Top Cat Begins (film)

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For other uses, see Top Cat Begins.
Top Cat Begins
Top Cat Begins poster.jpg
Wide poster.
Production company Ánima Estudios
Discreet Art Productions
Distributor Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date October 30, 2015
Starring Jason Harris
Executive producer(s) Fernando De Fuentes
José C. García de Letona
Mariana Suárez Molnar
Vishal Dudeja
Srikanth Pottekula
Music composed by Leoncio Lara Bon
Screenplay by Jim Krieg
Doug Langdale
Director(s) Andrés Couturier
Title card
TCB title card.png

Top Cat Begins is a Mexican-Indian-American computer-generated animated comedy film, acting as a prequel to the Top Cat TV series in 1961, with the blessing of the copyright holders, Time Warner. It was written by Jim Krieg, Doug Langdale, with additions by Jorge Ramírez-Suárez, produced by Fernando De Fuentes S. and José C. García de Letona, and directed by Andrés Couturier. It was animated by Mexican studio Ánima Estudios, and distributed theatrically by Warner Bros. Pictures in Mexico on October 30, 2015, then a theater release in the United Kingdom on May 27, 2016, followed by a direct-to-video release in the United States on October 10, 2017.

Due to Top Cat: The Movie being a moderate success in Mexico, Ánima Estudios were rewarded with the opportunity to produce this second film, but it didn't perform as well as its predecessor and was a box office bomb in the UK, so that's why you haven't seen them make a third one.

The film reveals how circumstances brought together each of the alley cats of Hoagy's Alley under Top Cat's leadership.

Detailed summary

Memorable quotes

Characters

Legend
Character debut Speaking debut Ep. debut No lines Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character Actor
Spook Ben Diskin
Top Cat Jason Harris
Fancy Fancy Matthew Piazzi
Maitre'd David Shaughnessy
Choo Choo Jason Harris
Brain Jason Harris
Furletta Duchat Meghan Trainor (singing)
Patty Mattson
Waiter Diedrich Bader
Mr. Big Darin De Paul
Health inspector Unavailable
Goon #1 Nick Shakoour
Goon #2 Steve Blum
Benny the Ball Chris Edgerly
Hair Bear (poster) N/A
Officer Dibble Bill Lobley
Boy kitten Grey Griffin
Girl kitten Grey Griffin
Lady tourist Diane Michelle
Mad Dog Diedrich Bader
Panther Marieve Herington
Rat Joey D'Auria
Nun Unavailable
Chief Thumbton Dave Boat
Officer Lopez Unavailable
Mrs. Ball Lauri Fraser
Feline waitress Sariann Monaco
Driver Jim Ward
Kid with stuffed kitty Patty Mattson
Hard hat guy Ben Diskin
Suspicious guy David Shaughnessy
Amish guy Darin De Paul
Muttley (drawing) N/A
Mime N/A
Lady on speaker Rachael MacFarlane
Granny Dibble Charlie Adler
Chopper (photo) N/A
Lion Unavailable
Hong Kong Phooey (picture and graffiti) N/A
Francois Papin (picture) Darin De Paul
Madame Fifi (picture) N/A
Pie shop sales lady Pamela Chollet
Muscle dog Steve Blum
Stage manager Jim Ward
Counter person David Hoffman
Human footstool N/A
Flight attendant GK Bowes
Spot (graffiti) N/A
Wilma Flintstone (billboard) N/A
Snagglepuss Lion (poster) N/A


Organizations

Locations

Objects

Vehicles

Production

Development

Filming

Music

The music was composed by Leoncio Lara Bon.

Songs

  1. "Little Green Bag" - George Baker Selection
  2. "All About That Bass" - Meghan Trainor
  3. "Best Day of My Life" - American Authors
  4. "Diamond's Are a Girl's Best Friend" - Patty Mattson
  5. "A-Punk" - Vampire Weekend
  6. "Top Cat" - Ben Diskin, Matthew Piazzi, and Jason Harris

Release

Dates are in order of release:

  • Mexico: October 15, 2015
  • United Kingdom and Ireland: May 27, 2016
  • United States: October 10, 2017 on DVD

Behind the scenes

  • The bottom half of Wilma Flintstone seems to appear on a fashion billboard.
  • The movie title is a reference to the film Batman Begins, also owned and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
  • A billboard reads "Future is Now", with a picture of a building based on the Skypad Apartments from The Jetsons TV series.
  • Unique to this film, is the promotion of beer at a supermarket.
  • There's an advertisement for Sugar Flakes and Kentucky Chicken Factory, parodies of Kellogg's Corn Flakes and Kentucky Fried Chicken, respectively.
  • There's a poster advertisement of a film called Judgement Day: The Last Clean, with a robot resembling Rosie from The Jetsons, but she is gray, and wears sunglasses and a jacket to evoke the T-800 Terminator, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
  • Outside of McClaw Tavern, there's a couple of posters advertising Hair Bear (albeit just his hair), from Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!
  • Gerano's Laundry accepts parodies of MasterCard and Visa.
  • The garbage bins T.C. and Benny hid in are full of DVDs of Top Cat: The Movie, which is ironic, because it performed better than this movie.
  • Muttley, from Wacky Races and Dastardly and Muttley in the Their Flying Machines, has a cameo with his face drawn on a dumpster.
  • Top Cat's disguise of Dr. Sylvester Garfield, comes from two other animated anthropomorphic, talking cats: Sylvester from Looney Tunes, and Garfield, the star of his own comic strips.
  • A newsstand has parodies of Time, a Marvel NOW! era comic, and Variety.
  • The stage manager cries out "God" as a profanity.
  • Photos of Chopper, from the Yakky Doodle shorts, hangs in Granny Dibble's living room and her bookcase.
  • Granny Dibble also has a painting of Dogs Playing Poker.
  • Hong Kong Phooey, from the TV series of the same name, is the star of the film Enter the Dog, a parody of the 1973 film Enter the Dragon. Also, a public wall in New York has been painted with Hong Kong Phooey, Spot, and the Phooeymobile.
  • la beauté étourdie is a parody of the 1989 film When Harry Met Sally...
  • The Cutu Comics logo on the fourth wall breaking Top Cat comics, is a parody of Charlton Comics, which did print their own Top Cat series for 20 issues between 1970-1973.
  • A vending machine is selling Fray's chips, a parody of Lay's.
  • A billboard is promoting bronto burgers and giant ribs, the kind seen in The Flintstones TV series.
  • In Furlette's dressing room, there are a couple of photos on the wall of a bird resembling Yakky Doodle.
  • When Benny is singing undercover at the Starlight Club, one of the patrons is wearing a hat from the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes seen in The Flintstones TV series.
  • The counter person at the airport is written as a flamboyant gay stereotype.
  • Top Cat's line, "Elementary, my dear Dibble" is a paraphrase from Sherlock Holmes saying, "Elementary, my dear Watson." Although technically speaking, Sherlock never uttered that specific line in Sir Arthur Doyle's canon.
  • Top Cat rather harshly cries out several censored profanities to Mr. Big when he is defeated.
  • The bottom half of Snagglepuss's body is on a poster for the New York Film Festival.

Errors

  • Why rewrite Spook as being his own person before he met Top Cat, just to then retcon that retcon and turn him back into a loyal subordinate of Top Cat?
  • The one dollar and five dollar bills have made up people on them, instead of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, respectively. The only one they seemed to have got right is Alexander Hamilton on the ten dollar bill.
  • Officer Dibble says, "Sorry, boys" when the kittens were clearly a boy and a girl.
  • If Officer Dibble is sending Top Cat and Benny to Boonsville, then why is there a poster on Chief Thumbton's bulletin board that says Boonsville Police Department?
  • It's a prequel, yet there are modern day technologies such as a DVD player.
  • Top Cat takes four boxes from the pie sales lady, but when he leaves the shop, he's holding three.
  • When Top Cat shouts at Mr Big, you can clearly hear Top Cat shouting "Fuck You!" due to the poor attempt at censoring the words.

Critical reception

In other languages

Language Name Meaning

Home availability

Trailers

UK trailer:

Click to load content

US trailer:

Click to load content

References

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