Top Cat

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.