Deep down, we all find some comfort in watching a small, defenseless animal repeatedly fight back against and triumph over a would-be predator. There’s something gloriously satisfying about seeing a bully get served over and over again.

It’s the premise behind so many classic cartoon character pairings, from Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner to Sylvester and Tweety Bird, or Itchy and Scratchy. And then, of course, there are Tom and Jerry — characters which predate all of the aforementioned (well, a very early, quite different version of Sylvester did appear first) and whose adventures are templates for so many cartoons that followed.

Guess which one of these pairings has a star-studded film coming to theaters next year! (The headline is a hint.) Here's everything we know about TOM & JERRY.

We will get to see Jerry repeatedly blocking Tom's attempts at dominance on February 26, 2021. Luckily, there is no shortage of TOM & JERRY cartoons to watch while waiting for that date to come around. (There were 114 in the classic era alone, made between 1940 and 1958, including seven Oscar winners. That doesn't count later efforts and spin-off shows!) We could all be experts on "mouse vs cat" combat by the time the movie opens in the spring.

The first big TOM & JERRY trailer is here! It’s a great trailer and does a very good job reintroducing everyone to Tom and Jerry before dropping them into the new film’s plot and setting. Oh, and it introduces a few human characters, too. On top of that, it showcases how well the action of the classic cartoons has been translated to the big screen.

Most of the action in TOM & JERRY takes place in a fancy human hotel, and the filmmakers have not tried to reinvent the wheel when it comes to the general approach to story. The mouse Jerry has taken up residence in the hotel and the managers, who aren't thrilled to have a mouse living in the walls, hire the mouse's old nemesis, Tom, to flush him out. They apparently did not take time to review his track record, however.

Once this plot is set into motion, the rest of the film will very likely revolve around Tom’s schemes to eject Jerry and all the myriad ways they go sideways for Tom, leading to cartoonish pain and humiliation in a ridiculous fashion that is less concerned with physics or the lasting effects on each character and far more with the slapstick comedy of their battle. In other words, this looks like a TOM & JERRY cartoon, and that is great!

TOM & JERRY is a hybrid of live-action and animation, where everything is real except for Tom and Jerry themselves. This means that the movie will feature a lot of action in the vein of WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? and the wonderful PADDINGTON movies, where human actors interact with the cat and mouse.

Chloë Grace Moretz (MUPPETS MOST WANTED) leads this cast as Kayla, the hotel manager who hires Tom to oust Jerry. She works for characters played by Michael Peña (ANT-MAN) and Rob Delaney (HOBBS & SHAW). Also kicking around the hotel are Colin Jost of "SNL" and "The Masked Singer"s Ken Jeong. So there will be some very funny people running around the hotel halls alongside the animated icons.

As for Tom and Jerry themselves... well, they don't speak! So no one will be voicing them, exactly, but Frank Welker and June Foray have provided their vocal sound effects.

TOM & JERRY is directed by Tim Story, who has tackled a wide range of material throughout his career. He made RIDE ALONG and RIDE ALONG 2, and also gave us 2005’s FANTASTIC FOUR and its sequel, RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER. After TOM & JERRY, he is signed to do a third RIDE ALONG film, and will also adapt the beloved children’s novel "Corduroy."

TOM & JERRY opens on February 26!

All images courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.