Cat Burglar

'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.

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.

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.

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.

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.