Don gato y su pandilla

This film did not quite make the grade, as remakes or reboots of much loved originals rarely do, but I have been quite taken aback by the harshness of some of the reviews, which rightly point out the problems but fail to mention what worked. Having seen what's been done to other classic TV shows by Hollywood, I think it's fair to say that what works in this film is only there because the property was farmed out to people keen to make it, rather than interfered with by sticky fingered money men and ass-covering executives.

Unlike many of the other reviewers, who seem to be speaking for entire crowds of people ranging from their entire families, to kids, to all fans everywhere, I will simply speak for myself, a Hanna-Barbera fanboy since Huckleberry Hound.

Yes, there are drawbacks, one avoidable and one not.

The one thing that spoils the film irretrievably is the bad guy, a terrible, horrible character completely out of tune with the spirit of the series, and a major misjudgement. The other problem is that the guys who did the original voices are no longer with us. There's nothing anyone can do about that.

But whatever it's failings, this film is clearly a labour of love by people who love and respect the original series, the style of which belongs to its time, and has by happy chance, proved to be timeless. The endless array of in-jokes were a delight--Laslo Laslo, Arabella, Gus, the Maharajah of Pookajee, the rich lady, Queen for a Day, Griswold, and loads of walk-throughs including A.T. Jazz and his buddy in the pool hall... this was not some careless throwaway deal as some have suggested.

Ever since Star Trek the Motionless Picture in 1979, film-makers have been taking our memories of classic TV shows and trampling all over them, worst offenders being The Avengers (U.K.) and Lost in Space, trashing the concepts and characters, and quite clearly not caring about the originals in any way, shape or form, just cashing in on the good will and name value. It was a pleasure to see a film that, even if they got the Big Picture wrong, respected and acknowledged the source material and the original audience, even to the point of retaining the original music. It's also worth noting that the Don Gato movie had different voice overs. And finally, a New York that has people and cars in it!!

So yes, Top Cat the movie could have done with a couple of rewrites before it went before the cameras, and a bit of tightening up. Let's remember that the Hollywood live action Flintstones went through 38 writers (as opposed to the three guys who wrote all the hundred-plus episodes they were drawing from) and still came up with a lousy bad guy and a dull, over-complicated and uninteresting plot.

I thought this was an interesting failure and a brave try. I can't shake the feeling that if this had been made in L.A. some idiot would have been telling us how dark and gritty they were going to make it, Top Cat would have been a callous rapper dealing drugs, and the film would have opened with the drive-by shooting of Officer Dibble...

Top Cat is a seriously lame and lackadaisical attempt to revive an animated program from the 1960's that is probably a very miniscule pile of nostalgic dust in the minds of those who watched the show in its original run. The film was released in Mexico under Warner Bros., who handed the distribution rights over to Viva Pictures in the US and Vertigo Films in the UK, who wound up seeking out the talents of Rob Schneider and Danny Trejo for the releases outside of Mexico. Quite a lot of effort for an animated film that doesn't look good enough to sit next to the throwaway direct-to-DVD efforts and Asylum releases crowding a lonely Redbox machine at a grocery store near you.

Not since the legendary animated disaster Foodfight! has there been such a lazy, affront to the wondrous medium of animation. In such a colorful, limitless medium, Top Cat reduces itself to what looks like characters animated using hand-drawn animation placed over real-life backgrounds and ordered to function normally. However, the backgrounds are indeed animated; they just look blocky and bland enough to be considered real, especially seeing as the film looks like the colorful characters exist on a crystal clear camera lens while the backgrounds appear to be captured on a filthy, damaged lens.

To compliment the fourth-rate animation is a story barely fit for a short film. Sadly, it's stretched out to eighty-two minutes, making its narrative slimness make such a short runtime feel astronomically longer than it really is. The story follows Top Cat (Jason Harris Katz) and his gang of other cats that work to take money and power from those who don't deserve it and give it to those who hurt the other common animals of the neighborhood.

So this wacky gang of socialist felines get entangled in a messy circumstance involving a controlling villain who tries to take down Top Cat and his buddies. That's as deep as I'm willing to read into the story.

The issue here, however, isn't so much the narrative simplicity since it's outshined by the dreary animation. The issue is that the story moves at a glacial pace and the jokes in the film are anything but frequent. They feel as if they're rejected jokes from sitcoms gone past, involving puns, cheap references, and goofy toilet humor with no wit or soul.

Top Cat also appears to have a serious identity problem in the regard that it doesn't seem to know who it's catering to. Is this show geared to the adults who grew up watching the show? If so, this film had far too modest of a release - at least in the US and the UK - to even get their attention. If it's catered to the new generation, the film fails to give them something even in the same realm as a work by Pixar or Dreamworks, rendering this film even further down the later of bottom-barrel fare. It's a film that effectively pleases few and irritates many.

Voiced by: Jason Harris Katz, Rob Schneider, and Danny Trejo. Directed by: Alberto Mar.

This movie has really a really rough beginning that might make most people stop wanting to watch it, but if you sit through it to the end, you'll probably get some mileage out of it.

The first 20 minutes resemble an episode of a basic 70's TV show redone for the CGI era. Here we're introduced to all the characters. Don Gato (Top Cat) is an unethical scoundrel of an alley cat who's the leader and smartest member of a group of other extremely dim petty criminal cats.

There's Officer Matuto, the police officer who wants to keep order, a female cat who is the love interest, and the villain who's simply a caricature of an ugly and neurotic man who is also very vain.

Don Gato goes through a CGI New York City obstacle course, meets a really dumb dog who fights with him, flirts inappropriately with the female cat, and then tries to rob jewels from a rich guy while Matuto tries to catch him.

The film then jarringly transitions into a very elementary apocalyptic science fiction, reusing the characters from the first part. Matuto wants to become chief of police but his position is usurped by the the villain from the first part who is now a technocrat and the female cat from the first part is his secretary. Although Don Gato met all these characters by happenchance at the beginning of the film, they happen to become extremely important to his life. Coincidences, coincidences.

The second part is a really elementary apocalyptic satire about the villain trying to take over the city (or world?) with police robots made in china. I think the first part was made to appeal to original viewers and the second part was meant to bring in new viewers by appealing to more current trends.

This part has some really funny jokes and poignant social critiques, but it's all seeped in playground comedy and I can't say that everything is funny or clever.

Stock happy resolution with every favourable character getting rewarded and every bad character getting his comeuppance.

If you have to sit through it, you'll probably find it mildly entertaining and it's more adventurous than a typical US film (I think it's actually a Mexican film), but it's nothing special.

Honourable Mentions: Recess: School's Out (2001) Like Don Gato, which is about larcenous alley cats and becomes an apocalyptic AI movie, Recess: The Movie also starts out with an equally humble roster of elementary school students on the playground and it expands to become a government conspiracy action thriller.

Yesterday was the premiere here in Mexico city and I got the chance to go! and I LOVED it, watching the whole gang on screen! the Voices go great with the characters they are really similar to those from the original cartoon in fact I actually think some of the actors are the same! it reminded me of the good old times when cartoons where the best way to pass time :D besides its great for kids even if they never watched the original Top Cat .. Benny (Benito) its adorable !! all the characters are likable and fun Everyone should check out this movie not matter how old or if they like top cat it's an awesome movie and I highly recommended specially for kids! they will LOVE it! mainly because its impossible not to love Top Cat (Don Gato)!!

Took my 4 year old to watch this today, he loves going the pictures, as do i. This was awful, so boring my boy wouldn't sit still through it and couldn't wait for it to finish, all i can say is i was happy to leave. Wouldn't sit through it again, even if it was free. We didn't laugh once, barely even smiled. Most of the children in there didn't seam to happy with it either. It just felt like a extra long episode of top cat. All in all spent about £40.00 to watch something that neither of us enjoyed or will remember. Asked my little boy if he enjoyed it he said "it was OK, but i don't want to see it again" for him who watches the same cartoon over and over again says it all.