The Animated Adventures of Tom Sawyer is not awful, nor is it great. The adaptations of the classic story are mixed, adaptation-wise the best version is the 1938 version, the musical version is fun if uneven, the 2000 MGM animated film is very enjoyable and the middle-late 80s animated Australian version is decent. The Soviet film suffered from being too faithful to the story, as well as bad pacing, sloppy lip-synching and editing and horrendous dubbing, and Tom and Huck with Jonathan Taylor Thomas had its moments but the very out-of-kilter way Becky was written, underwritten characterisation and disjointed story-telling were major debits.
As said in the review title, as an adaptation of the classic story it fares the least of the seven versions seen so far, feeling too over-simplified and too safe and some of the changes are bizarre.
On its own though it is okay. The animation does have some colour and fluidity, not the best animation in the world but it is not a liability and there has been far worse. The voice acting is very good. Especially for the leads, very energetic and charismatic, though Kirsten Dunst as a very charming Becky, Garry Chalk's creepy villain of the piece and Christopher Lloyd in more subdued form as the Judge. And the relationship between Tom and Huck is innocent, resourceful and genuinely friendly. There is definitely some nice nostalgic tone and unlike Tom and Huck there is some attempt to create the sense of living in and inhabiting Missouri.
However, this version does suffer from very forgettable songs- absolutely nothing stands out- that are also awkwardly placed and do nothing to enhance the storytelling. The dialogue can be pretty poor too, not very true to Twain's prose with a too modern and simplistic tone and more flow and less stiltedness may have helped things a little. The bare bones of the story is there but not really the impact and the over-simplification doesn't help. Some of the early parts are sweet but the middle and latter parts could have been paced better and have been more coherent. Characters and situations are not very well developed and the songs interrupt the flow, the sense of adventure and suspense are rather diluted.
And with the changes, some of them are understandable in order not perhaps to offend with Jim only being mentioned in passing and with the slavery(when that is written in it feels a bit shoe-horned), though it does at times hurt the spirit of the story and the time and place that is trying to be recreated. But some are just bizarre, I saw absolutely no reason for Injun Joe's name to be changed to Tattoo Joe- not a very menacing name for a villain, it's almost comical sounding actually-maybe another attempt of political correctness but it simplifies what this villain stands for to the extent that despite Garry Chalk's voice work that the character is rather insipid.
Overall, a long way from terrible but it is not particularly good either, the 2000 MGM animated version is an example of an animated version of Tom Sawyer that works and it is not bad as an adaptation either. It is perhaps a decent introduction to children of the story, but it is left wanting as an adaptation and judged on its own merits there are still things wrong. 5/10 Bethany Cox
As said in the review title, as an adaptation of the classic story it fares the least of the seven versions seen so far, feeling too over-simplified and too safe and some of the changes are bizarre.
On its own though it is okay. The animation does have some colour and fluidity, not the best animation in the world but it is not a liability and there has been far worse. The voice acting is very good. Especially for the leads, very energetic and charismatic, though Kirsten Dunst as a very charming Becky, Garry Chalk's creepy villain of the piece and Christopher Lloyd in more subdued form as the Judge. And the relationship between Tom and Huck is innocent, resourceful and genuinely friendly. There is definitely some nice nostalgic tone and unlike Tom and Huck there is some attempt to create the sense of living in and inhabiting Missouri.
However, this version does suffer from very forgettable songs- absolutely nothing stands out- that are also awkwardly placed and do nothing to enhance the storytelling. The dialogue can be pretty poor too, not very true to Twain's prose with a too modern and simplistic tone and more flow and less stiltedness may have helped things a little. The bare bones of the story is there but not really the impact and the over-simplification doesn't help. Some of the early parts are sweet but the middle and latter parts could have been paced better and have been more coherent. Characters and situations are not very well developed and the songs interrupt the flow, the sense of adventure and suspense are rather diluted.
And with the changes, some of them are understandable in order not perhaps to offend with Jim only being mentioned in passing and with the slavery(when that is written in it feels a bit shoe-horned), though it does at times hurt the spirit of the story and the time and place that is trying to be recreated. But some are just bizarre, I saw absolutely no reason for Injun Joe's name to be changed to Tattoo Joe- not a very menacing name for a villain, it's almost comical sounding actually-maybe another attempt of political correctness but it simplifies what this villain stands for to the extent that despite Garry Chalk's voice work that the character is rather insipid.
Overall, a long way from terrible but it is not particularly good either, the 2000 MGM animated version is an example of an animated version of Tom Sawyer that works and it is not bad as an adaptation either. It is perhaps a decent introduction to children of the story, but it is left wanting as an adaptation and judged on its own merits there are still things wrong. 5/10 Bethany Cox