Catstalgia huh? What is that Webman? New word created just for you. It means a wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one’s life, to Saturday morning cartoons, to awesome cats before YouTube cats, to our family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the catiness of a former place or time: a nostalgia for his or her days with cool cartoon cats.
Where did this come from? One of those inspirations that just takes over I say. Watching the NCAA basketball tournament and I see a commercial with many of the classic cartoon characters that many of us grew up with. I am talking the classics here – Bugs, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Speed Racer, The Roadrunner and Colonel Bleep. Who remembers Colonel Bleep? Here is a little Bleep trivia for you – Colonel Bleep was the first color cartoon ever made for television.
Enough about the colonel as this blog is about Catstalgia. Here are 2 of my favorite cartoon cats:
Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse was created by Bob Kane as a parody of his earlier works Batman and Robin and in many ways predict the more campy aspects of the later live action series. The stars:
- Courageous Cat – The protector of Empire City. When fighting bad guys, Courageous Cat would use all-purpose Cat Gun or a vast variety of different deus ex machina “trick guns” he pulls out of his cape that, like Green Arrow‘s trick arrows, fire whatever the situation requires like a rope, some water, a parachute, cages, boxing gloves, lightning-like magnetic rays, or even more bizarre ammunition and even the occasional actual bullet (in case of emergency Courageous also has extra pre-James Bond secret gadgets hidden in his belt buckle and the star emblem on his chest).
- Minute Mouse – Courageous Cat’s rodent sidekick.
- The Chief – Canine chief of police who calls in the “furry foes of felony” via the Cat Signal.
- Marilyn Mouse – Minute’s movie star girlfriend.
- Sassy Bones – A blond mouse who is a chanteuse at nightclub called The Pad who Rodney Rodent is enamored with
- Periscope Pete – A living, breathing periscope with a bush for a body.
Top Cat
- Top Cat – Top Cat (or TC) is the yellow furred, greedy, somewhat lazy and clever main character. He wears a purple hat and vest. He often rips off and/or tricks his gang and Officer Dibble.
- Benny – Benny is TC’s right-hand man. He is short, innocent, chubby, naive and cute. A blue-coloured cat with a white sweater that fastens with a single button at his neck.
- Choo Choo – Choo-Choo, nicknamed Chooch to TC and the gang, is enthusiastic and devoted to TC even when he’s clueless as to what he’s doing. He is a pink cat with a white long-sleeve turtle-neck shirt, he is the tallest of the alley gang cats and often is depicted with the eyes of a Siamese cat.
- Brain – Brain appears to be a common henchman to Top Cat. Contrary to his name (which appears to have been given in jest or sarcasm), Brain is the dim-witted member of the alley gang, an orange cat with a violet T-Shirt with a black line.
- Fancy Fancy – Fancy-Fancy also appears to be a common henchman to Top Cat. He is laid-back, sweet-talking and is regularly seen chatting up the ladies before leaving them when hearing the ‘dustbin lid call’.
- Spook – Spook is one of the most streetwise members of the gang. When he talks, a torrent of “like”‘s are used. He is similar to Fancy-Fancy in demeanor and appearance, a sweet talking cat whose vernacular is based on that of a beatnik.
- Officer Dibble – Officer Dibble is an NYPD Policeman whose beat includes the alley. His full name is discovered in the episode “Dibble Breaks The Record” which is Officer Charlie Dibble.
A few more that we will cover in follow-up blogs soon. If you have any favorite cartoon cats or other characters to remember send them along. Wikopedia is very helpful for this type of research 🙂
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