Line #20 WesternAnimation/CatBurglar


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fmohcflvkaasn8f.jpeg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:His lives are in your hands, folks. Good luck!]]
3
4	''Cat Burglar'' is an interactive short cartoon created by ''Series/BlackMirror'' creator Creator/CharlieBrooker and directed by Mike Hollingsworth (of ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' fame). It marks another experiment in Creator/{{Netflix}}'s catalog of interactive media, following successes like Brooker’s own ''Film/BlackMirrorBandersnatch''. Though this is marked as an adult-animated production, it is noticeably LighterAndSofter than Brooker’s previous efforts, being a tribute to the works of Creator/TexAvery.
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6	The premise is simple. Rowdy, a cat who is also a burglar [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin (get it?)]], seeks to break into a local museum to steal an impossibly valuable painting. Problem is, he doesn’t have the best luck and he’s down to a third of his nine lives after a string of comical misfortunes. Now the viewers must help him get past security, including inept guard dog Peanut, by correctly answering a series of trivia questions requiring a keen mind and quick reflexes.
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8	The short premiered on Creator/{{Netflix}} on February 22, 2022. Watch the trailer [[https://youtu.be/O0eOTV_tYug here]] and a behind the scenes video [[https://youtu.be/3FnUUTR34DA here]].
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10	!!Tropes:
11	* AbhorrentAdmirer: One of the ancient antiquities segments has Rowdy disguised as "Cleocatra" to distract Peanut, much like WesternAnimation/BugsBunny has done many, many times. [[GoneHorriblyRight It works a little]] ''[[GoneHorriblyRight too]]'' [[GoneHorriblyRight well, much to Rowdy's disgust]].
12	* AddressingThePlayer:
13	** Peanut informs the viewers at the start that this is an interactive short, encouraging them to have the remote, controller, phone or mouse ready when the questions pop up.
14	** After losing the first of his three remaining lives, Rowdy reminds the viewers that ''they'' are in charge of continuing the plot by answering questions correctly and, thus, keeping him alive.
15	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: It's anyone's guess how a ''male'' cat and a ''male'' dog are able to have biological children together in one of the bad endings. RuleOfFunny is about as close to an answer you're going to get.
16	* AttackAttackRetreatRetreat: As a burglar, Rowdy spends most of the cartoon trying to avoid being caught by Peanut, the security guard. But when Peanut boasts that he has the only key to the display room, Rowdy walks up to him with a big CheshireCatGrin. Peanut does a nervous "Uh oh," and this leads to a segment where Rowdy chases after Peanut to get the key.
17	* TheBadGuyWins: Essensially in all of the 6 main endings where Rowdy successfully steals the painting and become rich. To drive this further, [[spoiler:he even gets away with tormenting the homeless Peanut when he's digging for food, [[LaserGuidedKarma except for one of the endings]].]]
18	* BadGuysPlayPool: Exaggerated. In the game over scene where [[spoiler:Rowdy goes to FireAndBrimstoneHell, a BigRedDevil (possibly Satan himself)]] turns Rowdy's [[CatsHaveNineLives nine souls]] into pool balls. He hits them all into the same pocket of the pool table, leaving them trapped and hanging above [[spoiler:a pit of fire, presumably for eternity]].
19	* BewareTheNiceOnes: Peanut [[CrazyPrepared set up several booby traps in the display room]] depending on the iterations that are more than deadly. He smiles and in the land mine variant wishes Rowdy good luck.
20	* BigRedDevil: In one of the game over scenes, [[spoiler:Rowdy goes to FireAndBrimstoneHell and is tormented by a red devil with pointed ears, horns, and a pointy tail]].
21	* BlackComedy: Rowdy's deaths are pretty brutal, and HILARIOUS! The same goes for some of Peanut's AmusingInjuries.
22	* CatsAreMean: Rowdy is introduced by tormenting a poor squirrel, not to mention many of his rude actions throughout the short.
23	* CatsHaveNineLives: Rowdy ''used'' to have nine lives, but he only has three at the start of this short. After you lose your first life, his spirit will explain that he's lost the other six to bad luck.
24	* CastingGag: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Creator/BlasGarcia voice {{God}}, who previously voiced Him in the dub of ''Film/BruceAlmighty''.
25	* ClingyAquaticLife: In the scene where Rowdy makes Peanut fall asleep by playing a violin, Rowdy puts Peanut in a box that goes on a delivery truck, then a plane, then a boat that hits an iceberg and sinks into the ocean. Peanut walks back to the security office wrapped in seaweed, and with a starfish on his face.
26	* DeathlyDiesIrae: In the ending where Rowdy’s soul gets his wings clipped while ascending to heaven [[spoiler:and ends up in [[FireAndBrimstoneHell hell]], ''dies irae, dies illa'' plays as he falls.]]
27	* DestructiveSaviour: Whether he succeeds or not in capturing Rowdy, Peanut causes just as much, if not ''more'', destruction to the museum and the artifacts inside.
28	* DogsAreDumb: Peanut isn’t the sharpest tooth in the dog's mouth. Whether that’s gonna keep him from stopping Rowdy is up to you.
29	* TheDogBitesBack:
30	** Not just Peanut (obviously), but also the squirrel Rowdy tormented in the opening gets his revenge in one of the game over sequences.
31	** One of Rowdy's deaths is Peanut somehow [[BeyondTheImpossible arresting the shadow puppets that Rowdy summoned with his hands]]. When Rowdy goes to investigate, Peanut uses shadow puppetry of his own to ram Rowdy into the ground.
32	* DrivenToSuicide: One possible fate for Rowdy. After dressing up as Cleopatra and getting dragged into marriage by Peanut, the bad ending depicts the two in a loveless marriage with screaming children. Ultimately, Rowdy will choose to jump out the window to his death. It's the only ending where Rowdy dies via suicide.
33	* FailureMontage: After you lose your first life, Rowdy will [[YouBastard chastise you for being careless with his lives]] before showing you why you’re only getting three lives instead of a cartoon cat's usual nine. His previous lives were lost, respectively, by being blown up by a TNT detonator, having a wall collapse on him, throwing a brick at a store window only for it to bounce back at him, be subjected to a BackwardsFiringGun gag while holding up a bank, get attacked by a KillerGorilla in an old lady's purse, and being executed via electric chair.
34	--> '''Rowdy:''' "Well, there's a reason they don't call me '''lucky'' cat'..."
35	* FatBastard: [[spoiler:The BigRedDevil (possibly Satan)]] who tortures Rowdy in one of the game over screens is so fat that his gut sticks out from under his shirt.
36	* FireAndBrimstoneHell: [[spoiler:A potential fate for Rowdy should he lose all his lives. Quite obvious for a character who specializes in thievery.]]
37	* FluffyCloudHeaven: Rowdy seems to be heading for it after losing all his lives. The Man Upstairs (and later Peanut) has different ideas.
38	* FollowTheBouncingBall: Or rather, follow Peanut's severed head. One of the choices has Rowdy lop off his head with a sword as it bounces to a song about how incompetent he is.
39	* FrenchJerk: The Museum Owner, who owns a hoity-toity museum and is physically and verbally abusive to Peanut, speaks with an exaggerated French accent.
40	* FreezeFrameBonus: The spinning newspapers in the "Rowdy successfully steals the painting" endings are all fully readable beyond the main headline, with the exact contents changing in each ending.
41	* {{Gasshole}}: One of the bad endings has Peanut eating a sandwich with Rowdy's meat in it, then proceeding to fart out one of Rowdy's lives.
42	* GoneHorriblyRight: One of the ancient antiquities segments has Rowdy disguised as "Cleocatra" in an attempt to seduce Peanut long enough to knock him out with a specter. However, it works a little ''too'' well, forcing Rowdy to go on a series of dates and can end up marrying Peanut if the player screws up the trivia segment.
43	* GrossUpCloseUp: Usually averted when something appears more detailed. The details don't warrant it being gross.
44	** Played straight if you succeed in the mummy's trivia section. Rowdy had to get out of his skin like a suit, and while he succeeds, he realizes what he's missing. The armpit hair, the six nipples (some with piercings) and his innie are grossly designed. That female scream off-screen is warranted.
45	* HalfDressedCartoonAnimal: The default clothing mode for both main characters. Rowdy wears a black knit cap and turtleneck sweater and Peanut wears a security guard outfit, but neither of them wear pants or shoes.
46	* HardTruthAesop: LifeIsntFair, and sometimes a bit of bad luck can screw up even the most foolproof plan. Peanut is just doing his job by stopping a thief, at the threat of going back to the pound [[spoiler:and becoming a stray again]]. Yet to "win," you have to let Rowdy skewer Peanut in a variety of ways. And even if you decide to help Rowdy, the questions get harder the longer you persist.
47	* HeroAntagonist: Peanut serves as the barrier to Rowdy's goals, being a security guard who tries to get ahead of the cat burglar's antics.
48	* {{Homage}}: Brooker's goal for this series was to be a spiritual revival of Creator/TexAvery's cartoons. ''VideoGame/DragonsLair'' and its use of TheManyDeathsOfYou has also been cited by the crew as an inspiration.
49	* ImprovisedParachute: If Rowdy succeeds in the pole-vaulting segment, [[ItMakesSenseInContext it ends with him using a bra as a parachute]].
50	* JerkAss: Not only Rowdy, but also the Museum Director, who verbally abuses Peanut everytime he's onscreen. He also hits Peanut with his cane.
51	* KickTheDog:
52	** Rowdy's EstablishingCharacterMoment is chasing down a squirrel, mugging it for nuts, and dropkicking it. In any case you need a reminder that Rowdy is not a hero.
53	** If Rowdy wins, he becomes rich [[spoiler:while Peanut get fired and is forced to live on the streets, after which Rowdy will give him one last dose of physical harm for kicks, complete with LaughingMad after doing so.]]
54	** Likewise, if Rowdy loses all three lives, Peanut will often interrupt his ascension to Heaven to clip his wings and send him back to Earth.
55	* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler:After chopping off Peanut with his helicopter in the second ending, the vehicle ends up crashing against the rival museum and flung Rowdy through the building, killing him in the process.]]
56	* LetsGetDangerous: When Peanut realizes that an intruder has cut the security alarms as well as the cameras, he wastes no time in retaliating. He has Rowdy on the ropes in several of their encounters or subjects him to rather painful booby traps. You sometimes root for him and can sabotage Rowdy to lose.
57	* LogoJoke: The opening of the cartoon spoofs the title card for vintage Creator/{{MGM}} cartoons. It reads "A Cut-Rate Pictures Flixtoon: Technically in Color", over a parody of the MGM logo, with an elephant instead of Leo the Lion and the motto "Logo Spoofis Parodus".
58	* TheManyDeathsOfYou: So many ways Rowdy can die. All so very funny and/or violent. Even Peanut is not safe from this.
59	* {{MacGuffin}}: The Priceless Painting at the museum is the central plot point of this short. Peanut has to guard it overnight to keep his job, while Rowdy wants to steal it and strike it rich.
60	* MauriceChevalierAccent: The Museum Owner has an exaggerated French accent, fitting for his [[FrenchJerk haughty personality]].
61	* MeanCharacterNiceActor: Played straight with Peanut (see BewareTheNiceOnes), but subverted with Rowdy. In the behind-the-scenes interview [[AnimatedActors with Peanut and Rowdy]], Peanut claims that he and Rowdy are great friends off-camera, and Rowdy isn't that bad. [[InstantlyProvenWrong Rowdy proceeds to]] [[{{Jerkass}} steal his money and put a mousetrap in Peanut's wallet.]]
62	* MickeyMousing: In keeping with the classic cartoon style, the score includes plenty of this.
63	* MultipleEndings: For both victories and defeats. Notably, each time you win the game, a new painting will be added to the display in [[spoiler:the rival museum]], up to six in total.
64	* NiceJobBreakingItHero: While you can still fail and get a bad ending, if Peanut never taunted Rowdy with the key to the Priceless Display Vault, then the cat would have been unsuccessful in the heist no matter what he did.
65	* OffWithHisHead: One scene has Rowdy decapitating Peanut, his head then becoming the bouncing ball in a FollowTheBouncingBall sing-along. [[spoiler:He also loses his head in some of the endings.]]
66	* {{Retraux}}: The cartoon has all the visual and musical aesthetics of a classic cartoon, particularly those of Creator/TexAvery.
67	* RuleOfThree: Each interactive section has a question with three sets of choices. You must get all three sets correctly or lose a life.
68	* SelfDeprecation: [[spoiler:The fourth painting ending repeats the ending mentioned in SpinningPaper, with the additional headline "Dumb Audience Thought It Was Another Ending: Animators Make Small Variation To Save $$$".]]
69	* ShoutOut:
70	** One SpinningPaper in the third ending features an ad for the Great Poochini, who looks like Creator/TexAvery's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butch_(animated_character) Butch]], with his conductor a dead ringer for WesternAnimation/{{Droopy}} himself.
71	** Another Droopy reference: The voice of the priest in Peanut and "Cleocatra's" wedding sounds like an impression of Droopy.
72	** In one successful ending, Rowdy removes his fur to get away from Peanut and the mummy he attached to his tail. In embarrassment, he pulls aside a clothing rack filled with {{Lawyer Friendly Cameo}}s of many of Creator/TexAvery's characters, including the aforementioned Butch, and the Wolf from ''WesternAnimation/RedHotRidingHood''.
73	** One of Rowdy's deaths ends up with his skin hanging on a wire. Also on the wire is a skin that's a dead ringer to ''WesternAnimation/ScrewballSquirrel1944''. May also double as a TakeThat considering Tex himself considered Screwy a CreatorsPest.
74	** If Rowdy chops off Peanut's head, the body is pecked at by vultures resembling the ones in Avery's ''What's Buzzin', Buzzard''.
75	** The books Peanut is reading while in the security station are ''Literature/OldYeller'', "[[Literature/WarAndPeace War and Perkingese]]", "[[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hydrant]]" and "[[Literature/CrimeAndPunishment Crime and Pugnishment]]". When reading ''Old Yeller'', he asks the audience not to spoil [[DownerEnding the ending]].
76	** [[https://twitter.com/ClaireDaresFood/status/1497966945806782472/photo/1 The stolen paintings Rowdy displays in his mansion]] in the victory endings are all parodies of actual famous {{paintings}}: "Art/GirlWithAPearlEarring", "Art/{{The Birth of Venus\|Botticelli}}", "[[AmericanGothicCouple American Gothic]]", "Art/TheMonaLisa", "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_before_a_Mirror Girl before a Mirror]]", and "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Portrait_with_Bandaged_Ear Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear]]". [[https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LeloAr ArtStation submission of the individual paintings here]].
77	* SpinningPaper: Shows up in every painting ending. Exaggerated in the third one: [[spoiler:after two plot-relevant papers, the third newspaper is about a string of spinning newspapers causing havoc all over the city. As Peanut finds his old uniform in the garbage, a random spinning newspaper flies by and decapitates him.]]
78	* ThrowTheDogABone: [[https://twitter.com/i/status/1497677855693557761 In one of the endings after losing all three lives]], GOD, of all people, allows Rowdy, and the viewer by extension, to retry the short and reach the true ending by stealing the painting.
79	* TooDumbToLive: In the FailureMontage, some of Rowdy's deaths fall under this: trying to blow up a house while standing next to it, or attempting to hold up a jewelry store when the clerk is heavily armed. You probably also shouldn't light a match underground to determine your location, since gas lines are underground.
80	* VillainProtagonist: Rowdy is squarely in this role, as his primary objective is nabbing a priceless painting for his own gains.
81	* TheVoiceless: Played with. While Rowdy never speaks when he's alive, his soul is very talkative whenever he dies.
82	* WingedSoulFliesOffAtDeath: Each time Rowdy loses a life, his spirit ascends skyward, complete with wings, halo, and angelic harp music. If you cost him his first (read: seventh) life, he will briefly stop mid-air to [[AddressingThePlayer remind you]] that his remaining lives are in your hands.
83	* YouBastard:
84	** If you either accidentally or on-purpose mess up a trivia question, Rowdy will call you out for it the first time he dies. He reminds you that if he loses three lives, that's it, game over.
85	** The endings where Rowdy successfully steals the painting consistently [[spoiler:show Rowdy directly or indirectly killing a homeless Peanut digging for food in the trash]]. You can never take satisfaction from it.

Context WesternAnimation / CatBurglar