There's been a whole lot of theatrical Hanna-Barbera movies over the years, but out of them all, I think the weirdest releases have to be the two Top Cat films. For those who do not know, this past decade, Warner Brothers released two animated Top Cat movies primarily for Mexico, as the show has an extremely dedicated following there. The first of these was Top Cat: The Movie in 2011, and a second installment, Top Cat Begins, released in 2015.
Most are aware of these films, but it doesn't seem like many have seen these for themselves. So for our final day of Top Cat June, I thought I'd do a review of both movies. Are these a worthwhile addition to the original Top Cat, or are they little more than attempts at cashing in on it? You probably already know the answer, but let's find out together!
The first movie, simply titled Top Cat: The Movie, can best be described as another cartoon in Top Cat's makeup. The story, characters, and art may seem like Top Cat, but the execution is a far cry from what you'd expect. The plot, at least at first, is a typical episode of the show. T.C. is trying to impress a gal, and comes up with a scheme to win her over. But that feel gets upended with the introduction of the film's villain, Lou Strickland. Strickland is the new Chief Officer, and is obsessed with both technology and money. He replaces the police force with a robot army, and creates ridiculous laws solely to profit off of those who don't follow them.
You're probably as confused with that plot synopsis as I was watching it. I'm sorry, but if there's any Hanna-Barbera cartoon that didn't need a robot army plotline, it was Top Cat. It felt like a pitch for an original animated movie that the studio then haphazardly shoved the Top Cat IP into. It doesn't help that Strickland himself is one of the most annoying characters I've ever seen in a movie. His obsession with money makes you think he'd be presented as a sort of foil for Top Cat, but the movie does nothing like that. Instead, the focus is on throwing the word "technology" into every sentence he utters, effectively turning the film into another "technology is bad" story that we've seen done in countless other, better animated films.
The weak plot could be forgiven if it led to some fun comedy and character interactions. Sadly, there's little of either present here. There are some funny moments, like when the gang reenacts the opening intro without Top Cat, but that's it. The film also makes the poor decision to have T.C. spend a lot of the film's runtime away from the gang. The entire middle chunk sees the characters apart, and it's about as entertaining as it sounds. Unsurprisingly, these guys are at their best as a collective.
So the film's story and humor are poor. Does the film look and sound nice? To that, I say "kinda"? The animation here consists of 2D characters against 3D backgrounds. The characters look nice, but the animation is very flat and gives off a low-budget vibe. It feels very "flash", and I wasn't shocked at all to find out that was indeed the case. Putting these characters in 3D is also the kind of thing that sounds cool in theory, but leaves a lot to be desired in practice. It felt like a TV commercial, which is about the last thing you want to hear regarding the visuals of a feature film. But while the 2D art leaves me wanting, I do find the backgrounds to be impressive for what they are. It's certainly not Pixar tier, but they do a good job at invoking the feel of the backgrounds on the original show. As for the voice cast, it's hit or miss. One actor, Jason Harriz Katz, voices half of the alley cats, and not all of his takes on the characters are winners. His Top Cat voice is serviceable, but his Choo Choo sounds nothing like the series voice. I imagine this was more the fault of the film's budget than anything, but it's still something that took me out of the movie.
So that's the 2011 Top Cat movie. Long story short, it's probably the worst thing with the Top Cat name attached to it. Like so many reboots and remakes of beloved cartoons, it fails to see what was so great about the original, and instead focuses way too much on "modernizing" the character. It's a cash grab, pure and simple.
While I and many others rejected this film, the Top Cat flick was an undeniable success. It had one of the biggest openings for a film in Mexico's history, and even saw release in other territories. Another film seemed inevitable, and in 2015, we got Top Cat Begins. This film goes back to before the series, acting as a prequel that shows how the gang first met. While you'd think that would make the story more interesting this time around, it really doesn't. The story isn't as paint by numbers as the first film, but it's not exactly exciting, either. You know how the characters are going to meet, how they'll act, and you know how the story ends.
In all honesty, most of the problems from the 2011 film are still present in this follow-up. The comedy is once again boring and unimaginative. The character moments don't come close to any from the original show. And for the second time, a ridiculous amount of the runtime is wasted on new characters you couldn't care less about. In this film, you've got a bad dog (literally named Bad Dog) and his gang. None of them (seen below) feel like they belong with the original characters, but they do feel like characters from an unrelated animated series that never got the greenlight. That being said, they're not constantly going on about technology, so I guess it's an improvement.
Speaking of improvements, I find the animation in Begins to be an upgrade from the 2011 film. Instead of a hybrid 2D/3D art style, the entire film is CG-animated. While the animation feels more at home on a TV series than a feature film, the look is much more unified and clean than in the previous movie. But other than that, there really isn't anything to say about this one. It's boring, predictable, and flat-out uninspired. I prefer it over the other movie, but that's not saying much.
And those are my thoughts on the Top Cat movies. I'll be real, I knew these weren't going to be any hidden gems, but I was kind of shocked at how bad these really are. No wonder nobody talks about these! As bad as something like Yo Yogi! might be, at least it's funny and memorable in its lack of quality. There's nothing worth holding onto in either of these. They're like the animated versions of white noise more than actual movies. Top Cat and the rest of the gang deserved a whole lot better than this dreck.
