Cat Burglar (2022) Poster

(2022)

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6/10
Kitten Caboodle
southdavid2 March 2022
Similar to, but slightly different to "Bandersnatch" and the "Kimmy Schmidt" episode from a couple of years ago - "Cat Burglar" is an interactive game, as well as a loving homage to the Tex Avery cartoons from decades hence.

Rowdy Cat (James Adomian) is a cat burglar keen to steal a priceless art piece from a museum. As he breaks in, he comes up against Peanut (Alan Lee) a security guard dog - who doesn't have the respect of the museums director (Trevor Devall) so is extra keen to make sure that the art is not taken.

Unlike "Bandersnatch" say, when you made choices that affected the on-screen action - here your asked trivia-based questions, each with a right or wrong answer. Get three questions right and the Cat successful moves on to the next scene but get one wrong at he dies. Once you lose three lives the scene restarts altogether. Upon completion of a version of the story, it resets again and it appears that there are six different pictures to try and collect with a completed playthrough.

I collected two of them and "died" a third time before I decided that, though the art style is good and the nostalgia buzz is palpable, the novelty had worn off and I didn't particularly feel the need to give it any more of my time. It was fun, on the first run through - but the questions start to vary wildly in difficulty after a while, particularly given the short time that the game gives you to answer them.

Fine, and as I say, a nice curio but I don't feel the need to revisit this as I would a proper "choose your own adventure" show.
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7/10
Not extremely entertaining but very experimental
celiawatsonanime28 February 2022
I really like seeing something like this that's not kids themed.

With the getting to choose what happens to the characters based on what you do. Wish it was something that wasn't trivia and, more related to the plot of the actual video.
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8/10
The best yet must hair pulling modern Tex Avery Tribute
Brani61922 February 2022
The Art direction, The gags and the slap stick, the Easter eggs in the background, the entire show is eye candy! If it wasn't for the "interactive" part, you might have to repeat some segments over and over again before you reach the next part because of the tricky trivia questions, but if you manage to have full control over the trivia part, you can get over 90 minutes of content, with uncensored violence and fantastic animation, I thought at first that Rowdy and Peanut are just gonna be another generic comedic duo copying Droppy and Spike but their dynamic surprised me, Peanut doesn't have plot armor and Rowdy is a likeable jerk, I haven't laughed at a traditional old school inspired toon in a long time and some of the deaths here actually made me chuckle, This is a great love letter to one of the best cartoonists of all time with priciest mail stamps printed in gold, OH! And the soundtrack composed by Christopher Willis is so accurate to the ones scored by Scott Bradley it almost scarred me, I highly recommend it if you are a fan of old school cartoons, I loved it!
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9/10
Interactive trip down memory lane of animation shorts with punch of entertainment
MovieXen22 February 2022
Cat Burglar's animation along with its music and voice overs reminded me of old classical cartoons which were before my time and I like watching them growing up hence Cat Burglar took me on a trip down the memory lane , it not only brought nostalgia but entertainment for me . As for the interactive feature, even being minimal I found it fascinating compared to previous series or movies put out by Netflix because every-time you make a wrong choice you get different experience and animation short and for the correct choices there lies more fun and action ahead . When you give wrong answers you get three lives before you go to heaven or hell thereafter and after that you indeed get another chance .For correct choices there is a story line , surprisingly good . Questions for choices are not boring, pay attention to them you might find them amusing and if you could not find answers first a few times pay attention there is a cheat method , even if you don't find one just enjoy the cartoon .It does have several Easter eggs and homages to old cartoons. It indeed entertained me and served with nostalgia of classical animated shorts .

Give it a try and be patient at the beginning. My rating is a strong eight ,maybe a nine.
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10/10
I want to see more of this title in the future.
tommypezmaster24 February 2022
A Netflix interactive special that is homage to the golden age of animation w/ a Dragon's Lair style twist. This is what our future needs. The characters are likable, the art is amazing and the questions while easy at times can be tricky.

We can use a non-interactive sequel series about this 2 & hope it becomes a franchise if it does well.
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5/10
Choose your own... trivia?
Pjtaylor-96-1380441 January 2023
'Cat Burglar (2022)' is an interactive short that essentially plays out as Tex Avery cartoon. Following a literal cat burglar as he attempts to break into an art museum, the picture strangely elects to incorporate its interactivity via a series of trivia questions instead of the more obviously appropriate 'choose your own adventure' sort of fare. The result is a little clunky, a bit of a missed opportunity in which failure always results in a lost life and a reset to the beginning of the previous scene rather than in an alternate scene that pushes the story in a new direction. The latter would be much more seamless and, indeed, satisfying. The piece does play out differently each time you go through it, but it does so by randomising each step of the story (even on a repeat). Sometimes, it flows well as one cohesive piece, but it often feels unnatural and becomes blatant from the second time around, never mind the sixth. There are six paintings to collect, each of which are tied to a different ending, and this results in an admittedly impressive amount of variation. It must have took quite a bit of work to put together, perhaps even almost as much as a feature-length affair. The animation is mostly fluid and energetic, packed with inventive sight gags and genre-literate homages. It's no slouch when it comes to its visuals. The thing is perhaps a bit inappropriate for the younger - or, perhaps, wider - audience at which it initially seems aimed, both in terms of its violence and in terms of its questions; it's almost unclear as to who it's actually for. It's worth noting, too, that the protagonist is actually quite hard to relate to, especially when it comes to how he handles the victory you may have led him towards (repeat viewings will likely have you rooting for his opposite, a security dog who deserves better than he usually gets). However, older children will probably enjoy playing though it multiple times to see how many different scenes they can see and they may even appreciate the 'edginess' of the affair. It isn't a bad effort, overall, and it clearly took a lot of work to put together. For me, though, it's a bit of a missed opportunity that's ultimately rather uninspiring.
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8/10
For Those Who Always Wished To See Droopy Lose
jeremycrimsonfox24 October 2022
Cat Burglar is an interactive movie that is a tribute to classic cartoons like Tex Avery's Droopy shorts, however, in this, you can actually help the bad guy win. In this, Rowdy, the cat (and bad guy in the same vein as the wolf in Red Hot Riding Hood) plans to steal a painting from a museum, with Peanut (the Droopy of the short) standing guard, as if he messes up, it's back to the pound.

So here is where the interactive part comes into play. During each scene (which is randomly selected), you get a question, and you have to guess three answers to the question. However, what makes this aspect lose points with me is that the movie requires perfection to advance, as getting even one answer wrong results in a bad scene where Peanut kills Rowdy, losing one of his three lives (with the first life loss explaining why he does not have nine). Also, unlike other Netflix interactive movies, you can actually cheat in this one, as if you get a question wrong, you can exit out of the movie, and re-enter it to start the section over, hence avoiding losing a life (this is basically one of my major gripes with Trivia Quest, as if you get a question wrong, you can do that and it will restart with the question in tow, making me wish Netflix would actually implement anti-cheating measures where if it detects something, it would immediately begin with Peanut killing Rowdy, and in the death screen, Rowdy scolds the viewer for his attempt to cheat).

But other than those gripes, the thing is good. Other than the random scenes, Cat Burglar actually entices you to play after you win, as the game tasks you to help Rowdy steal all art pieces just to see the best ending. Not only that, the death and game over scenes are interesting (but are also very violent, even more than a typical Droopy cartoon, and even having some crude humor taken from Ren and Stimpy), making this not for kids (although the questions are stuff kids would not know about). Cat Burglar is a good movie, but I hope if it gets a sequel, the creators ease up on the requirements (maybe only allow two out of three questions to be correct) and add scenes to help prevent cheating.
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3/10
Interactive cartoon to help unlikeable character be more unlikeable
hutch_uk22 February 2022
Warning: Spoilers
It was meant to be nostalgic but it felt old fashioned. Interactive questions help the unlikeable and mean cat character progress with its plans to break the law. By the end or the cartoon I was happy to answer wrongly to prevent the unlikeable cat from progressing. I would have preferred to have helped the dog tbh.
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9/10
I Give This Series A Much Higher Rating
sramsdell30004 March 2022
Even when you lose, the results are hilarious. I can understand why some would be frustated by answering witty questions about pop culture while trying to watch the cartoon in question, but as a toonhead who loves Avery's Texas-size slapstick, I recommended this.
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8/10
Fun interactive animation Warning: Spoilers
A nicely done homage to Tex Avery from the streaming era, taking full advantage of its format in order to create an interactive story filled with many different types of endings and story routes.

Not only the animation captures very well the style of many classic cartoons, but also plenty of the gags have the same certain "timeless" feel the jokes of many old-school cartoons from the 40s and 50s used to have, albeit with a more modern touch of black comedy. (This is after all, made by the same creator of Black Mirror)

The little guard dog Peanut steals the show here, being a very charismatic antagonist. Hope this characters appears once again in another animation, interactive or not.
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5/10
Accessibility: Could Improve. Quality: Fine.
jimmerzb1 March 2022
As a Netflix customer and gamer I always find time to play these interactive stories, albeit a mere 12 minutes for this show.

I enjoyed the brilliant throwback style, which reminded me of watching old cartoons like Tom & Jerry. It's actually pretty neat to be able to "play" with similar characters that I used to watch on the television. Did anyone else pretend to play the television with an unplugged N64 controller?

The plot and comedy are fine really, I enjoyed it enough and it did get a few laughs from me. If you enjoy slapstick comedy, or fancy an old school cartoon, then you will more than likely enjoy this.

I would probably give more stuff like it a go if it was on a subscription service I already used. I would definitely be reluctant to ever sign up to a new service for interactive stories and wouldn't consciously factor in this modern genre when contemplating subscribing to streaming services. Maybe this show truly resembles an irrelevant comedy.

I experienced this show with my wife who has dyslexia. I initially had the first attempt and didn't get any answers wrong. It turns out that if I left it there I would have enjoyed it alot less. When my wife had her attempts she immediately struggled to get the correct answers due to how quickly she had to answer and found it difficult to read the questions in time. Making mistakes provided humorous outcomes which were the funniest parts in my book.

The questions are fairly easy and show that the creators have put a good deal of thought in to the show being enjoyable to across different demographics. However in the world we live in I am surprised that the creators didn't add accessibility options and i would really appreciate it if they do implement these settings in this episode and/or in future episodes.
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1/10
Too Glitchy
foxielaydie4 March 2022
Often came up with the question but no answer options which made it difficult and repetitious. Liked the premise but didn't work well in practice. Also don't really like the return to these violent dated style of cartoons.
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3/10
Cringy and unwholesome
jarnix-957-86765229 May 2022
  • The whole story is basically a crime and you have to help the burglar (a cat) against a dog that might go back to the dog shelter, what an unpleasant pitch
  • The main character is definitely not likable and you want the "enemy" to win, so you're tempted to answer in the wrong way
  • The quiz answers have nothing to do with the story, and you have to answer to three questions in like 3 seconds so take some coffee
  • The design looks like an old cute cartoon at the beginning but shows animal cruelty like rapaces eating the limbs of another animal, what sick mind would put this in a cartoon ?
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1/10
Dreadful too hard for kids
ScrewCancelCulture17 March 2024
Where do I start with this crap first of all it's way too hard for kids second of all you literally get like three seconds to read and answer the question And if it's not perfect the game finishes it's completely crap two other three fair enough but three of the three every time otherwise it's game over it's just garbage it's more things Netflix screw up they can't do anything right don't waste your time playing these piece of crack game and some of the questions are wrong for the record a huge the research for this game but fire them immediately because there are Clueless they have no idea.....
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