"2D Animated" Top Cat Movie Coming To The UK Later This Year, In 2D And 3D

[Brendon Connelly]

You may recall the Mexican Top Cat movie that I wrote about a few times last year. I've been waiting to see if a DVD with English subtitles would miraculously appear so that I might import a copy, but it seems like I can stop the hunt and relax.

Vertigo Films have snapped up Top Cat for release in the UK this August. There's already an official poster, which they've mailed over to me and which you can see above.

The characters in the film have been created in a "2D style," which in this case is mainly something akin to Flash animation (or, possibly, just Flash animation), but not actually hand-drawn on a frame-by-frame Disney-like basis. I'm curious about how they will look in the film's 3D release- the Beauty and the Beast and Lion King re-releases have set the bar pretty high for 2D-to-3D animation conversion.

Many of the backgrounds of the film seem to use the more "standard" CG techniques, which should adapt to stereo much more easily.

Here's a Mexican trailer for the film. What this doesn't reveal, of course, is how the characters are going to sound in the UK release (I'm assuming it will be revoiced and not subtitled, right?). Most of the original voice cast are sadly no longer with us, others have retired and while John Stephenson is still doing the odd VO, he doesn't sound like Fancy Fancy any longer.



Oh lord - I hope they don't go for celeb-name stunt casting. I just imagined Robbie Williams doing the voice of TC and it sent a shiver down my spine...

Added bit of trivia: the show was originally called Boss Cat in the UK, to avoid problems with the manufacturers of Top Cat cat food, but as the character was still called Top Cat, or TC, throughout the episodes, most folk still referred to it by the original name. It's been back to Top Cat for at least ten years now, and the only time I have ever heard anyone mention that cat food, for any reason at all, has been in relating this triv.

[SMARTASS8]

It's an American cartoon but Mexico is making a movie based on it & the UK is getting a theatrical release? I'd definitely check it out if the US got a limited release. I always liked Top Cat in reruns as a kid even though I was too young to even know it was based on Phil Silvers.

[Themurci]

Actually, Mexican people DID the movie. This cartoon was a hit in the past, not only for its content but also for the job with voices by the actors in Mexico.

This movie was the most succesful the last year in Mexico (talking only of Mexican movies) making around 8.2 millions of dollars. I know, that is not too much for a movie these days, but for a market full of american productions (9 out of 10 movies in teathres are american) it is actually a big deal.

The story is fun, full of nostalgia for us who saw cartoon as kids, and yeah, there is a lot of CG and flash images, but it was totally worth it.

[Blade X]

Here's a Mexican trailer for the film. What this doesn't reveal, of course, is how the characters are going to sound in the UK release (I'm assuming it will be revoiced and not subtitled, right?). Most of the original voice cast are sadly no longer with us, others have retired and while John Stephenson is still doing the odd VO, he doesn't sound like Fancy Fancy any longer.

The movie has already been dubbed in English. The voice actors, for the most part, sound pretty damn close to the original voice actors. I think that they even got some of the surviving original voice actors to reprise their roles.

[Brendon Connelly]

The movie has already been dubbed in English. The voice actors, for the most part, sound pretty damn close to the original voice actors. I think that they even got some of the surviving original voice actors to reprise their roles.

Where did you see this dubbed version?

[Blade X]

Where did you see this dubbed version?

Here you go. Top Cat - The Movie - YouTube