Scat Cats (1957) User Reviews

Variations On A Theme

[boblipton · 6/10 · 6 November 2021]

When the homeowner leaves for the night, he tells Spike the Bulldog and his son Tyke to make sure nothing goes wrong. Before he's out of the front gate, the cat is calling up his friends to come over.

The rest of the cartoon is back and forth, between the cats trying to get in, and the dogs trying to prevent them, with much mayhem along the way. Hanna and Barbera were experts at creating this tit-for-tat series of gags, and it's an amusing cartoon.

Hanna Barbera fun

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 6 November 2021]

Spike and Tyke are taking care of the place while their humans are away for the night. The family cat Butch calls up his cat friends for a party but Spike and Tyke are on guard. It's Joseph Barbera and William Hanna. It's simple. It's easy. It's cats vs dogs. It's 7 minutes of Hanna-Barbera cartoon fun. The human disguises put it over the top.

"It feels like a dog...it is a dog"

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 27 January 2013]

For those who are looking for Tom and Jerry, you won't find them here, just to warn you in advance. This is the second cartoon where they don't appear and Spike and Tyke do. And I did find Scat Cats an improvement over the still pretty good Give and Tyke previously. The animation at the start is not the best there is with some sketchiness and lack of fluidity but it very quickly improves throughout the rest of the cartoon. The music throughout is great, giving a lot of energy to the humour without being too obvious as well as being catchy and lush-sounding, and while there is no real mystery as to how the story is going to unfold and end it is well told through a lively pace and clever gags. The one where Spike apologises to the fake neighbours after Tyke tries to foil their plan is particularly funny. The dialogue is not a lot, nor did it need to be, but it is very humorous. In particular "It feels like a dog...it is a dog" is a gem. And I think Daws Burtler's voice work helped a lot, it is practically a one-man show and he does a splendid job. The characters are hugely engaging, and don't actually make you miss Tom and Jerry too much. All in all, a very good and fun cartoon. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Entertaining but the style represents MGM's new and modern approach to animation...unfortunately.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 25 June 2022]

"Scat Cats" is a cartoon from MGM after their style changed to a simpler, minimalistic sort of artwork. It's easy to understand why they switched from their 1940s and early 50s style...studios like UPA were earning Oscars with ultra-simply animated cartoons and they were dirt cheap to make. Now this isn't to say "Scat Cats" is bad...but it clearly isn't a work of art like the early MGM efforts.

Spike the dog and his son are in charge of protecting their owner's house while he's away...and almost immediately cats descend on the place after the house cat invites them, trying to make it their own. While the cats do NOT include Tom (of Tom & Jerry fame), what follows is very much like a Tom & Jerry & Spike cartoon....with cats trying to get into the house any way they can and the dogs stopping them again and again.

Overall, I'm giving it a 6. It is entertaining...but just ugly compared to what MGM had been doing. Plus, it's very, very familiar material.

Classic Hanna Barbera!

[batphantom · 10/10 · 21 January 2002]

Yet another great cartoon from the masters! A classic! Even though they're remembered best for their work with The Flintstones and Laff-A-Lympics, this is a forgotten classic! I recently caught it on the Cartoon Network! This should be on DVD!

Resolve to the Nth Degree

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 12 November 2021]

You have to give credit to those cats. They were hammered, smoked, shredded, but kept going so they could party. Spike and Tyke are in charge of watching the house. They are the consummate watchdogs with a kind of sixth sense. This was pretty enjoyable.

¡That's my Son!

[Kalashnikovin · 9/10 · 8 January 2023]

In this Return to the page, I would like to review Scat Cats from 1957, which I find quite curious for not having Tom and Jerry as stars and much less Tom as Mascot, that's right, a Short Film Starring Spyke and Tyke and with Butch as a pet at Home.

The Short is based on George and Joan spending the Night away, so they leave Spike and his son in charge of the home, but Butch, the New Pet calls his friends to have a party, but the Dogs will avoid all attempts to the Cats for that to happen.

MGM increasingly decreased its animation, now the focus was on making animations on a wide screen (Cinemascope) with limited and minimalist drawings with muted colors and with simpler and recycled animations, but that does not prevent the pleasant environment, the Animation even for the By the standards of that time it was very decent in my opinion (Compared to the animation that UPA, Universal and Warner Brothers had at the time it was impeccable), The character designs look smaller, but the backgrounds in cinemascope were very nice and cautiously colored.

Scott Bradley is still my idol, his music gives the feeling of fun that prevails in every MGM cartoon, cleverly placed, it's great and he attributes something to the fun in this cartoon.

Homer Brightman (coming from Disney and Walter Lantz Productions) may not have been well liked by MGM Fans, but his story was enjoyable, sensible and original, the jokes were cleverly placed, the Animation added too much to the music, the Voice acting was quite memorable and this animation reflects what in the future would be "Top Cat" by Hanna Barbera.

A great, no-nonsense cartoon, which is why I give it a 9.