Deaf Crocodile: First Look at New 4K Restorations of Cat City, The Tune, and Benny's Bathtub

Deaf Crocodile Films has provided promotional trailers for the new 4K restorations of Béla Ternovszky's Cat City (1986), Bill Plympton's The Tune (1992), and Jannik Hastrup and Flemming Quist Møller's Benny's Bathtub (1971). The three restorations will be made available on Blu-ray soon.

Cat City

Label description: Unflappable and unstoppable mouse secret agent Nick Grabovsky (László Sinkó) with his deadpan voice, baggy pants and a big "G" on his shirt, goes up against the criminal cat gang run by the sinister, metal-pawed Mr. Teufel (Miklós Benedek), in Hungarian director Béla Ternovszky's surreal, animated sci-fi treasure. Set in the year 80 AMM ("After Mickey Mouse") on Planet X where cats and rats have banded together to eliminate mice, the film features a show-stopping series of musical numbers including a deranged Euro-disco song ("Just purr with me / Touch me with tender paws") and a bizarre chorus of Mexican vampire bats named Los Vampiros who inhabit an ancient Mayan temple.

A cross between 1980s Don Bluth-style animation (THE SECRET OF NIMH) and the British TV series "Danger Mouse" (clearly an inspiration here), CAT CITY has long been a beloved cult favorite in Eastern Europe – recently restored by the National Film Institute in Hungary from the original 35mm camera negative for its first-ever U.S. Blu-ray release by Deaf Crocodile. In Hungarian with English subtitles.

The Tune

Label description: Legendary animator and cartoonist Bill Plympton's first feature, THE TUNE is a wildly surreal animated musical comedy about a struggling songwriter named Del (voiced by Daniel Neiden), desperate to write a hit tune to save his relationship with his pet, long-suffering girlfriend Didi (voiced by Maureen McElheron, who co-wrote the script and composed the music). On his way to meet her and his boss, Del gets sidetracked in the cheerfully deranged Alternate Universe of Flooby Nooby: a strangely nostalgic vision of 1950s middle-class America as filtered through the affectionate-but-twisted sensibilities of David Lynch, Talking Heads and classic Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny 'toons. There's a Doggie Elvis who croons about his pompadour; a love duet between a Burger and Fry, a slice of Cherry Pie and a Scoop of Ice Cream; and a joyfully sadistic Bellhop at The Love Sick Hotel, all singing lovably warped tunes like "Dig My Do," "No Nose Blues" and "Tango Shmango".

Plympton's famed animation style, done in colored pencils with a gorgeous pastel palette, is perfectly suited to this beautifully off-kilter saga of a man who loses his way only to find his heart: "Lost?" "No, I just don't know where I am." Restored by the Academy Film Archive.

Benny's Bathtub

Label description: Dirs. Jannik Hastrup and Flemming Quist Møller. How can you not love a psychedelic animated kids' film in which a young boy, bored with the dreary and gray Adult World, follows an enchanted tadpole through the drain in his bathtub – where he discovers a surreal and musical undersea world?? Populated by singing (and barely dressed) Mermaids, a funky hepcat Octopus and whiskey-drinking Skeleton Pirates, the underwater kingdom is the grooviest scene this side of YELLOW SUBMARINE, with helpings of Dr. Seuss, Sid & Marty Krofft and Harry Nilsson's THE POINT thrown in. (Kids' entertainment in the early 1970s was truly outtasite!) In addition to the candy-colored, kaleidoscopic visuals, the film is famed for its incredibly addictive soundtrack featuring Jazz heavyweights of Copenhagen circa 1970, with vocals sung by the cream of Danish 60s Pop and Rock including Peter Belli, Otto Brandenburg, Poul Dissing and Trille on tracks like "Octopussong/ Blækspruttesangen" and "seahorsesong/ Søhestesangen".

Considered something of a national treasure in Denmark (where it was selected for the country's Cultural Canon alongside works by Carl Th. Dreyer, Isak Dinesen and Hans Christian Andersen), BENNY'S BATHTUB has been beautifully restored in 4K from the original camera negative and sound elements for its first-ever U.S. release by Deaf Crocodile. In Danish with English subtitles.