Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats is a 1988 Made-for-TV Movie, created as a part of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 series.
In the film, Top Cat and his alley cat pals are scamming people as usual, when Benny suddenly becomes the beneficiary to a recently-deceased billionaire, Gertrude Vandergelt. With her only surviving family member missing, Benny stands to inherit the fortune, while her butler and his dog scheme their way to ensure they take control of the estate instead.
The movie is ostensibly a combination of two episodes of the series, "The Missing Heir" and "The Golden Fleecing".
This film contains examples of:
- 10-Minute Retirement: At the start of the film, Dibble gets the news that his retirement has been approved. He soon gets another job as a security guard for the Vandergelt mansion, and by the end of the film, he's gone back to working for the police of his own free will (he doesn't explain how, saying only "Now that I've got my old job back").
- Accidental Hero: At one point, Snerdly puts a very, very hot dressing on a salad and plans for Benny to eat it and die. When Brain insists on taking it and serving it himself, he promptly falls into the pool with the bowl, saving Benny's life.
- Artificial Limbs: One scene reveals Snerdly has a mechanical hand (covered by his usual butler's glove), which he's seen using all of once to smack a stone wall, leaving his handprint (and then causing a piece of the wall to hit him on the head, resulting in a Cranial Eruption).
- Automobile Opening: In the opening sequence, Benny is seen seemingly riding in a limousine, but turns out to be riding on its fender.
- Balloonacy: After Benny's been trapped in a sauna and sweated enough to reduce himself to the size of an action figure, T.C. inflates him with a bicycle pump, causing him to lift off and go flying until Snerdly shoots him down (fortunately, it's only a graze).
- Bizarre and Improbable Ballistics: In one scene, T.C. is able to sink every billiard ball in a single shot, and in the proper order, while blindfolded. He claims he learned from someone the gang identifies as Minnesota Cats.
- The Butler Did It: Gertrude Vandergelt's butler Snerdly, third in line in her will, tries to do in Benny (who's second in line) and has also manipulated Amy Vandergelt into never visiting her aunt Gertrude and working at a car wash, keeping her from learning of her aunt's "death" and that she's the primary heir. T.C. actually dismisses him as a threat at first, saying it's an old cliche and that the butler never does it anymore, but eventually comes to realize that Snerdly really is a villain.
- The Cameo: To get to the Vandergelt mansion, the gang hitches a ride on the back of a tourist bus that's showing people all the fancy houses and people of Beverly Hills. While passing through the neighborhood, Fred Flintstone, Wilma Flintstone, and Dino can be seen in one yard, and Barney and Betty Rubble are in the next yard over.
- Canine Companion: An evil variation in Ratsputin, a Russian wolfhound who's loyal to his master Snerdly and is almost never seen apart from him.
- Crushing Handshake: At the start of the film, T.C.'s latest scam involves the gang posing as "Alley Scouts", who do good deeds for rewards. He starts off by using a fan to blow a man's hat off his head, then pretends to have found it. The man, who sees right through him, responds by "thanking" him with a bone-crushing handshake before telling him to get lost.
- Dreadful Musician: Amy Vandergelt has a habit of singing variations on "Tomorrow" from Annie, but her singing is physically painful to Top Cat and the rest of the gang. Worse, she doesn't seem to realize it.
- Epic Fail: At one point, while suggesting a way to get rid of Benny, Ratsputin pulls out a flail and starts giving it a few twirls... but ends up wrapping himself up in its chain.
- Evil Laugh: Snerdly regularly lets out an evil "Mwah-hah-hah" whenever he's plotting.
- Faking the Dead: The plot of the film revolves around Benny being heir to the wealthy and recently deceased Gertrude Vandergelt. She turns up alive and well at the end, disguised as her lawyer, much to evil butler Snerdly's shock — he even saw her in the coffin, as indicated by his line "I went to your funeral!", and Gertrude's explaining that she hired a body double.
- Gold Digger: Kitty Glitter, who hears T.C. is rich and promptly agrees to try and woo him (as part of Snerdly's plan to distract him from protecting Benny). At the end of the film, when she learns T.C.'s actually broke, she instantly drops him and drives off, having no interest in a non-wealthy cat.
- Have We Met?: Late in the film, the gang ends up in a car wash while trying to evade a dogcatcher; Benny recognizes the car wash girl, asking "Haven't I seen you somewhere before?" and another of the gang calling it one of the oldest lines in the book. In this case though, Benny's right — the girl is Amy Vandergelt, niece of Gertrude Vandergelt and the rightful heir to her fortune, and he recognized her from her portrait, which was hanging on the mansion's wall.
- Heroic Canines, Villainous Felines: Inverted — most of the main characters are cats, but the villain's sidekick is an evil dog.
- Honey Trap: Kitty Glitter is contacted by Snerdly in order to serve this role to distract T.C. and draw him away from Benny, whom he's protecting from Snerdly's thinly-disguised murder attempts. Unlike most cases, she isn't actually evil (and doesn't seem to realize that Snerdly is up to no good) — she's just told that T.C. is rich and immediately comes to try and win his heart.
- If I Do Not Return: Used during the scene where they rescue Benny from the dog pound, but argue over who gets to go:Top Cat: Never mind, I'll go, but if I'm not back in 10 minutes, take off without me.
- Inadequate Inheritor: The will reading reveals that Gertrude Vandergelt left her entire fortune to her niece because she hates her other relatives. No reason for this hatred has ever been mentioned, but given their negative reaction to learning someone else was inheriting instead of them, it's not surprising.
- Inheritance Murder: Attempted by Snerdly, who keeps trying to kill Benny so he'll inherit instead. Also subverted by the fact that he simply arranged for Amy Vandergelt (who was first in line, ahead of Benny) to be kept away from the mansion and unaware of her aunt's death, rather than trying to kill her, and later on he resorts to simply keeping Benny away from the mansion until the time limit is past, which comes far closer to succeeding than any of his other attempts.Top Cat: Ah, Beverly Hills. When they try to terminate ya, they do it with class.
- Kitchen Sink Included: Humorously subverted, then played straight, in a scene where Top Cat and his gang are having a wild party and their neighbors respond by throwing a bunch of junk at them to get them to be quiet. Fancy then remarks that the neighbors have thrown everything but the kitchen sink; the next object dropped is a grand piano. T.C. yells, "What's the matter with you up there?! He said, 'kitchen sink'!", with predictable results.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Snerdly's final attempt to rid himself of Benny is disguising him as a dog and having him send to the pound. When that fails and he tries to escape using the disguise, he ends off getting send to the pound instead.
- Latex Perfection:
- Snerdly provides Benny with a dog mask, which fools both Brain (not that that's too hard) and a dogcatcher into thinking he's a real dog.
- Gertrude Vandergelt disguises herself as her male lawyer, wearing a rubber mask to hide her identity. Until she suddenly starts speaking in her normal voice after the gang and Amy return to the mansion, nobody is able to tell it's a disguise.
- Legacy Vessel Naming: At one point, Benny is given an inflatable inner tube named Titanic II by the butler so he can float in the pool. Benny has the feeling he's heard that name before... naturally, Snerdly's planning to shoot it out from under him with a harpoon gun.
- Literal-Minded: In one scene, Choo Choo suggests drawing straws to decide who goes up the ladder to rescue Benny. Brain, not understanding the concept, literally draws one on a pad of paper.
- Mistaken for Special Guest: When Kitty Glitter shows up at the Vandergelt mansion for a blind date with T.C., due to a mishap, she ends up taking Brain out instead (who, admittedly, tries to tell her he's not T.C. but gets cut off), not realizing the error until Snerdly finally manages to get a hold of her.
- The Movie: The first full-length film to feature the cast, released as part of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 series.
- Nasal Trauma: When Ratsputin the dog is watching the gang through a set of holes in Amy Vandergelt's portrait, his nose also causes the portrait to bulge out. Unfortunately for him, T.C. sees this and unknowingly smacks him in the schnoz while flattening it out.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If not for the butler's plans to get rid of Benny and inherit Mrs. Vandergelt's fortune, Top Cat and his gang wouldn't have found her missing niece.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: When Top Cat is playing pool and sinks all of the balls blindfolded, the gang asks him how he did it. Top Cat then pulls out a picture of someone he claims to be his "teacher", whom the gang recognizes as "Minnesota Cats".note
- Not Quite Dead: Turns out, Gertrude Vandergelt did not pass away at all. She instead faked her death and disguised herself as her will's executor in order to catch Snerdly in the act of stealing her fortune.
- On One Condition: With the disappearance of Mrs. Vandergelt's niece Amy Vandergelt, Benny is the next in line for the inheritance (Mrs. Vandergelt had other relatives but despised them all for unspecified reasons). Provided that Amy didn't return and nothing bad happened to Benny in the next 48 hours, he'd get the inheritance. If something happened to him, the butler would get the money (and naturally spends the rest of the film trying to bump Benny off, or at least ensure he won't be at the estate at the proper time). In this case, Benny never feels comfortable with his newfound potential wealth because he knows Amy was ahead of him to inherit, and when he and the gang find her by sheer chance, he immediately gives up his inheritance to her. (Of course, then it turns out Mrs. Vandergelt isn't really dead.)
- Passed-Over Inheritance: At the start of the film, Benny saved a wealthy woman's life. Because she hated all her relatives (besides a missing niece), she left her entire estate to him. Assuming the niece doesn't reappear and nothing happens to him within 48 hours from her death. Of course, then it turns out she's faked her death.
- Portrait Painting Peephole: In one scene, Ratsputin the dog can be seen watching the gang through a set of holes in Amy Vandergelt's portrait.
- Race Against the Clock: At the will reading, Benny learns he must wait for 48 hours before he can inherit a fortune. Should anything happen to him during that time, the evil butler and his dog would get it. Subverted in that the urgency doesn't start until 24 hours have passed and Snerdly sets a plan into motion that nearly works. Also subverted in that the original heiress returned and the benefactress faked her death to trick the butler into revealing his true colors.
- Rags to Riches: The events of the film are precisely this to Benny, and the trope even gets name-dropped at one point:Spook: It's the old rags to riches story.Top Cat: Right, except Benny could never afford the rags.
- Right-Hand Attack Dog: Evil Butler Snerdly has a right-hand hound named Ratsputin, who's just as eager to off Benny as his master.
- Secretly Wealthy: During the "Alley Scouts" scam at the start of the film, Benny meets an old bag lady and shoves her out of the way of some falling junk, saving her life. Soon after he leaves the scene, a limousine drives up, revealing the "bag lady" to be a disguised Gertrude Vandergelt, wealthy heir to the Vandergelt diamond mines.
- Shout-Out:
- Amy Vandergelt is believed to be an orphan, and frequently sings short songs about "tomorrow."
- Top Cat is profiled on Lifestyles of the Rich and Furry with host Lester Pester.
- Speech-Impaired Animal: The dog Ratsputin speaks entirely in a thick growly voice (though none of the characters seem to have any issue understanding him).
- Status Quo Is God: In the end, Top Cat and his pals are back to being penniless and Officer Dibble comes out of retirement.
- Verbal Tic: The dog Ratsputin, befitting his name and breed (Russian wolfhound), tends to add "-ski" to the end of most of his words.
- Went to the Great X in the Sky: Late in the film, T.C. and the gang regretfully inform the niece of Gertrude Vandergelt that her aunt has "gone to the great country club in the sky".
- You Just Ruined the Shot: During the climax of the film, Snerdly (who's wearing a dog mask) and Ratsputin are running down the street, only to nearly get run over and jump out of the way... and then a man yells at them, revealing he's shooting a movie and the two (whom he's apparently mistaken for actors) were supposed to get hit by the car, not avoid it. He then calls for a retake, only for the dogcatcher from earlier to show up and take the pair into custody.
