The
Cattanooga Cats enter a magical forest, and Kitty Jo (Julie Bennett) is targeted to replace the aging Forest Witch (guest star Jean VanderPyl, recycling her
Winsome Witch voice). Here's "Witch Whacky".
I think we've seen variations on this plot elsewhere.
Rating: B.
2 comments:
Hanna-Barbera apparently had high hopes for The Cattanooga Cats. Apparently, H-B intended for the characters to become the next Banana Splits, only all animated, but whatever it was that the Splits had that made them memorable, the Cattanooga Cats just didn't possess it.
What I liked the least about the Cats was how they were the only anthropomorphic animals in a human world. One episode even had the Cats visiting Kitty Jo's uncle's farm, and her uncle is human! What's up with that? H-B could have at least provided an explanation for this, like saying that the Cats originally hailed from Toontown or the Aniverse (Bucky O'Hare reference) or something like that so we'd understand that they're different because they're not from here, but no explanation for this was ever given. Plus, the "hip" slang that they constantly used ended up dating the characters ferociously. It's not too surprising that H-B (or now, Warner Brothers) has yet to revive these characters, although Donovan Cook, the creator of 2 Stupid Dog had expressed a desire to make new shorts featuring the Cattanooga Cats in 2 Stupid Dogs' 2nd season before the studio nixed the idea.
I think you hit the nail on the head. H-B must've felt that trying to bring the Cats to the 1990's, as Donovan Cook envisioned, wasn't going to work. Cook did a decent job updating Secret Squirrel, and could've been green-lighted to do a Atom Ant revival if he couldn't get the Cats. One wonders what the thinking was back in the 90's.
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