Cat City

CAT CITY (MACSKAFOGÓ), 1986, Hungary, 96 min. 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 it's first-ever U.S. Blu-ray release by Deaf Crocodile. In Hungarian with English subtitles.