Follow TV Tropes

Following

Animation / Cat City

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Cat_City_9899.jpg

Cat City (Macskafogó) is a 1986 Hungarian animated film created at Pannonia Film Studio about mice being oppressed by cats.

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.

In 2007, the film was followed by Macskafogó 2: A Sátán macskája, a sequel that focuses on a mouse journalist, Stanley, who finds a tribe of untamed cats in the jungles of "Pafrika". The cats summon a demon cat, Moloch, to take the world back from the mice.


The film provides examples of:

  • Abusive Parents: Safranek is an abusive father to Cathy, forbidding her to befriend Samu the mouse and even refusing to give her dinner after catching the two playing.
  • The Ace: Nick Grabowski. Although he insists that he's burnt-out, he still manages to get the plans, and memorise them after one look at them. He's also excellent at fighting, coming up with innovative solutions when getting in trouble, and changing his voice.
  • Affably Evil: The vampire bats don't even try to hide their intention to suck Lusta Dick's blood. Despite this, they are very friendly with him, even granting him a last request.
  • Affectionate Parody: Mostly of James Bond and other spy/action movies but basically everything that was popular in the 80s.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: The cats inherently despise mice, treating them as underlings or as food. The only exception is the Cute Kitten Cathy.
  • Always Lawful Good: Every single mouse character is benevolent.
  • Alternate Calendar: According to the text scroll, the movie sets in 80 AMM (After Mickey Mouse).
  • Animals Not to Scale: There is no established hight scale between the characters except a vague mouse<rat<cat one. Best seen in the case of the rats who can look barely bigger than a mouse in one scene and almost as tall as the cats in the other. See Your Size May Vary for more detail.
  • Artificial Limbs: Teufel has a metallic left hand with really sharp claws.
  • Bad Boss: Teufel to Safranek and Gatto to Teufel. Implied that Gatto tolerates failure even worse than Teufel, when Safranek immediately accepts Teufel's punishment instead of risking Gatto hearing about it.
  • Bandito: The bats are stereotypical, sombrero- and poncho-wearing, gun-wielding Mexican bandits.
  • Bank Robbery: The film opens with one, where a gang of cats attack a mouse bank - with a tank.
  • Bat Out of Hell: Subverted. While initially posing a threat to Lazy Dick (threatening to suck his blood), the bat bandits eventually befriend him.
  • Big Bad: Mr. Gatto is the leader of the cat syndicate, who wants to rule over the mice once and for all.
  • Big Fun: Maxipotzac, the leader of the vampire bats, is portly and very friendly and jovial, even with his potential prey.
  • Big Red Button: There's one in the rats' Cool Car.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Lots of it. Teufel's name is a twofold example: it means "Devil" in German, but sounds like "tejfel", which means "sour cream" in Hungarian. For further examples see Hurricane of Puns below.
  • Black Comedy: Through and through. From the comical abuse Safranek suffers from Teufel's hand, to the over-the-top music video about the rats murdering mice, to jokes about the vampire bats sucking blood, the film practically runs on black comedy.
  • Bloodsucking Bats: The bat bandits kidnap Dick with the intention of sucking his blood. Luckily, Dick's musical skills make them change their mind.
    Maxipotzac: Pedro, we're going to eat canned blood tonight. It would be a shame to waste this talent!
  • Body Horror: Though there's no blood or visible damage, it's still rather disturbing to see Grabowski with a lock through his lips during the climax at the party.
  • Bottomless Magazines: The battle scene near the end of the movie.
  • Brainwashing for the Greater Good: At the end of the film, this happens to the cats defeated by the Cat Catcher.
  • Brainy Brunette: Pissy, the Only Sane Woman among the rats.
  • Brought to You by the Letter "S": Grabowski has a letter "G" on the shirt he wears in most of the film.
  • Butt-Monkey: Teufel regularly vents his anger on poor Safranek.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: The rats. They have an entire music video to promote themselves as gangsters. Which might be the invoking of this trope as they try to get work with it. Later they also mention that their choices are this or jumping around in a ballet making them pretty much Punch Clock Villains.
  • A Dog Named "Dog": The Italian word for cat is gatto, so Mr Gatto is a cat named cat.
  • Cats Are Mean: The Movie. Every cat is villainous by default, with the exception of Cathy, the daughter of Safranek.
  • Cat Stereotype: Mr. Gatto, the high-class mafia boss, is a fat white Persian. Teufel, the dark grey cat, certainly means bad luck. Safranek, the ginger cat is the most humble and the least mean of the main cat characters.
  • The Cavalry: The attack of Lazy Dick and the bat bandits on Mr. Gatto's party.
  • The Chain of Harm: Mr. Gatto is a threatening, menacing boss to Teufel, who in turn constantly torments his assistant Safranek, who is a mean, cold parent to his daughter Cathy.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Lazy Dick and the bat bandits. The bats are literal gunmen.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Lazy Dick's musical skills, which earn him the friendship of the bats, and ultimately help to defeat the cats. Also, Grabowski's Photographic Memory becomes useful once the cats destroy the blueprint for the Cat Catcher.
  • Children Are Innocent: Cathy the kitten is the only feline friendly to mice.
  • Cigar Chomper: Teufel.
  • Cool Car: The car of the rat gangsters. Too bad they can't use it properly.
  • Cut Himself Shaving: Safranek must do this all the time as his boss, Teufel brutally injures him for every mistake he makes, and pretends not to know about it subsequently.
    Teufel : Not another accident? Oh dear. What happened to you this time, Safranek?
    Safranek: * gulps* I was shaving, sir.
    Teufel: But, your hand!
    Safranek: That's what I was holding the razor with, sir.
  • Cute Kitten: Cathy, Safranek's daughter, is the only nice cat in the whole movie.
  • Cyborg: Grabowski has a camera eye (that's Photographic Memory for you) and a chest safe at least and the dialog also hints on enhanced strength and senses.
  • David Versus Goliath: Around the end of the movie, Grabowski gets in a melee with Teufel.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Many characters to some degree (Grabowski, the mouse police chief etc.). But the queen of this trope is Pissy (Candy in the English dub). She rarely talks but almost every line she has is snark.
  • Deus ex Machina: Blatantly used near the end, with the bats coming out of nowhere and saving the day.
  • Disney Acid Sequence: The Four Gangsters song has much more surreal animation than the actual movie. Justified in that it's a video clip watched by the cats, thus may involve visual effects. Someone worded it as that video is 100% unadulterated Camp.
  • The Dragon: Teufel is the second-in-command to Mr. Gatto.
  • Dub Name Change: Most of the characters have different names in the English dub.
    • Nick Grabowski — Gary Gumshoe
    • Mr. Fritz Teufel — Mr. D
    • Safranek — Tweed
    • Lusta Dick — Billy Bugle
    • Buddy — Burns
    • Billy — Bones
    • Pissy — Candy
    • Pukie - Cookie
  • Dumb Blonde: Cookie the girl rat and her Spear Counterpart Billy.
  • Everything Trying to Kill You: Lazy Dick's first impression of The Amazon Rainforest. Things that tried to kill him include: the road (actually a snake), the plantlife, the river and the locals.
  • Evil Is Bigger: Both cats and rats are much bigger than mice.
  • Eyepatch of Power: Teufel wears one.
  • Fanservice: The cat lady at Gatto's party, wearing a babydoll, sings a rather suggestive song.
  • Fantastic Racism: Cats and mice hate each other. But also Mr. Teufel gets accused being prejudiced against rats by their agent.
  • Fat Bastard: Gatto is a corpulent and hedonistic mafia boss.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Teufel, who acts cordially towards Safranek... when he's not torturing him for his mistakes. He even acts like he doesn't know what caused his injuries, and pretends to feel sorry for him.
  • Femme Fatale: Pissy/Candy's specialty according to the music video. We don't see much of this, but she is effective enough in being a criminal that we're inclined to believe her.
  • Fluffy the Terrible: Mr. Teufel manages to be this and Names to Run Away from Really Fast thanks to Bilingual Bonus. His name is pronounced almost like "tejfel", meaning "sour cream" in Hungarian.
  • Fully-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Majority of the characters apply to this trope.
  • Good Animals, Evil Animals: Mice are good, cats and rats are bad. Bats are creepy, but ultimately heroic.
  • Go Through Me: When cats break into a mouse bank with a tank, the clerk shouts: "No! Over my dead body!" The tank promptly shoots him.
  • Guns Akimbo: Some of the bat bandits uses two guns while flying, holding the guns in their legs.
  • Have a Gay Old Time: Sergeant Lazy Dick. (In Hungarian, of course, his name doesn't have a double meaning). In fact, his name may simply be a German Bilingual Bonus, where "dick" means "fat".
  • The Heavy: While Gatto is the head of the cat syndicate, it's Teufel who is most actively working on driving out the mice, bordering on Dragon-in-Chief.
  • Horror Hunger: Invoked by Safranek in a very cruel moment, denying dinner to his daughter Cathy as a punishment for playing with the mouse Samu, telling her that if she gets hungry she can eat her friend. Fortunately, Samu shares some cheese with Cathy.
  • Human Head on the Wall: Gatto, the cat mob boss, has mounted cat heads on his wall.
  • Humongous Mecha: the Cat Catcher, which is an enormous robot bulldog.
  • Hungry Jungle: The Amazon rainforest is portrayed like this. Snakes, caimans, mouse-eating plants, Inevitable Waterfall, and vampire bat banditos who will either shoot you or suck your blood. Lazy Dick only survives because he befriends the bats.
  • Hurricane of Puns: In the Hungarian version.
    • 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 Police chief, Bob Poljakow 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 daughter of Safranek, the bumbling assistant of Mr. Teufel is called CAThy.
    • Mr. Teufel's name. Teufel means devil in German, but it's also pronounced very similarly to "tejfel" (sour cream), which cats like a lot.
    • The name of Maxipotzac, the obese chief of the Mexican bats, is of course a play on "maxipocak", or "maxi-belly".
  • "I Am Great!" Song: The "Four Gangsters" song is this for the rats, where they advertise themselves as master criminals.
  • I Know You Know I Know: Cookie delivers this line, pondering if Grabowski knows they're after him.
  • Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: The four rats are bumbling villains whose attempts to stop Grabowski keep failing.
  • Inevitable Waterfall: Sgt. Lazy Dick ends up in one in the jungle. He tries to avoid it by playing his trumpet to blow his boat back. But he eventually gives up... because he's out of tunes.
  • Jerkass: Every single cat character, except Cathy.
    • The rats aren't particularly friendly either.
  • Last Request: When Lazy Dick is captured by a bunch of vampire bats who plan to suck out his blood, his last request is that he could play his trumpet for one last time. He plays so well that the bats decide to spare him.
  • Laughably Evil:
  • Leaf Boat: Lazy Dick improvises one for himself to ride a river in the Amazon.
  • Lean and Mean: Mr. Teufel is a tall, rail-thin cat.
  • Literal Surveillance Bug: The cats use a robot fly that releases a microphone down a chimney to spy on Grabowski and Poliakoff. Grabowski destroys it by setting fire in his fireplace (despite the fact it's a warm summer day).
  • MacGuffin: The Cat Cather plans that Grabowski has to retrieve from Pokyo.
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!": The cats' reaction to the reveal of the Cat Catcher.
  • Master of Disguise: Billy boasts about being one in the music video. In practice... not likely.
  • Meaningful Name: Many characters, often overlapping with Punny Name or Bilingual Bonus.
    • Mr. Gatto, the cat mafia boss ("gatto" is Italian for "cat").
    • Mr. Teufel, the fiendish mobster cat ("teufel" is German for "devil", but also "tejfel" is Hungarian for "sour cream").
    • Von Schwarz, the black cat ("schwarz" is German for "black").
    • Safranek is a ginger (i.e. saffron-coloured) cat.
    • Cathy, the kitten is an example of A Lizard Named "Liz".
    • Dick, the fat mouse sergeant ("dick" is German for "fat").
    • Chino-san, the pretty Japanese mouse girl ("csinos" is Hungarian for "pretty").
    • Maxipotzac, the obese vampire bat ("maxi-pocak" means "maxi-belly" in Hungarian).
  • Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow: The relationship between Grabowski and Chino-san is a nod to this trope. Chino-san, the pretty Asian woman, although is shown to be quite competent herself when it comes to fights, still comes off as a Flat Character due to getting very little screentime, and immediately falls for the Western super-agent.note 
  • Missing Mom: Safranek's wife left him, and their daughter Cathy and moved in with Teufel a year before the events of the movie. (Considering what kind of a person Teufel is, she may not have had a say in the matter.)
  • Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: The reason why the rats can't operate their Cool Car properly is because it comes with a Door Stopper manual and helpline like this. Its quirks range from the annoying like addressing any person as "ma'am" to giving advice like "Press the red button and rest in peace". Turns out Grabowski hacked the system and trolled them from the beginning.
  • More Dakka: In battle scene, the cats, the mice and the bats all shoot gratuitous amounts of bullet.
  • Man-Eating Plant: Lazy Dick encounters one in the jungle. Unlike their man-eating counterparts these actually exist, although they lack the sharp, snapping teeth seen in this movie.
  • Mouse World: Subverted, since the Mouse World exists not on the edge of the human, but the cat society.
  • Music Soothes the Savage Beast: An anthropomorphic animal example. Lazy Dick's awesome trumpet solo convinces the bandit vampire bats to not have him for dinner because they absolutely need him in their band!
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Teufel means "devil" in German. However, "tejfel" means "sour cream" in Hungarian.
  • Never Smile at a Crocodile: Lazy Dick encounters a caiman in the Amazon. While caimans are much smaller than crocodiles, they are gigantic compared to a mouse.
  • Nice Mice: None of the mouse characters is malevolent. Although Teufel mentions that there are mice working for the cats, they do not appear in the film.
  • Non-Action Big Bad: Through the movie, Gatto is set-up as even worse than the already very bad Teufel. Then when the bats attack his party, he tries hiding under his pillows, while Teufel fights back.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain:
    • Safranek was the Chew Toy through the whole movie, but near the end Teufel assigned him to coordinate the battle, and he proved to be frighteningly effective.
    • The rats act like a bumbling Quirky Miniboss Squad for the majority of the movie, but once they manage to catch up with Grabowski in Pokyo, they put up a decent fight.
  • One-Man Band: Due to their tight budget, the entire orchestra of the mouse police consists of one mouse, Lazy Dick.
  • Only Sane Man: Buddy thinks he's the one among the rats, but really Tissi is the one.
  • Opening Scroll: The film opens with one, as an homage to Star Wars.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: They are vampire bat banditos.
  • Photographic Memory: Grabowski's Chekhov's Skill. Might be a literal example (he seems to have a camera eye, although it might just be a visual gag).
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Grabowski may be a mouse, but he easily beats up all four rats with minimal help, and headbutts Teufel in the stomach with enough force to make him crouch.
  • Quirky Miniboss Squad: The rats. The boss who believes to be surrounded by idiots while not that bright himself, two Dumb Blondes (one male, one female), and a Brainy Brunette Hyper-Competent Sidekick.
  • Predator-Prey Friendship: Cathy the kitten and Samu the mouse don't understand the tension between their species and become best friends.
  • Ramming Always Works: Grabowski sunk the cat pirates' submarine by ramming it with the ship they thought to have captured, and had in a tow.
  • Red Right Hand: Exaggerated with Teufel, almost to the level of parody. He has an Eyepatch of Power (with a cat eye ruby under it, no less), a robotic hand, a torn ear, dentures, and even his tail seems to have its tip cut off.
  • Ruthless Modern Pirates: The pirate cats attacking Grabowski's ship. Other than having a Jolly Roger flag on their submarine, there's nothing romantic about them.
  • Satellite Love Interest: Chino-san shows signs of being an Action Girl, but doesn't get much more characterization and barely any screentime. Most of her romance with Grabowski happens off-screen.
  • Scream Discretion Shot: Whenever Teufel vents his anger on Safranek, the camera cuts away and we only hear Safranek scream.
  • Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The bossy and arrogant Buddy opposed to the Dumb Blonde guy Billy.
  • Sexy Cat Person: At Gatto's party near the end of the film, there is a Fanservice Extra cat singer who performs a very catchy and very sexually suggestive song.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Shrink Ray: The cats test one at the beginning of the film, so they could get into mouseholes. It works, but it also weakens the test subject who's easily beaten up by a mouse.
  • Smart People Play Chess: Grabowski beats himself in chess in eight out of ten games. In the other two, he wins.
  • Stealth Pun: Word of God confirms that the sparkly, ruby-like jewel under Teufel's eyepatch is actually a bycicle reflector, also known as "cat eye".
  • The Stoic: Pissy and Grabowski are a rat and mouse of few words.
  • Stocking Mask: Buddy says that they'll have to use it if they work in public. Cookie complains that she only has fishnets.
  • Submarine Pirates: The pirate cats use a submarine rather than a ship.
  • The Syndicate: The cats form a criminal organization to defeat the mice once and for all.
  • Tempting Fate: At the beginning, a bank clerk assures a worrying client that to this bank, cats could only break into with a tank. Guess what happens next.
  • That's No Moon: After landing in the jungle, Dick confuses the body of a giant snake to a path through the bushes.
  • Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo: Portrayed as a hi-tech metropolis, home of the professor designing a Humongous Mecha, an attractive female assistant in kimono, and a cat trying to catch Grabowski with karate moves using chopsticks.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: While both rat girls are hyper sexualized, but Cookie is Dumb Blonde, girly and environmentally conscious (she is almost Valley Girl) wile Candy is Stoic, Hyper Competent and a legitimate badass.
  • Too Dumb to Live: Billy. When the car gets stuck in a pit, Buddy asks the computer what to do:
    Computer: In this situation, push the red button and rest in peace.
    Buddy: Wait!
    Billy: (pushing the button) For what? (car explodes)
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: The lady cat singing at the party is bitten by one of the bats and apparently passes out from blood loss. She isn't seen in the finale, leaving one to wonder if she died or not.
  • World of Funny Animals: A world inhabited by anthropomorphic cats, mice, rats and bats. (Non-anthropomorphic animals appear in the Amazon.)
  • You Dirty Rat!: The four gangsters.
  • You Have Failed Me: Subverted with Teufel and Safranek; Teufel tortures Safranek when the latter screws up, but lets him live. Mr. Gatto, however, has the mounted heads of Teufel's predecessors on his wall.
  • Your Size May Vary: The size difference between cats and mice varies. Most jarringly, Grabowski fits comfortably into a bottle that one of the rats drank empty in one scene, and later stands face to face with him, coming up to the rat's shoulder.

The sequel provides examples of:

  • 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: Several examples, the titular robot dog being the most obvious.
  • Alphabet News Network: CiNN, the mouse news channel ("cin" is the Hungarian onomatopoeia for a mouse squeaking).
  • Animals Not to Scale:
    • Torzonborz is a badger about the same size as a mouse. Justified since she's a mouse in disguise.
    • Also the film begins with Stanley, a mouse, cutting his way trough the jungle, and accidentally chopping off the tail of a leopard and a python that are in scale with him as if he was a human. Then he runs into the cats, are as big compared to him as real life cats compared to real life mice - which means they're gigantic compared to the leopard. Made even weirder, when the cats leave the jungle and enter the savannah, they're immediately attacked by a rhino, and later by an elephant herd, that are in scale to them, as if the cats were humans.
  • Applied Phlebotinum: The cats are forced to wear ribbons, which are oppressing their violent nature.
  • Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The following exchange
    Grabowski after watching a recording of Moloch breaking into the "civilization" Did you notice anything strange?
    Edlington Strange? Well besides cats breaking through our outer defense, and pressing two of our guards into a DVD, nothing!
    Harvey Those cats are not wearing ribbons.
    Edlington Harvey! No, you're right, they aren't wearing ribbons.
    Grabowski True, but what I meant was that giant cat had red eyes. However only albino cats have red eyes, but there is no such thing as a black albino.
  • Ass in a Lion Skin: Torzonborz, a mouse disguised as a badger.
  • Behemoth Battle: The mice unleash the Cat Catcher on the gigantic demon cat Moloch. The fight is explicitly compared to Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla by Mr. Teufel. Eventually, after not being able to beat each other in physical combat, the two giants switch to a game of poker.
  • Chess with Death: Or rather, poker with Moloch.
  • Contrasting Sequel Main Character: Grabowski was an international super-agent, The Ace and The Stoic. Stanley is a journalist and a talkative Guile Hero.
  • Darker and Edgier: Although the original was already dark and edgy, the sequel adds more Family-Unfriendly Violence.
  • Darkest Africa: Pafrika.
  • Demoted to Extra: Almost the entire cast of the original movie, Grabowski being the only one that has any influence on the plot.
  • Devil, but No God: Moloch comes straight from Hell and is stated to be Satan's minion. There is no mention of God or Heaven.
  • Distressed Dude: Stanley sure needs rescuing a lot, and frequently becomes James Bondage.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Stanley's reaction to Samus Is a Girl is to have his tail stiffen out. There's also the scene where the cats try and impale him on a skewer which they try to shove into his mouth which is played out like a Black Comedy Rape scene.
  • Family-Unfriendly Violence:
    • Stanley accidentally cutting off a leopard's and a snake's tail.
    • The battle scene between the rebelling cats and the mice is a lot more violent than the first movies's battle, including a scene, when a cat is shown to be preparing to eat a mouse child alive.
  • Fix Fic: One of the reasons people dislike the movie because it fixed what wasn't broken (the fate of the cats) according to most. Also it ends with a signing of a peace treaty between cats and mice which for people remembering the first movie's opening text meant: Here We Go Again!... with all the problems this implies.

Top