Cat City

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Cat City
Directed by Béla Ternovszky
Produced by Kunz Román
Written by József Nepp
Starring László Sinkó
Miklós Benedek
Péter Haumann
Music by Tamás Deák
Jimmy Giuffre
Cinematography Mária Neményi
Csaba Nagy
György Varga
Editing by Magda Hap
Release date(s) 1986
Running time 92 minutes
Language Hungarian

Cat City (original title: Macskafogó) is a Hungarian feature-length animated cult film released in 1986, directed by Béla Ternovszky and written by József Nepp. The title Cat City was used in the United States distribution. The original Hungarian version contains a number of puns which can be hardly rendered in any other edition.

Contents

[edit] The plot

The movie opens with a Star Wars style text scroll, which tells the main situation: In year 80 AM Anno Mickey Mouse, the mice of Planet X are threatened by humiliation and total apocalypse. The well-organized, fully equipped gangs of evil cats are aiming to wipe out the mouse civilization totally, not caring for the old conventions between mice and cats. But in the last moment, when the mouse leaders are beginning to consider leaving the planet, a new hope rises...

The film is a parody of several famous feature films, mainly the James Bond series. The main plot is about a special spy who is sent to the city of "Pokyo" to get the secret plan of a machine which could save the mouse civilization. Of course, the cats don't want this to happen, and send some rat gangsters to stop him, who don't always prove as efficient as their presentation showed.

[edit] Ranks at IMDb votes

  • Among IMDb's Top 50 Animation movies by average vote ([1]), this movie was ranked the 2nd in May, 2005, preceding such films as Shrek (1 and 2), Finding Nemo, Beauty and the Beast, and others.
  • Among Most popular Canadian titles by average vote ([2]), it was also ranked 2nd.
  • Among Top Rated "Animation" Titles ([3]) it was placed 2nd again.
  • Among Top Rated "1980s" Titles ([4]), this film was ranked 6th.

[edit] Puns in the Hungarian version

  • The one-eyed boss cat is named "Mr. Teufel", which is "Mr Devil" in German, but Teufel sounds like tejfel in Hungarian, which is one of the favorite titbits of cats, sour cream.
  • The secret password for the mice's council is "Egy aprócska kalapocska, benne csacska macska mocska" [say: edy op-roch-ko kolo-poch-ko, beh-neh choch-ko mach-ko moch-ko] (meaning "A tiny little hat with a silly cat's dirt in it").
  • The original title "Macskafogó", although literally it means "Cat catcher", comes from the word "Egérfogó" meaning "Mouse trap", changing the word "egér" (mouse) into "macska" (Cat).
  • The Professor promises that he would recruit again Grabowski and "bring back Cincinnatus from the yoke" -- a historic reference to Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, this patriotic elderly Roman patrician who left his plow in the field to come to Rome's rescue in its moment of need around 458 BC. However, "cin" or "cin-cin" is the equivalent of "squeaking" in Hungarian...
  • The boss of the cats (the fat white one) is called Giovanni Gatto. Gatto is an Italian word, it means cat in English (and macska in Hungarian). Also, Giovanni is the Italian equivalent of the Hungarian first name János (John in English) – and if a Hungarian says "macskajancsi" (Johnny Cat in English), it means jerk, lame, loser, or a coward. Also, there existed a mafia clan named Gatti in New York.
  • The main character's (Grabowsky's) sexy Japanese female helper is called Chi-no-san, which sounds almost like the Hungarian word csinosan, "prettily".
  • The daughter of the lame assistant of Mr. Teufel(the one-eyed boss cat)is called CAThy.
  • The Professor's name is Fushimishi - fusi in Hungarian means hidden (usually illegal) work, and Misi is a common nickname of Michael (Mihály) - and the two words even rhyme.

[edit] In former USSR

In former Soviet Union this cartoon enjoyed a big success in the box office in the late 80's and got a truly cult status among kids after being shown multiple times on TV, dubbed in Russian. Russian title is "Lovushka dlia koshek" (literally: Cat Trap). In spite of Russian version being completely dubbed, the songs were left in their original Hungarian version.


[edit] Sequel: Cat City 2: The Cat of Satan

As of 30 January, 2008 the sequel (premiered on 20th December 2007) is in Hungarian Box Office Top Ten for 6 consecutive weeks, at 6th place at date.

The former working title made it as the final subtitle: "Cat of Satan", which should mean "The Tabby of the Baskervilles" if translated into English with its context. The project is led by the original Nepp and Ternovszky duo, who managed the first movie. Cat City 2 is aimed for Hungarian domestic movie release in late 2007, but foreign release may be restricted to DVD due to lack of distribution partners.

The movie is done on a limited budget of 3 million USD, characters are drawn and animated by hand, but objects and backgrounds will be derived from 3D hard models and computer simulation. The visual world of the movie is said to be influenced by the first Matrix trilogy movie and Sin City, but softened for younger audience.

The story of CC2 centers around an investigative journalist named Stanley Mouse, who wants to find out about the legend of an ancient "cat tribe" lost in Africa. He finds them and much more, once again threatening the continued existence of mouse civilization. Special Agent Grabowsky will act to save the day, however. The events are supposed to take place at least 10, possibly 20 years after the first episode, as one of the already leaked cells shows the titular Cat-Catcher mecha rusting away in a shelter.

Geekblog, a Hungarian blog dedicated to entertaiment media news, posted a 2:14-minute embedded video trailer of the sequel on 9 October, 2007, with original Hungarian voices (no subtitles for this video). YouTube directlink

The Cat City Official Website now revolves around the sequel, featuring several details, character information etc. (only in Hungarian at the time being), and also published a teaser trailer of the sequel.

Index.hu, a major Hungarian web portal has published an interview with the creators (in Hungarian) and provided some photos.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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Cinema of Hungary