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.

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.

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.

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.