Cat City

Cat City (Hungarian: Macskafogó (Cat Catcher)) is a 1986 Hungarian animated comic science fiction film, directed by Béla Ternovszky and written by József Nepp. The title Cat City was used in the United States distribution.[1] The original Hungarian version contains a number of puns which can be hardly rendered in any other edition. The film was selected as the Hungarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 59th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.[2]

This article is about the 1986 animated film. For other uses, see Cat City (disambiguation).

Cat City
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBéla Ternovszky
Produced byRomán Kunz
Written byJózsef Nepp
StarringLászló Sinkó
Miklós Benedek
Péter Haumann
Music byTamás Deák
Jimmy Giuffre
CinematographyMária Neményi
Csaba Nagy
György Varga
Edited byMagda Hap
Distributed byMokép
Release date
  • October 2, 1986 (1986-10-02)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryHungary
LanguageHungarian
Box office$14,937

Plot

The film opens with a Star Wars opening crawl, which explains the film's premise: 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 for the total obliteration of mice, 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. It tells the story of a special agent who is sent to the city of "Pokyo" to obtain the secret plans of a machine which could save mouse society. 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 they initially seem.

In the US and Canada

In United States and Canada the film was distributed on VHS by Sefel Pictures in 1987 under the name Cat City. The names of almost all characters were changed to avoid any associations with countries of Socialist bloc. The songs were recorded also in different arrangement, and the song of "Four Gangsters" (which was written to Jimmy Giuffre's Four Brothers melody) was replaced completely.

English Voice Cast
  • Maria Bircher - Candy
  • Marc Denis - Additional Voice
  • Kathleen Fee - Additional Voice
  • Ian Finlay - Additional Voice
  • Dean Hagopian - Mr. D
  • Mark Hellman - Additional Voice
  • A.J. Henderson - Tweed
  • Jack Langedijk - Additional Voice
  • Ron Lea - Additional Voice
  • Pierre Lenoir - Burns
  • Liz MacRae - Additional Voice
  • George Morris - Additional Voice
  • Carla Napier - Cookie
  • Dave Patrick - Additional Voice
  • Rob Roy - Gary Gumshoe, superagent (originally Grabovszky)
  • Michael Rudder - Bones
  • Howard Ryshpan - Additional Voice
  • Vlasta Vrana - Mr. Gatto

In the USSR

In the Soviet Union this cartoon enjoyed a big success in the box office in 1988 and got a cult status among kids after being shown multiple times on TV, dubbed in Russian by Soyuzmultfilm studio. The Russian title is "Ловушка для кошек (Lovushka dlia koshek)" (literally: Cat Trap). In spite of the Russian version being completely dubbed, the songs were left in their original Hungarian version with brief voiceover translations of the first few lines.

After the fall of the USSR

Since the film had cult status in post-Soviet countries, it was also dubbed in Ukrainian by studio Omikron in 2016.[3] Film title in Ukrainian is "Пастка для котів (Pastka dlya kotiv)", it comes from Hungarian title. Unlike Russian edition, in which some scenes were censored, Ukrainian translation covers the whole film.

Sequel: Cat City 2: The Cat of Satan
Cat City 2: The Cat of Satan
(Macskafogó 2 - A sátán macskája)
Directed byBéla Ternovszky
Produced byEszter Salamon
Szilárd Varga
Written byJózsef Nepp
Music byMiklós Malek
Edited byRóbert Pataki
Release date
December 20, 2007
Running time
90 min.
CountryHungary
LanguageHungarian
Budget$3m (USD)

The film was made on a limited budget of about 3 million USD, with the characters drawn and animated by hand, while objects and backgrounds were derived from 3D models and computer simulation. The visual world of the film is said to be influenced by the Matrix trilogy and Sin City, but softened for a younger audience. The former working title of Cat City 2 was retained as the final subtitle: "Cat of Satan", which would be translated literally as "The Tabby of the Baskervilles" if translated into English in its original context. The project was led by the original Nepp and Ternovszky duo, who directed the first film.

The story of Cat City 2 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.

Premiering on December 20, 2007, by January 2008 it had made the Hungarian Box Office Top Ten for 6 consecutive weeks, topping the chart at 6th place. International release was restricted to DVD due to a lack of distribution partners.

See also

References
  1. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 172. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  2. Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
  3. Пастка для котів on hurtom.com website
Preceded by
-		 Animated films submission to Best Foreign Language Film category, Academy Awards (U.S.)
1986		 Succeeded by
Pom Poko (1994) ( Japan)
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