Cat Burglar

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.

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.

The Art direction, The gags and the slap stick, the Easter eggs in the background, the entire show is eye candy! If it wasn't for the "interactive" part, you might have to repeat some segments over and over again before you reach the next part because of the tricky trivia questions, but if you manage to have full control over the trivia part, you can get over 90 minutes of content, with uncensored violence and fantastic animation, I thought at first that Rowdy and Peanut are just gonna be another generic comedic duo copying Droppy and Spike but their dynamic surprised me, Peanut doesn't have plot armor and Rowdy is a likeable jerk, I haven't laughed at a traditional old school inspired toon in a long time and some of the deaths here actually made me chuckle, This is a great love letter to one of the best cartoonists of all time with priciest mail stamps printed in gold, OH! And the soundtrack composed by Christopher Willis is so accurate to the ones scored by Scott Bradley it almost scarred me, I highly recommend it if you are a fan of old school cartoons, I loved it!

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.