Cat City Talkback

[Classic Speedy]

So as I mentioned on my profile yesterday, Cat City was recently released on both Blu-ray and Prime, after being rather hard to come by for decades. Since the Prime version was only $5, I impulse bought it, since I've been curious about it ever since I learned about it.

Trailer:

Interesting movie. Far from perfect though. It kind of drags in places, and the main hero character is very nondescript. Even the villain felt a bit flat and didn't have many large ham moments. There's a scene with the villain's assistant's daughter befriending a mouse that you think is going to be a plot point but it ends up being a throwaway moment. And I feel like the futuristic setting isn't taken advantage of that much, save for some Big Brother-esque moments where the villain is spying on the rebel group of mice from afar.

That said, a few big moments that made this worth watching:
-The foursome mouse assassins have a promo video with a very fast moving montage of comic violence set to the jazz tune of "Four Brothers". Very inspired stuff in here.

-Said assassins have some silly hijinks on their mission, and are arguably the best part of the movie. Especially the moment when they get a flat tire and end up replacing them with giant wheels that may not pop but sure don't move very fast.

-As cats are the dominant species in this universe, there's a scene when one cat just busts through a mouse couple's apartment door and steals all their stuff, including the TV. The male mouse gives the thief the TV Guide- "You forgot this."

-The chemistry between the villain and his bandaged aide is amusing, especially the moment when the villain says to say hi to his wife, and the aide goes "But she's been sleeping with YOU for the last couple years."

-The ending! I won't give it away but it was refreshingly different and if you see it, you'll know what I mean.

Anyone else want to comment on this once-obscure movie?

 

[Pooky]

I've been interested in seeing this ever since I saw an image from it in an animation book many years ago; in my memory it was in the last chapter in Of Mice & Magic, but just looked and that isn't correct (nor would it have made much sense). Unfortunately this latest release hasn't made it to the UK yet, and I suspect it won't.

Reportedly this was a pretty big hit in Hungary, their animation industry having a bit of a moment at the time between this and 1981's Vuk. I get the impression it's one of those things where you'd have to have been there and then to full understand, but you could say similar of some of Studio Ghibli's films. Should be interesting as a slice of cultural history if nothing else.

 

[Classic Speedy]

^ Same studio apparently did a bunch of movies during the '80s, but this is the only one I've seen.

EDIT: Okay, I think I've seen ''Willy the Sparrow'' but it's been since childhood so I have zero memories of it. My parents still have the VHS tape at their house, but it's the butchered Feature Films For Families version.

 

[The Overlord]

Cat City is weird, I actually saw it on VHS when it was released in the late 80s, it was actually released in North America, despite the fact the Cold War was still on and Hungary was behind the Iron Curtain. It was dubbed into English and the dub was kinda weird. It was some unfortunate stereotypes in this movie, but I will say, this movie is many things, it's not boring.

 

[Pooky]

Cat City is weird, I actually saw it on VHS when it was released in the late 80s, it was actually released in North America, despite the fact the Cold War was still on and Hungary was behind the Iron Curtain. It was dubbed into English and the dub was kinda weird.

This would have been during the Perestroika/Glasnost era, and film distribution between the Soviet Union and "the West" was opening up a bit, and even in the era before Glasnost when tensions were high some Soviet movies, like Stalker, were distributed in the US in a limited capacity.

Looking on our censor board's website it looks like Cat City was released on VHS twice in the UK by two different companies in fairly quick succession, once in 1988 by Apollo Entertainment and again only two years later in 1990 by Video Gems. I don't recall ever seeing it (and I frequented shops that stocked resale VHS tapes for years and years) but there are a couple of copies on ebay right now so it probably wasn't *that* rare. It was rated PG, quite rare for an animated video in the UK at the time, especially as it looks like one of them was released as part of a "kiddie" line.

^ Same studio apparently did a bunch of movies during the '80s, but this is the only one I've seen.

Heh, I always forget they did The Fly; I actually gave that as an example of an interesting Best Animated Short recipient in a class once.

The Princess and the Goblin was a UK co-production and it's somewhat well known here, but I've never seen it (never looked that appealing, if I'm honest).

I've seen at least some of The Seventh Brother, that's the one about a dog "adopted" by a family of rabbits; he's deliberately thrown out by his family in the original version, but the US edit changes it so that he wanders off from his loving owners.

Same director (Tibor Hernádi) as the Felix the Cat movie, which Pannonia worked on and even featured a cameo of sorts by the fox from Vuk.

There was a Cat City sequel in 2007, doesn't seem to have the same kind of following, but it looks like it did well at the Hungarian Box Office, unlike the Vuk sequel around the same time which was made by a different studio and switched to CG Animation.

 

[Classic Speedy]

The Fly is classic- innovative looking to this day, and the first person feel means it couldn't have been easy to animate because you're redrawing the background for nearly every frame. Plus it's surprisingly tense despite the lack of a score, because all the tension comes from the quicker unfolding pace as the short goes on and the increasing pitch on the fly buzzing noise. I can see why it won best short film that year.

Sooooooo... anyone else taken the plunge yet on Cat City?

 

[Checkerboard]

It needs a B region release.