Cat Burglar

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.

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.

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 (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.