2026

Here is the secret nobody had to reinvent. Tom and Jerry barely speak. Their comedy is pure movement – the pause before the fall, the double take, the tiny moment of triumph right before the piano arrives. That plays in any language, any country, any decade. A 6-year-old in Ohio and a grandmother in Osaka laugh at the same beat, at the same second. In a year of loud, fast family films, there is real charm in comedy built on timing instead of volume.

It also helps that the relationship never changes. Tom schemes. Jerry improvises. Neither ever truly wins, and neither would know what to do without the other. Kids read that instantly as friendship wearing a disguise. Adults read it as life. Animation fans comparing notes this season can pair it with the new Simpsons movie bringing Homer back for seconds in 2027 – 2 long-running cartoon families, 2 very different kinds of chaos, both betting that audiences still love hand-drawn mischief.

The Warner Bros. Animation Pedigree

Warner Bros. Animation knows these characters in its bones. The studio tradition behind Tom and Jerry stretches back to some of the finest shorts ever made – cartoons that won Academy Awards and still get quoted by animators today. That heritage shows in the details fans watch for: real weight in the movement, reaction shots held a beat longer than you expect, music that runs with the chase. When this studio handles this duo, the craft is the headline.

The museum premise also lets the film teach without lecturing. A child who follows a chase past Egyptian statues and medieval armor leaves the theater curious about the real thing. That is the quiet magic of setting slapstick inside a museum – history becomes the scenery of the fun, and the fun sends families toward an actual museum visit the following weekend. Few family releases this fall can promise a sequel trip as wholesome as that one. For another angle on how studios are rethinking beloved characters, see our coverage of Clay handing Kieran Culkin the worst mentor in Disney history.

Who should book tickets first

Three audiences, one theater. First, families with kids aged roughly 5 to 11 – the sweet spot where physical comedy lands hardest and a time-travel museum feels like a theme park on screen. Second, grandparents. Yes, really. Tom and Jerry may be the last cartoon 3 generations genuinely share, and there are not many October releases a grandparent can pitch to a grandchild with total confidence. Third, animation lovers who collect big-screen cartoon events the way other people collect concerts. You know who you are.

Practical notes, briefly. The film opens in theaters on October 23, 2026, so opening weekend will carry that lovely first-crowd energy – arrive early, because school groups and birthday parties will find this one fast. Pair the screening with our story on Grand Duke Guillaume and 10 years of the House of Entrepreneurship for a very different, very grown-up kind of institution story.

Our Verdict: Book the Family Trip

Verdict: enthusiastic yes. Tom and Jerry: Forbidden Compass takes the most durable duo in cartoons, drops them in the most breakable building imaginable, and hands them a compass that bends time. The ingredients are classic, the studio is the right one, and the premise gives animators room to play for a full feature. Not every revival earns its icons. This one understands them – the schemes, the timing, the heart under the havoc.

So here is our plan, and we recommend it as yours. Tickets for opening weekend. Popcorn in the big size, because chases are hungry work. And afterward, a real museum, where the kids can hunt for a compass of their own – behind glass, untouched, exactly as it should be. Some chases never end. That is not a flaw in Tom and Jerry. That is the promise. October 23 cannot come fast enough.

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