Tabby McTat

My kid loves each of the Julia Donaldson cartoon adaptations (other than he's for some reason terrified of the Smeds and the Smoos!). The animation quality is better as each one is released.

This one is quite a heartfelt story, and they've captured the behaviours of the kittens very well I felt. A good number of the user reviews for this obviously don't realise this is an adaptation of a Julia Donaldson book - a kids book. It's not a cinematic masterpiece, but that's not really what you're looking for with a 30 minute kid friendly cartoon. It's ideal to give your toddler a chill out time, and I enjoy watching them too.

I've two small boys at home so naturally the Julia Donaldson adaptations have formed an essential part of our television experience for a few years now. I've seen all the JD animations, more times than I care to remember.

This though has only been watched once and a half. My children were bored, my wife was bored and by crikey I was bored.

The animation was as good as always but the story was really, really lazy. It was derivative like most children's stories which is expected and forgivable but it was also really dull. I never care for the characters in the JD stories (they're short stories for kids) this time though I disliked them. I honestly wish Fred had broken his neck in the fall to save me from the last fifteen minutes of this.

Having seen all of the Magic Light Pictures versions of Julia Donaldson's books, I can confidently say this is the best one, by a country mile.

As a father of a 2.5 year old, her stories are a mainstay in my household, and I've seen the animated films what feels like hundreds of times. Most are good to excellent - The Snail and The Whale, and Room on the Broom are particularly strong - but this heart warming story is top of the pile and will hit you hard in the feels.

Tabby McTat is Fred the busker's cat. They spend their days singing to the London crowds and enjoying each other's friendship. When Tabby meets another cat whilst chasing a bug, spending the afternoon playing/flirting, and at the same time Fred is injured chasing a thief, they are separated. Tabby is taken in by the other cat's family and starts one of his own, but his loyalty to Fred is strong and he sets off to find him again.

This is unusual for a JD story in that it isn't set in a fantasy world, and is a fairly complex story for young children about friendship, loyalty and homelessness, but it is beautifully animated with excellent music and will tug right on your heartstrings. If you're the emotional type you will undoubtedly be glassy-eyed by the end.

I'm sure this will be watched many times more in this house and hopefully, with time, I'll learn not to cry so much.

Superb.

There's no sign of Luke Treadaway nor of "Bob" in this similar tale of a busker and his cat in London. Luckily for the narrator, the cat's name rhymes with loads of other words as we tell a tale of them being robbed; 'Fred" giving chase and breaking his leg; them becoming separated, "Tabby" wasting no time falling in love and then - well don't we hope they all reunite? It's perhaps a bit long and there's no getting away from the repetitive "cat, sat, mat, that, hat, chat" rhyming dialogue but that said, the animation is quite engaging and the story one of affection and loyalty, tinged with a touch of mischief. It's not exactly Aardman, but it's still enjoyable enough for half an hour - especially if you're a cat-lover.

A very gentle family friendly short that's well suited to Christmas viewing.

The animation is effectively done, with one exception: Tabby McTat is eating cat food from a bowl and yet the contents of the bowl never change and we never see food actually going into his mouth. The behaviour of Tabby McTat at times seems more canine than feline; I did wonder if Tabby McTat was a cat because "cat" generates more useful rhymes (for example "flat") than "dog" does. The "owners" of the black cat seem perhaps a little too accommodating. And while I'm sure the story is not intended to have any connection to Christmas, the ending was somewhat reminiscent of "the Christmas story".