From my favorite movies..

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Another memorable cartoon of my late teenage years. I used to catch the show on Cartoon Network where I watched many episodes.The theme of the cartoon is of Top Cat getting into scrapes with Officer Dibbles, and using his wits to get out of them.Top Cat and his gang make up the show. Each cat has a particular name that suits its mannerism. Example Benny the Ball gets his name because of his shape.Recommended Episode(s): The Late T.C. (Season 1, Episode 22) This one is my favorite of all. When Top Cat suffers an accident, Dibbles overhears a conversation in which he hears the words "a week". What Top Cat was actually referring to was his Alarm Clock which Dibbles didn't hear about. Dibbles thinks Top Cat has a week left in his life. This leads to Top Cat given lavish treats and privileges by Dibbles. Top Cats thinks that he can keep this up forever but things don't always go as planned...Other episodes you may also like: Season 1, Episode 30: Dibble's Double:A master of disguise impersonates Officer Dibble to steal valuable paintings. But he hasn't reckoned with Dibble's friends.Season 1, Episode 23: Dibble's Birthday: Officer Dibble is facing another birthday, and feels he is getting old. His attitude is not helped by overhearing the Police Commissioner talking about getting rid of the "old wrecks" at the police station, (meaning old police cars). Top Cat and the gang decide to throw Dibble a surprise party -- with expensive gifts from everyone in the neighborhood.Season 1, Episode 29: Griswald: Officer Dibble's new partner is a tough police dog, Griswald. Top Cat and the gang try their best to outwit him, but Griswald always seems to be one step ahead of them.Season 1, Episode 15: The Long Hot Winter: Refusing to spend a freezing winter in the alley, Top Cat comes up with a plan for him and the gang to move into Officer Dibble's apartment as house guests for the entire winter.Season 1, Episode 17: T.C. Minds the Baby: The gang finds an abandoned baby and decide to care for it, but they find parenthood a lot harder than they thought it would be...Verdict: Go and BUY the COMPLETE DVD COLLECTION & ENJOY!!!

When the Animation Team of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera first enjoyed success on TV, it was with some anthropomorphic "funny animals" series. RUFF & REDDY (Hanna Barbera/Screen Gems, 1957) on NBC's Saturday morning schedule was followed by the syndicated HUCKLEBERRY HOUND Show (Hanna-Barbara/Screen Gems, 1958); which introduced not only old HUCK, but also YOGI BEAR and PIXIE, DIXIE & MR. JINX. About a year or so later western spoofing QUICK DRAW McGRAW Show (Hanna-Barbera/Screen Gems, 1959) bowed (also syndicated). It gave us not only "Queeks Draw" & Baba Louie, but added back up features of SUPER SNOOP & BLABBER MOUSE (Detective Parody) and single parent family of AUGIE DOGGIE & DOGGIE DADDY. HANNA-BARBERA made the jump back to the networks with ABC TV and THE FLINTSTONES (Hanna-Barbera/Screen Gems TV, 1960). It was shown on Friday evenings, early; but it was in primetime. The Stone Age HONEYMOONERS derivative was highly successful; hitting all the right demographics as well as piling up some good ratings in the nights "Lead-Off Position. The ground was traveled and a new phenomenon was broken into the networks, the Primetime Family Animated Cartoon Series.THE folks at Hanna-Barbera Productions next hit on a second primetime project with the idea of a group of New York specific comedy series which would be highly reminiscent of the old Movies set in the Big Apple with a lot of characters which would definitely remind one of folks like Bogart, Cagney, John Garfireld, Frank McHugh, Marc Lawrence,Warren Hymer, "Slapsie" Maxie Rosenbloom, Ed Brophy, "Rags" Ragland,Jimmy Gleason and Allen Jenkins. The main characters were mostly of the Feline Persuasion; except for the Beat Cop, Officer Dibble. They were voiced by a fine gang of NY types; with the title guy, Top Cat (Arnold Stang), Choo-Choo (Marvin Kaplan), Benny the Ball (Maurice Gosfield from SGT. BILKO), Fancy-Fancy (John Stevenson) and Brain & Spook (Leo DeLyon). The voice for Officer Dibble was done by the previously mentioned, Allen Jenkins. The resulting series, TOP CAT (Hanna-Barbera/Screen Gems/ABC TV, 1961-62), was born.IN one Episode after another the action would revolve around the "boys" getting involved in some sort of mischief or deal; which was not exactly kosher with the law. Officer Dibble always had Top Cat and the Gang under suspicion and they usually pulled through the crisis with flying colors; the hard-boiled Dibble usually revealed a soft side as well as a deep down affection and admiration for the gang of alley cats.ANIMATION is of the limited type as all of the Made for TV stuff was and basically is. The backgrounds were of the typical sorts that the Hanna-Barbera Productions' teams had made famous. Their extra long and repetitive hallways, fences and tree lined cityscapes with multi identical trees, planks and other landmarks abound and flourished. The incidental music was mostly the standard made-for-television stock stuff; with usually some of the original theme music blended in.WE found TOP CAT to be greatly to our liking in our household. The stories were quite upbeat, often clever and most importantly, they were funny. But alas, the show failed to get any great sized following and consequently did not survive the cut leading up to a season two. That we believe to this very day was unfortunate; for the production team really gave some great individual personalities to the characters. There was a large component of the fresh and originality present; which is oft a rare commodity in TV.AS for a model for TOP CAT as an individual character and as the Series; we were surprised to see that Nat Hiken's YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH/SGT. BILKO Show with Phil Silvers and Company was chosen to get the sort of semi-official nod and endorsement. There is a certain resemblance to Sgt. Ernie Bilko's barking out of orders to a subordinate; but there is so much more to it. First of all, the storyline is not in a Military setting; but rather it's in an urban, NYC type of locale.PERSONALLY speaking, we (that is I) always felt that we were watching a sort of animated funny animal spin-off of the DEAD END Kids or rather their own off spring, THE BOWERY BOYS. The similarities are there. TOP CAT is essentially animated EAST SIDE KIDS/BOWERY BOYS Series.OR is it the other way around; THE BOWERY BOYS movies are actually a Live Action sort of Cartoon? It's food for thought, anyway! POODLE SCHNITZ!!

My 8 year old asked what cartoons I used to watch. I'm 56 so I mentioned Top Cat.I explained to him it was a show about cats that acted out people roles.There was no violence or evil villains, just a bunch of guys trying to beat the system.The old get by while the other guys do all the work.They always had a get rich quick gimmick going that was going to put them on easy street and every time they made it on to easy street they missed the good old days and officer Dibble.It was similar to Bilko, McHales navy and other popular sitcoms of that era.I was amazed my 8 year old hadn't seen an episode. We have DISH TV so I did a search and it did not come up. I thought Boomerang or Cartoon network would have had it on. My 17 year old son came home and caught me looking up Top Cat. He remembered the show. He told his brother it was a great show where a cat had a bunch of trash can buddies that hung out in an alley. How the cartoon network can not have this show on the air is a crime against children everywhere.

We all love Top Cat. If you didn't like Top Cat then you must be either a zombie or a robot.In the show, Top Cat lived in a dustbin and along with his friends caused trouble for Police Officer Dibble. One thing T.C. did frequently was using the police telephone for his own calls. T.C. generally was always looking for ways to make money and mischief, the two things generally going hand in hand.Top Cat kind of reminds me of my childhood many many years ago. I was a good child and I tended to hang around on the streets kicking balls around and trying to figure out games we could play with a stick and a tin can. There were also the constant trips to the shop to waste pocket money on cans of pop and sweets. I was never a naughty child but there always seemed to be miserable adults (of which I am now one) around trying to spoil the fun. I didn't have my own Officer Dibbles but I do remember one elderly guy who seemed to hate kids having any kind of fun.That must be why I liked watching Top Cat as a child-because really I was looking at me and my friends in the mirror. But isn't hanging round on street corners with your friends something that kids having been doing since time began?All in all, Top Cat was my hero and I urge you to check him out if he comes on your screen.