'Tom and Jerry' Are Moving to Asia, Warner Bros Giving up on America

Tom and Jerry, the iconic Hanna-Barbera cat-and-mouse team, is being transformed into an Asia-specific cartoon, and there’s no indication that Warner Bros Discovery has any plans to bring them back.

The cartoon duo has been a staple of American animation since they were created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera in the late 1930s and have starred in literally hundreds of short films since then, most of which involve Jerry Mouse tormenting Tom Cat (originally named Jasper) in comedically violent ways.

According to Deadline, Tom and Jerry are officially being shipped over to Asia, where the duo will be retrofitted to be a Singapore-specific comedy, complete with local references and tones.

Warner Bros Discovery’s Head of Kids, Southeast Asia Christopher Ho says, “This series brings back the iconic music and classic animation style from the Hanna-Barbera 1950s era – but with a modern Singaporean twist… With distinctive landmarks, backdrops and atmosphere, the Asian city-state is the ideal location to create a humorous addition to the Tom And Jerry canon. Working with homegrown creative talent in Singapore and across Asia, this project grows the much-loved franchise in the region and beyond.”

This is the first time that Tom and Jerry has been produced to be specific to an international locale, rather than a generically American setting.

While it is not unusual for major production companies like Warner Bros Animation to seek as much international coverage as possible, the new Tom and Jerry (which will be entirely created by India’s Aum Animation Studios and Singapore-based Robot Playground Media and Chips and Toon Studios) is part of a troubling trend for studios to transfer production to Asian countries with laxer labor laws and weaker union regulations.

Netflix is currently sinking tens of millions of dollars into production in South Korea (where creatives and production workers tend to work for significantly less pay and are often required to sign away ownership rights), so it is somewhat disheartening to see Warner Bros potentially do the same with some of its most iconic cartoons.

Is moving Tom and Jerry to Asia part of a trend? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.