Top Cat: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.0

Top Cat: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

T.C. on BD.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III October 15, 2024

Created to capitalize on The Flintstones' monumental prime-time animated success, Hanna-Barbera Productions mined for gold once again with Top Cat, another hand-drawn sitcom aimed at adults. Based on The Phil Silvers Show AKA Sgt. Bilko (in the same way The Flintstones not-so-subtly lampooned The Honeymooners), this 30-minute show follows the colorful misadventures of a Manhattan stray, his loyal gang, and their endless series of get-rich-quick schemes in and around "Hoagy's Alley". Needless to say, the fairly limited shenanigans of a talking feline unsurprisingly didn't catch on with adult audiences, so Top Cat was canned after a single 30-episode season and found a comfier home in Saturday morning reruns. This boost in popularity later paved the way for a 1987 made-for-TV film, Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats, and even a pair of much more recent Mexican films animated by Ánima Estudios. For now, the original show has been brought to Blu-ray from Warner Archive and, like Top Cat's schemes, this one seems like a good deal.

As for the show itself, I'm not kidding when I say that the above one-sentence synopsis of "endless get-rich-quick schemes" encompasses the show's entire plot because, with a few exceptions, that's really all there is to Top Cat. It's certainly not an ambitious production, with almost every episode feeling like a carbon copy of Sgt. Bilko with only the names, species, and locations swapped. (Not surprisingly, one of Top Cat's writers, Barry Blitzer, wrote 17 episodes of the show it was based on.) I'm certainly not the biggest fan of The Flintstones for various reasons, but at least it took its own limited material in different and typically more interesting directions from The Honeymooners, including its inspired relocation to prehistoric suburbia. To make matters worse, ~30 minutes is about 10-15 minutes too long for each episode, most of which feature rather threadbare plots padded to within an inch of their life.

It's not a total loss, of course, with the main highlights of Top Cat being its memorable voice acting and eye-catching appearance, complete with thick-outlined characters that were designed that way to stand out as much as possibly on fuzzy consumer-grade televisions. (Bear in mind that the series was actually broadcast in black-and-white despite its full-color roots, so most audiences didn't see the visuals as originally intended until years or decades later.) There's also more than a little old-school charm to the proceedings, both in regards to Top Cat's particularly relaxed style of comedy and the talent behind the mic. Eagle-eared viewers might notice that a number of its key voice actors could be seen together in earlier productions and many would be reunited a year or two later in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, one of the era's most memorable road comedies. Don't get me wrong: Top Cat is nowhere near a career highlight for any of its cast and crew, but it still has a certain something that makes it worth watching in limited doses.

Previously issued on DVD by Warner Bros. all the way back in 2004 and re-issued a few times in different packaging, the studio's boutique label Warner Archive finally tackles Top Cat on Blu-ray and the results, though perfectly fine in some respects, are not exactly definitive. WAC's restoration work itself is very good with a few exceptions, and all 30 episodes are presented in their original production order on four discs (7-8 episodes apiece) which should prevent compression issues... but doesn't, at least not totally. In fact, only the familiar recycled extras walk away generally unscathed here... so as much as I hate to say it, die-hard fans shouldn't retire those old DVDs just yet.

Please note that, as already pointed out in our official forum thread, at least one episode ("All that Jazz" on Disc 1) has one brief missing scene and this is potentially due to the syndicated version being used as a reference guide. No other missing scenes are known at this time, but I will be sure to provide an update if those are made known in the future. Other items of note include the restoration of the show's original sponsor Kellogg's shown at the beginning of each episode, although the end credits don't follow suit and are actually trimmed slightly at the beginning.

Top Cat: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I've seen so many digitally scrubbed and filtered animation "restorations" in recent decades that I'd honestly almost forgotten what actual film grain looks like on hand-painted cels. These 1080p transfers are advertised as being sourced from newly-minted 4K scans of the original camera negative which have been treated to the boutique label's careful manual cleanup process, and generally this four-disc set stands out for its excellent color reproduction, crisp line detail, and of course loads of organic film grain from the raw scan of its presumably well-kept source elements.

Of course, a good scan and cleanup don't guarantee a flawless release. Mild to moderate amounts of macro blocking can be spotted along the way, which aren't always noticeable in motion and partially hidden by the film grain but can certainly make their appearance known at times. However, I wasn't able to spot any other related compression issues like banding, posterization, or filtering, and most everything else about these 1080p transfers looks generally accurate including their color timing, saturation, and contrast levels. (Trace amounts of light flickering are on display during the end credits, but this is presumably a source issue better left alone.) Even so, a few other questionable items can be seen here and there, including occasionally misframed shots and a few extremely minor temperature issues, but then again DVDs are hardly an accurate gauge of correct color. At the end of the day, Top Cat is still a notch or two above most WB releases from this era, although the handful of nagging issues prevents it from scoring higher. If forced to give a more specific grade I'd award it closer to a 7.5/10, so take that 4/5 with a grain of salt.

Top Cat: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Trailing slightly behind is the DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix, which is of course a split-channel presentation of mono source material that mostly sounds good enough but doesn't exactly leap far beyond the DVDs' Dolby Digital tracks. Dialogue, foreground effects, and yes even that dreaded laugh track -- a soon-to-be-staple of H-B programming that began with The Flintstones -- all come through in a decently crisp and authentic manner, as does Hoyt Curtin's opening theme song and the incidental music cues, but signs of noise reduction and filtering can be heard along the way. No hiss, pops, or crackle, though, so at the very least it's lightly passable under the circumstances.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during each episode but not the extras listed below.

Top Cat: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This four-disc set ships in a sturdy hinged keepcase with attractive cover artwork; no inserts are included, but episode names are printed on each of the discs. A few DVD-era bonus features are included on all of them.

DISCS 1-3

• Audio Commentaries - Three group chats are included during "'Hawaii, Here We Come" (Disc 1), "A Visit From Mother" (Disc 2), and "The Late T.C." (Disc 3); each one is led by the late animation writer Earl Kress (Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs, d. 2011), who sits down with featured voice actor Leo De Lyon (who provided the voices for Top Cat's pals Brain and Spook, d. 2021), animation historian Jerry Beck, and comic book / animation writer Mark Evanier (Garfield and Friends), As expected, these are all warm and candid conversations with a variety of perspectives, trivial tidbits, and production stories along the way. Please note that these audio commentaries play during standard definition versions of each episode due to their native recording format.

DISC 4

• Back to Hogan's Alley: The Making of Top Cat (16:41) - Hosted by Leo De Lyon, this basic but enjoyable retrospective featurette includes older comments from William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, and more. Oddly enough, the sporadic live-action footage -- which is often composited with 1.33:1 clips from the show -- appears to be squeezed horizontally, as if this piece was originally meant to be presented in 16x9 format.

• Storyboard / Finished Cartoon Sequence for "The Missing Heir" (20:44) - A side-by-side comparison.

• Cool Cats in Interview Alley (20:54) - Earl Kress sits down for a relaxed video interview with several key voice actors from the show including Arnold Stang (Top Cat), Leo De Lyon (Brain, Spook), and Marvin Kaplan (Choo-Choo), as well as Barry Blitzer, one of Top Cat's original writers.

• Top Cat Sing-Along (0:51) - A karaoke version of the theme song.

• Collection of Art, Stills, Sketches, and Backgrounds (6:44) - A self-playing gallery with music.

• Vintage Commercials (3:05) - Like Corn Flakes? Boy, are you in luck!

Top Cat: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm admittedly not a lifelong lover of Hanna-Barbera's Top Cat, a hasty follow-up to The Flintstones that followed its source material too closely to create its own identity. Even so, the overall atmosphere and voice cast are solid, as is the show's colorful visual style, and it's interesting to wonder if the show would have gone in more interesting directions had it lasted longer than a single 30-episode season. (Given my lukewarm feelings for the 1987 made-for-TV film Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats, probably not.) Die-hard fans should ignore me, but they'll still probably share the same mild to moderate reservations with this good-not-great new Blu-ray presentation from Warner Archive, which has a few various quality control concerns related to the disc content and A/V restoration detailed above. I'm not afraid to lightly recommend this low-priced four-disc set to casual fans, but purists should proceed with caution.