Search - Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats on DVD

A fun romp with a cartoon from my childhood

Dark Helmet | Seattle, WA | 02/16/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The cartoon: This is the first season from the syndicated cartoon that ran from around 1985 to 1988, and then was picked up by Nickelodeon (where I remember watching it as a kid). It was produced by DiC, and the animation was farmed to famous anime company Tokyo Movie Shinsha. While it's not movie quality, the animation is definitely several cuts above the quality level of TV cartoons on average. Heathcliff is voiced by cartoon legend Mel Blanc, and there are several other familiar animation voices in the cast. I personally have fond memories of watching this cartoon as a kid, but overall I think it's held up well.

The DVD: This is a four disc set made by Shout Factory with 24 episodes total. The full episodes are there, with the intro, commercial bumpers, one Heathcliff and one Catillac Cats segment per episode, the obligatory 80s morality segment at the end where Heathcliff gives a blurb about caring for your pets, then the closing. The episodes are arranged in chronological order by the date they aired. The pilot is on here too, though for some reason it was #18 in rotation. There are extras on discs 1-3, the first one being the most interesting by far. It's an interview with the current Heathcliff cartoonist. Heathcliff's creator George Gately retired in 1999 and passed away two years later, leaving his nephew Peter Gallagher to continue the comic. Peter discusses the history of the comic and gives a short tutorial on how to draw Heathcliff. On disc #2, there is a strip gallery with one comic from each year up until 2005. Disk #3 has the last segment, the promo clips that were used to sell the show to independant stations. IMHO this is the worst out of all the extras, since it just has clips from cartoons that are already on the discs, sans voices.

My only beef with this DVD is the extras, in that there's not much on the show other than the clips of cartoons you'll watch on the discs, and absolutely nothing on the Catillac Cats. While Mel Blanc and Stan Jones have passed away, there are people who worked on the show still working in the animation business. Hopefully there will be more on the show itself if they release future seasons. I also noticed a short hitch in the sound, but it was during one of the commercial bumpers so you don't really miss anything. My gripes basically boil down to nitpicks, and I recommend it, especially if you watched it as a kid.

9.5 out of 10 dumped garbage cans."